All for One, and Four for All: THE THREE MUSKETEERS: 20 YEARS LATER

Hudson Warehouse is celebrating their 15th Year performing classical and classically-inspired theatre in style.  Like true New Yorkers, this ambitious company is in the middle of a four year project: dramatizing Dumas' Musketeers trilogy, beginning with last year's Three Musketeers, this year's The Three Musketeers: Twenty Years Later, and next year's The Man in the Iron Mask, followed up in 2020 by The Count of Monte Cristo.

While I missed last year's offering - feeling that I knew the original story almost too well from numerous Hollywood offering - after seeing this year's installment, I find myself eagerly looking forward to the entire quatrology (and hoping that Hudson Warehouses stages the whole thing in rep some day!).

If The Three Musketeers is 17th Century Avengers, and the first book is the equivalent of those same Avengers constantly assembling - that is youthful D'Artagan, upstanding Athos, drunken Porthos and religious-ish Aramis - The Three Musketeers: 20 Years Later is equivalent to Marvel's Civil War.

The plot, smartly cut down to a trim 90 minutes of swashbuckling and international politics by playwright, Susane Lee, picks up with a new foreign Cardinal Mazarin (Joseph Cordaro)  advising the widowed Queen Anne (Karen Collazzo) and the petulant Prince Louis (Samuel O'Sullivan) on how to quelle the popular uprising of overtaxed peasants.  Fearing for the Queen's life, Mazarin finds the Musketeer, D'Artagnan (Jake Lesh) and tasks him to locate his other three Musketeers to guard the Queen's life.

Simultaneously, Mordaunt, the dispossessed son of the the assassin, Milady, comes seeking revenge for his mother's execution at the hands of D'Artagnan and company.  Played by Ian Potter, last seen in The Trojan Women as the smiling, uptight and sinister Greek ambassador, Mordaunt has aligned himself with Cromwell's machinations in England, helping to overthrow the Catholic King, Charles Stuart (Griffin Stanton-Ameisen).  And it's this second plot which brings us to Civil War-like complications between our favorite boys in blue.

After gathering together Athos (Joseph Hamel), Aramis (Nicholas Martin-Smith, pulling double duty as director), and Porthos (David Palmer Brown), with the help of the comical sweetmaker, Grimauld (Samuel Shurtleff), the Musketeers quarrel about the right course of action to take.  D'Artangan and Porthos are lured by the Cardinal's promise of status and titles, while the priestly Aramis - still comically struggling to keep chaste and live poorly - and Athos - now concerned for his young ward and bastard son, Raoul (Derek Martin) -wants a noble cause, not a noble title.

The Musketeers split up, Athos and Aramis joining with Lord De Winter (Bob Wasinger) to try to save King Charles' life and crown, while D'Artagnan and Porthos are sent by the Cardinal to Cromwell (Joseph Dalfonso), accompanied by the murderous Mordaunt, to help bring the English crown down.  Meeting in England, the Musketeers do their best to stop Mordaunt, Cromwell, and their Scottish ally Lord Leven (Justin Broido), as well as working as double agents to save their brothers-in-arms lives.  However, they're ultimately unsuccessful as Charles is captured and killed - but not before his Queen and daughter, both named Henrietta (Lisa LaGrande and Deborah Bjornsti respectively) manage to escape to France to take refuge there.

There's also a subplot, teasing The Man in the Iron Mask, about the tension between twin brothers, Prince Louis and Prince Phillip (Patrick Leddy) over the title and the affections of Princess Henrietta, which receives its own mid-credits (or in this case, mid-bows) scene and makes this reviewer excited for next year's installment.

It's a testament to the whole production team's work that this sprawling epic works as well as it does.  Susane Lee judiciously cuts Dumas' original tome (which several cast members admitted was nearly unreadable), managing to balance a politically dense plot into a tight running time - even adding in links to the previous play and the one forthcoming - as well as including some historical tidbits from her own research.

