MAUREEN DOWD Loves The RSC!

Maureen Dowd (Fred R. Conrad/NY Times)

New York Times op-ed columnist Maureen Dowd recently referenced the Reduced Shakespeare Company in one of her columns.

In her November 22, 2009 column comparing President Obama to Sarah Palin, she observed:

“If we could see a Reduced Shakespeare summary of Obama’s presidency so far, it would read: Dither, dither, speech. Foreign trip, bow, reassure. Seminar, summit. Shoot a jump shot with the guys, throw out the first pitch in mom jeans. Compromise, concede, close the deal. Dither, dither, water down, news conference.”

(If we were offering advice to the President, we’d suggest he follow the advice of that noted political strategist Larry The Cable Guy and ‘git ‘er done’.)

Previously, in her column from January 7, 2006, Ms. Dowd referenced three Reduced Shakespeare Company works: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged), All The Great Books (abridged), and Reduced Shakespeare: The Complete Guide For The Attention-Impaired (abridged). Discussing a White House meeting/photo op of past and present national foreign advisers, she pointed out:

“It must have been like a performance by the Reduced Shakespeare Company, which boils down the great plays and books to their essence. Proust is “I like cookies.” Othello raps that he left Desdemona “all alona, didn’t telephona.” “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey” condense into “The Idiodity.” “Henry V” is “A king’s gotta do what a king’s gotta do,” and “Antony and Cleopatra” is “Never get involved in Middle Eastern affairs.””

We like her suggestions for a new RSC show.  The Complete Guide to the Presidents (abridged), anybody?

Read her full columns here and here.