Theatre Chit Chat
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Caesar & Cleopatra
Caesar and Cleopatra is playing at Theatre Row located at 410 East 42nd Street. It Runs two hours with one intermission. The play closes on October 12, 2019.
Brenda Braxton was nominated for a Tony Award in 1995 for Smokey Joes Café.
Robert Cuccioli was nominated for a Tony Award in 1997 for Jekyll and Hyde.
The story unfolds at the end of XXIII Dynasty in Egypt.
Ftatateeta (Brenda Braxton) comes out and tells us she is on a journey. She has left Cleopatra and asks someone in the audience what year it is. Ftatateea takes us back in time where we meet Caesar (Robert Cuccioli). He questions himself why he is in Egypt. Cleopatra (Teresa Avia Lim) comes out, she is very young. She tells Caesar she is part black cat and wants to be Queen.
The story tells how he helps groom her to be Queen.
Ptolemy (Rajesh Bose) has control over her young brother Pothinus (a puppet).
Soldiers working with Caesar are Rufio (Jeff Applegate) and Britannus (Jonathan Hadley).
Whenever Cleopatra needs protection Ftatateeta is there to do it.
Apollodorus (Dan Domingues) the rug man from Italy, also protects her.
Caesar wins but at a cost to him. He doesn’t love her. In the end he tells her he will send the soldier Mark Anthony.
Things happen but I don’t want to spoil it for you.
In the beginning it was a little slow. But as it goes on it’s quite interesting and enjoyable.
The cast does an outstanding performance under Davis Staller direction.
There isn’t much of a set, stairs and material that is sometime blue or has clouds.
Review by Rozanna Radakovich
Photos by Annazor.
To read a candid interview with the cast, scroll down to the left for photos. Click on photos for this and other shows.