"Wars & Whores' at the Fringe Festival

Wars and Whores is an unpretentious musical version of Shakespeare's Henry IV, with the story performed straight and the songs composed in a hootenanny style and sung by the cast with a small acoustic band including guitar and harmonica. The lyrics are contemporary and witty, while the non-musical portions remain true to the Shakespeare play (albeit abridged to fit within less than two hours).

Like Stephen Schwartz's Pippin, which tells a story about historical regents with modern music and lyrics, Wars & Whores was conceived in a collegiate incubator. Jeffrey Barg (who wrote the music and lyrics), Benjamin Kamine (who conceived the idea and directed it), and Sarah Ollove (who adapted Shakespeare's script) all worked together at Penn's Underground Shakespeare Company.

There's one significant difference: The dialogue in Pippin was couched in hip, cool, 1970s style as it irreverently told the story of Charlemagne and his sons. Wars & Whores, on the other hand, retains Shakespeare's serious drama while ample humor exists in the antics of Sir John Falstaff and his buddies.

Timeless story

To my pleasant surprise, the youthful cast members acquitted themselves well. This is no small praise, coming from one who recently enjoyed a production of Henry IV Part One, directed by Dominic Dromgoole at the Globe Theatre of London. The players segued easily into the catchy songs, which contained some of the flavor of Pete Seeger or Bob Dylan. One tune resembled "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain" and another intentionally echoed "This Land is Your Land."

Wars & Whores retains magic because it combines action, adventure and history with a timeless story about a father and son who are disappointed in each other and seeking reconciliation.

Less talk, more singing

The script could stand some small changes. The opening scene, even in the best productions, is top-heavy with names, trying to tell the audience the identity and relationship of the warring factions. Why not replace all this talk with a song that introduces the players?

Throughout the rest of the production, some songs repeat some of what's just been spoken in the dialogue, albeit with contemporary words. That spoken text could bear deletion, too. In musical theater, it's wise for characters to stop talking and start singing whenever emotions become strong, and also whenever an important plot development arises.

'Twould be wonderful, too, if Wars & Whores could resolve an eternally nagging question about Henry IV: Is Prince Hal a hard-drinking and law-breaking renegade who gradually comes to realize that he must part ways with his low-life companions and become a statesman, or is he a political striver who knows all along that he will terminate his friendship with his drinking buddy Falstaff?

When the old knight says: "Banish plump Jack, and banish all the world," the Prince Hal famously says: "I do, I will." Is this a cold calculation, or is it a sudden, intuitive realization about what his future course must be? The answer might be suggested lyrically. Now, there's a formidable song assignment.