[In the following review, Taylor maintains that Terry Hands's minimalist staging of Macbeth lacked passion and energy. The critic further avers that Kelsey Grammer's portrayal of Macbeth was not the disaster that some critics called it, but merely pedestrian.]

If audiences are willing to accept a reasonably competent, underlit staged reading of Shakespeare's Macbeth in order to see Kelsey Grammer, aka TV's Frasier, play a leading Shakespearean role on Broadway for the first time, then the director, cast and producers of this production can relax. If, on the other hand, there are expectations of anything resembling a blood-red, deeply felt investigation of the play and its characters, there is much cause for concern. On the level of a staged reading, Grammer's performance of the title role is by no means a disaster, nor is it sufficient reason for mounting this production. Never for a moment does he become Shakespeare's anguished Scot, remaining instead a stolid, somewhat flat-footed middle-class, middle-aged man in a reading. Not that anyone else in the cast succeeds any better, Diane Venora being a major disappointment as Lady Macbeth.

Grammer, who has had more than a little Shakespearean experience including appearances in Broadway productions of Macbeth and Othello, has the very real virtue of projecting his lines cleanly, clearly and intelligently, but without any real urgency or passion. And neither his Macbeth nor the play as a whole ever comes alive, ever progresses from page to stage.

Experienced English Shakespearean director Terry Hands is certainly partly to blame, for though he has staged the production he certainly hasn't directed it. There's no sense of him or anyone else involved having any particular feelings one way or another about the play, and there's virtually no interaction between any of the actors.

The somewhat penny-pinched looking production itself can best be described as minimalist. The bare set, which exposes most of the rear wall of the stage, is black on black as are almost all of the costumes but for a few splashes of white. These costumes, which include long overcoats, helmets and, at one point, a black T-shirt for Macbeth, are blandly timeless as, indeed, is the production as a whole, taking place nowhere in particular at no particular time.

In order to bring the production as near to its audience as possible, a sharply angled corner of the stage floor has been projected out well beyond the proscenium into the audience, thereby doing away with 150 or so seats.

Hands has done the lighting himself, having great fun with rows of white spots slicing the gloom from both the rear of the stage and front of the house. This makes for some dramatic lighting, but it too often leaves the cast in gloom.

As for visual surprises, there are few. A flight of stairs is lowered from time to time and a high platform sometimes juts out from the wings. And when Birnam Wood advances on Dunsinane it does so by rows of green-leaved trees being dropped suddenly from the flies. This, however, does not suggest soldiers advancing by disguising themselves behind branches. At another point, the lighting paints a cross on the stage floor, but what this is meant to signify is not made clear.

Hands has kept the production moving swiftly, partly because there are so few props, so little set. And he does manage to keep his witches, three vigorous bag ladies who actively involve themselves in some of the battle scenes, from being ridiculous as they can so readily become.

But he hasn't worked anywhere near enough in helping his actors inhabit their characters. Venora urgently needs assistance, for she makes little impression. She garbles too many of her lines, and her sleepwalking scene is particularly unfortunate; barely a word can be understood, and she is proof that it's impossible to wring your hands and carry a candle at the same time.

The director also needs to do something about the underpopulated banquet-vision scene, which looks like nothing more than a four-character, plus one servant, wine party. Some of the supporting actors are a good deal better than others, but no one really distinguishes himself or herself. A limited use of sound effects (thunder, bird calls, etc.) and music is efficiently done.

This is the first of three productions of Macbeth to be seen in New England this year. It is scheduled to be followed by the RSC's highly acclaimed production starring Antony Sher and Harriet Walter (part of the Intl. Festival of Arts & Ideas in New Haven) in mid-June and then by one launching Michael Wilson's 2000-01 season at Hartford Stage.