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About VIII
November 13, 1998, Friday
New York
Times
MOVIES, PERFORMING
ARTS/WEEKEND DESK
THEATER
REVIEW
A Monarch Who Married
Frequently, but Not Well
By ANITA GATES
Very few actors could pull
off a one-man show about Henry VIII, much less a one-man musical. Richard
Burton, probably, with his ''Camelot'' voice, but not many others. Steeve Arlen,
however, does in ''Eight! Henry VIII, That Is!,'' and he does it on the tiny,
bare stage of the TriBeCa Playhouse.
Mr. Arlen is a large man with a powerful, kingly
stance and a kingly Welsh voice. Dressed in a purple robe, he proceeds in 90
minutes or so to review Henry's life, which means primarily his six marriages,
with 15 musical numbers in a motley assortment of styles.
Mr. Arlen, who starred in
''La Cage aux Folles'' on Broadway in the mid-1980's, has a grand voice, but you
could cut every song and have a
powerful one-man drama. Mr. Arlen is touching, witty and thoroughly convincing
in the role of Henry, a chronically unhappy monarch who nonetheless never
suffered from a shortage of self-esteem.
When he mourns the death of
Thomas More, his regret seems genuine. (''I lost a dear friend. But I was a
king. It had to be done.'') Too bad he had to behead someone he liked. The
notorious Henry seems truly alive onstage; very possibly insane, but believably
so.
Mr. Arlen wrote the play as
well, with a winning combination of the lyrical (''I was drunk with the promise
of Anne,'' referring to his second wife, Anne Boleyn); the knowingly humorous
(''For those of us keeping score, that is two down and four to go,'' after he
describes Anne's beheading), and the deliberately contemporary (''I thought my
dad was going to have a fit'').
In the scene in which Henry
arrives at Parliament, drunk, Mr. Arlen goes into the aisles and interacts with
the audience. Where lesser men would falter, he holds character with royal
sureness.
But
why he chooses to make his entrance as Henry VIII shouting about his chamber
pot, and then turns his back to the audience and simulates urination, is a
mystery. Maybe the idea is to humanize Henry from the beginning.
EIGHT!
Henry VIII, That Is!
Book by Steeve Arlen; music and lyrics by
Donald Eugster and Mr. Arlen; directed by Jeff Cohen. Orchestration/sound by Bob
Summers; choreography by Stan Mazin; technical director, Tim Lee; lighting by
Genny Wynn. Presented by the Burning Bush, in association with Jeff Cohen and
Carol Fineman. At the TriBeCa Playhouse,
111
Reade Street,
TriBeCa.
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