Nicholas Martin-Smith, also doubling as Aramis, directs the frankly cinematic play with a deft hand, making good use of the Soldiers and Sailor's Monument space, with actors running through the audience, taking flying leaps off of balustrades, and managing to exit France and enter England with a few short steps.

Company costumer, Emily Rose Parman, somehow manages to outdo herself again (there's a reason she keeps winning awards and nominations!), with lace-up pants and knee high boots, plumed cockades and curled hair, bows and crosses and ribbons and rubies for both genders, corsets and bum rolls and tapestry, oh my.  (Seriously: go just for the costumes.)

As for those swashes needing buckling, Fight Director, Katrina Art, proves that she knows how to whip up an army or a skirmish on the spot: with actors dashing about with rapiers and daggers, enough to make any girlish bosom dance with glee.  (And the girls fight along with the guys, thank you very much.)  With additional fight direction by Nathan Oesterle, Art's ability is to not only stage exciting combat but to continue to tell the story seamlessly, so that our first mêlée not only frees the villainous Rochefort, but also introduces us to the French frondeurs (revolutionaries), and blends seamlessly into the introduction of half-brothers: the wide-eyed Raoul, and the wicked Mordaunt...as they both tend to an unfortunate Executioner (David Arthur Bachrach) who spills the beans about the Musketeers who executed Milady twenty years earlier.  Phew!

With such a sprawling narrative and, by any standard, impressive cast roster, audiences will be required to remember a little bit of their French Louis Quatorze and English Carolignian royal history, as well as pull on their understanding of genealogy to sort out how Queen Henrietta is related to Queen Anne (hint: they're sisters-in-law).  Likewise, as with any Shakespearean history play, a few characters wear a couple of different names - although playwright Lee manages to help the audience out by repeating the name we're supposed to remember, such as Athos, Aramis, and De Winter.  Those who may only remember some of the more fantastical cinematic film adaptations of The Three Musketeers are encouraged to listen closely to early exposition - very helpful - that adheres more closely to the book and not to 17th century fantastical zeppelins and kung-fu Musketeering.

A few stand-out performances require recognition:  Ian Potter as Mordaunt is excellent.  Potter seems to excel at characters who fume...whether that's kept to a polite smoulder as the Grecian ambassador, or given full-on British sneers and restless fingers, as is his Mordaunt.  He's also an excellent fighter, which comes in handy in his final show-down with his mother's ex-lover and executioner, Athos.

Athos, played by Joseph Hamel, strikes that perfect balance of the man who was Errol Flynn in his youth, aging gracefully and with his eyes open to something better, truer, worth fighting for.

And Joseph Cordaro as Cardinal Mazarin  is a positive delight, toeing a line that could have easily slipped over into the sneering, Tim Curry-esque, moustache twirling villain, instead proving positively convincing as a man whose sole interest is in preserving France...even at the expense of her allies.  He's the smiling, smiling damned villain, and we wouldn't want him any other way.

David Palmer Brown as Porthos and Nicholas Martin-Smith as Aramis are also quite good, and the camaraderie all four Musketeers have is genuine.  Samuel Shurtleff as Grimauld proves himself deftly with the Sancho Panza-type role, spitting out exposition and jokes with equal aplomb, acting as the audience's guide when necessary.

Audiences are encouraged to arrive at least 15-20 minutes early, since there are only two more performances after being rained out last weekend.  The performances are free, but bring an extra $20 to put in the basket as it comes around.  And make sure to mark your calendar's for next year's Man in the Iron Mask!  As for Three Musketeers: Twenty Years Later?  Recommended.

The Three Musketeers: 20 Years Later by Susan Lee, presented by Hudson Warehouse, performing through Sunday, July 29.  FREE performances at the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, on the Upper West Side.

Details here.

The Musketeer celebrate their victory.

20 years later, Milady's son (Ian Potter) is out for revenge against the Three Musketeers.  (Photo courtesy of Lisa LaGrande.)

Queens-in-Law, Karen Collazzo as Queen Anne and Lisa LaGrande as Queen Henrietta.