” But then Shakespeare shows up and starts declaiming his greatest hits, and before long the two dramatists are pledged to a battle of words. Shaw himself tends to lengthy speeches and Dionysos is lucky to get in the occasional Wes, but. But, as Hierophantes explains, IT’S ONLY A PLAY.ĭionysos, though, is thrilled: he’s met Chekhov, Congreve, Ibsen and Brecht – although Racine left early. Dionysos hopes Shaw will return from Hades to write new dramas which tell us the truth about ourselves. They are rescued by Pinto himself, who invites them to dinner to meet Shaw (HADES). As they’re lobbing the lion skin back and forth, master and servant are arrested and lashed by Pluto’s Attendants. He swaps his Heraklean lion skin with Xanthias but, after Xanthias strikes lucky with the beautiful Charisma, his boss insists on having it back – until he’s mauled by the Amazonian Virilla. “Like a well-made play.” Then, due to a misunderstanding with Aeakos, Pluto’s keeper of keys, Dionysos finds himself in imminent danger of violent death. “Everything is falling into place,” gasps Dionysos. Afterwards, Dionysos enquires of one supplicant if he knows of a red-bearded fellow, name of SHAW. Even more cacophonous are the Dionysians, worshipping the god of wine with a formal EVOE / HYMN TO DIONYSIS that gradually gets out of hand. On the other side of the Styx, Xanthias is finding Hades pretty hellish, but Dionysos persuades him to stay, assisted by ominous orchestral rumblings from dreaded beasts like the Thanaglebe and the Hippodrool. They encounter a group that consist not of hoity-toity intellectuals or hippy dippy homosexuals – THE FROGS. Dionysos and Xanthias continue on their way (I LOVE TO TRAVEL)Ĭharon rows Dionysos across the Styx (ALL ABOARD) and Dionysos remembers his lost love, his dead wife ARIADNE, and recalls a time when the world offered him more than wine and song. Herakles gives Dionysos directions and a lion skin with matching vine leaves and club (DRESS BIG). Xanthias questions his master’s divine status but Dionysos is adamant: “I am still a god, and you know goddam well I am.” By now, they are at the house of Herakles, to outline their scheme to bring Bernard Shaw back to earth and ask Herakles if he knows the way to Hades. Before the play begins, Dionysos salutes the gods and passes on an exhaustive volume of tips to the audience (INVOCATION AND INSTRUCTIONS TO THE AUDIENCE).ĭionysos, the god of drama as well as wine, decides to venture into Hades with the aim of returning with a great, long-dead playwright to inspire the corrupt contemporary world (I LOVE TO TRAVEL). A fanfare sounds and the elderly juvenile Dionysos arrives with his loyal slave Xanthias. We find ourselves in a troubled, war-plagued society, bereft of moral and cultural leadership. The original Broadway production opened on 22 July 2004 and was directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman, running for 92 performances. The original Yale production opened on and was staged by Burt Shevelove, running for 8 performances. Lyrics for “Fear No More” by William Shakespeare. Book by Burt Shevelove, with revisions by Nathan Lane, based on Aristophanes’ The Frogs.
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