Joseph Haj has tapped musician Jack Herrick and a cast that includes Broadway actor Remy Auberjonois for his first-ever Minnesota staging of the classic rom-com. By Rohan Preston. What was once a high-flying reverie in relatively halcyon times now takes on a whole new edge as Joseph Haj stages the Shakespearean rom-com for a new generation.
Haj is bringing a musicality and lyricism to the show, tapping longtime collaborator Jack Herrick to set some of the script to music. We caught up with Haj before a recent rehearsal. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.
It was to run for nine months out there but for obvious reasons related to COVID, it closed after only two performances after opening.
A: When directors are invited to stage a work, they read the play and read around the play. While the couple for whom it was written is lost to history, the thought of the playwright explicitly writing it as a gift to a couple getting married makes so much sense, because it neatly lays out these examinations of partnered love.
But at least in his dream he is partnered with the most extraordinary creature in the universe. So that information just broke the play wide open for me. And when we were making the Histories, which was a three-year process, we thought, what could be in conversation and almost a counterweight to that.
