Mark Twain is very much alive; the rumors of his death are premature. His play, Is He Dead?, adapted by David Ives, has opened on Broadway, and it's hilarious. It's a classic melodrama, mustache-twirling villain and all, a real comedy romp, full of wit in the writing, directing by Michael Blakemore, and performance by a team of master farceurs including John McMartin, Michael McGrath, Byron Jennings, David Pittu and the great Norbert Leo Butz, who brings farce to the stratosphere as he plays an artist in mufti and, because of a plot complication (an artist's work is worth more if he's dead) in drag as his own sister.
The great cast, Peter J. Davison's tall, tall artist's loft set with lots of classic doors, Martin Pakledinaz's perfect costumes and Peter Kaczorowski's lighting all lift Is he Dead? to comic heights not seen since Lend Me a Tenor. Don't go unless you want to laugh a lot.
