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ah yes, this new "not 'Gull," but NY public theater related review brings back memories..

has it been a year already??

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At the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, enter through 81st Street and Central Park West or 79th Street and Fifth Avenue. Free; tickets available beginning at 1 p.m. at the Delacorte and from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St., on the day of performance. Through Aug. 11

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'NIGHT' FALLS
By DONALD LYONS

July 22, 2002 -- 'TWELFTH Night," the only Public Theater production in Central Park this summer, is one of those magical Shakespearean romances that deal in disguise and twins and love and, done as it ought to be, can break our hearts and crack us up.
It's set in the far-off country of Illyria, where twins - Viola and her brother, Sebastian - are shipwrecked and separated. Viola disguises herself as a man, Cesario, and finds work as messenger to Duke Orsino, who sends Cesario to convey his love to a grieving noblewoman, Olivia. Alas, Olivia falls in love with the messenger.

A beautiful "Twelfth Night" (the title probably refers to Epiphany, when it was first privately produced) was done at Lincoln Center some eight years ago. Nicholas Hytner directed Helen Hunt, Paul Rudd and Philip Bosco in a production in which all the magic and madness cohered. It was literate, funny and sexy.

The version now in Central Park is none of the above. Director Brian Kulick has a taste for the edgy and the stark but little feel for the subtleties of eroticism or the humor of romance.

For some reason, the stage is sharply banked at one side like a skateboarding site, and at select moments cast members come sliding down this gigantic frozen wave. Signifying what? Nothing.

The costumes are no better. Orsino looks like a bandleader out of "The Music Man" and his whole entourage (including Viola) look like bellhops. Olivia's household is outfitted first all in garish black and then equally garish white.

The acting is shrilly incompetent. Julia Stiles, the young star of the Shakespeare rip-offs "O" and "10 Things I Hate About You," is stiff and lifeless as Viola. Toby Belch, Olivia's tipsy kinsman, and his stupid friend, Andrew Aguecheek, are played by Oliver Platt and Michael Stuhlbarg as a grossly unfunny Laurel and Hardy. Christopher Lloyd makes the tormented Malvolio, Olivia's sour steward, a tedious, tiresome fool, and Kathryn Meisle (Olivia) is a humorless bore.

By contrast, two performers are elegant and amusing: Jimmy Smits (onetime star of TV's "L.A. Law" and "NYPD Blue") is authoritative as the lovelorn Orsino and Kristen Johnston ("Third Rock From the Sun") is sly and stylish and funny as Maria, Belch's collaborator.

These two excellent actors have to devise a style of their own as they fight a production that, with no coherent central ideas, becomes a tiresome gamut of incoherent devices.

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http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/52980.htm

"I grew up watching Natalie Portman and have always appreciated her talent and aplomb. It's refreshing to see an idealistic young woman who seems to have her priorities in order survive an industry that predicates itself on devouring ingenues like her. Portman can convey a myriad of emotions and inhabit characters with an authenticity that distinguishes her from most of her contemporaries. I had the pleasure of seeing her onstage last summer in The Seagull, and she acquitted herself rather admirably alongside such luminaries as Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline. I hope she continues to make such wise, interesting choices in her acting career, and I wish her continued success in her studies. ANA MARIE RAMOS Los Angeles, CA"

visit www.natalieportman.com for more..

JC