Something different from me on a Monday.

I notice that over the weekend the New York Post published a well-timed articleabout how out-of-control the cost of Broadway tickets has gotten, with Othello,starring Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal, breaking new records, even though the show is only in previews. Per the Post, you have to pay an extraordinary $900 to sit as far back as Row M. And the show hasn’t even officially opened!

So, I saw Othello last week. I booked a while ago, so maybe that’s why I did not pay anything like $900 apiece for my tickets (which were actually phenomenal – in Row B). But I did pay a lot more – by a margin of $300 or so – than the other shows I’ve also forked out for recently, which include: King Lear; The Nutcracker; Aida; Swan Lake; Redwood (a big mistake, as I wrote here), Glengarry Glen Ross; Good Night and Good Luck; The Portrait of Dorian Gray – and because I trust the impeccable taste and recommendations of the editor of Town and Country, Stellene Volandes in her new newsletter: Buena Vista Social Club.

So, was Othello worth the very, very big bucks?

Well, some context before I give you my thoughts.

Obviously, I am not an official critic or it wouldn’t be kosher for me to tell you what I think based on a preview. (The “official” theater critics aren’t supposed to write the reviews before the Opening Night, which is March 23, because that’s when they get free tickets to see it and the show is deemed now “set” for the rest of its run. But given the astronomical cost of a “preview” ticket, and the fact that the show only runs through June – I think the notion that a person shouldn’t write about it now is absurd).

Also, I have seen a lot of Shakespeare in my time.

That’s because I majored in English Literature at Cambridge University in the UK where we were lucky enough to spend an entire semester studying only Shakespeare. All of my English lit class dabbled in the theater, some rather more deeply than yours truly whose only memorable turn on stage was in The Importance of Being Earnest as the slightly snotty Gwendolen Fairfax (a role that some of the wags said was pitch perfect for me because it didn’t require any actual acting).

Even so, my time at Cambridge ingrained in me a love of theater and the performing arts. I was lucky enough to be surrounded at the time by a deep bench of serious talent who now comprise a Who’s Who of Big Names in Drama and Directing. My tutorial partner was Oscar winner, Rachel Weisz. Others in my class: Sacha Baron Cohen; Ol Parker (the writer and director of Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again!); Jez Butterworth (Tony Award Winner and, most recently the script writer of The Agent on Amazon Prime starring Michael Fassbender); David Farr (who wrote Hanna, adapted John le Carre’s The Night Manager for TV, and is associate director of the Royal Shakespeare Company)….and a host of others. So, you get the point…suffice it to say, yes, we had the kind of college experience many people fantasize about. We immersed ourself in the five ps: poetry, plays, politics, “practical criticism” and partying…and we haven’t really stopped since.

So, in my not entirely ignorant opinion, is this Othello worth it?

Read on at Vicky Ward Investigates