Casting a Gimlet Eye on Christmas

In 1992 David Sedaris was simply David Sedaris, just another nobody cleaning apartments for a living. Sure, he was most likely the funniest dude out there swabbing strangers’ toilets, but who knew?

Then he took a job playing an elf at Macy’s for the holiday season. It did not go well. The job that is. Sedaris’s career is another story.

The authorship of all of William Shakespeare’s plays has been attributed elsewhere, to Christopher Marlowe, to the Earl of Oxford, to Queen Elizabeth’s favorite lady-in-waiting (well, that one’s a bit of a stretch). Yet even the Bard himself might have preferred his name stricken from Pericles, Prince of Tyre. In fact, modern editors maintain he wrote only the second half — or less — of the drama, the first portion almost certainly penned by second-rate dramatist and tavern buddy George Wilkins.

Like an elongated dancer in one of his drawings, lanky Jules Feiffer loped in, stretched out his fingers and curtseyed to the standing ovation that greeted his arrival on the Broadway stage last Monday night. Knees bent, he cocked his head and lifted his eyebrows, simultaneously sheepish and soaking it all up.

As soon as the applause died, of course, he stuffed his hands in his suit pockets, shuffled off to the side and muttered into his microphone a warning to himself not to take a pratfall off the stage.

Much Ado About a Prince, Anybody?

Shakespeare for the Masses hits the boards this weekend. But don’t expect your usual Billy Shakes kind of fare. The cocreators, Chelsea McCarthy and Nicole Galland, have been known to take some liberties with the master wordsmith. Pericles, Prince of Tyre promises to be no exception.