Wives

“The Merry Wives of Windsor Cove,” a musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor” at UC Irvine’s New Swan Shakespeare Festival, relocates the comedy to a Southern California beach town in the 1950s. The surf’s up, a chocolate-covered-banana stand is hopping and a washed-up Elvis-like rock star named Johnny Falstaff is trailing chaos.

Those merry wives aren’t actually all that merry about the state of their marriages. Margaret Page (Sonya Cooke) has lost all patience with her grinning, gadabout husband, George (Evan Lugo), who floats through life as though it were as lighthearted an affair as “Beach Blanket Bingo.” Margaret’s best friend, Alice Ford (Sarah Hentges), has more serious problems with her jealous husband, Frank (Abel Garcia), who suspects infidelity whenever she leaves the house.

When Falstaff (Wyn Moreno), motivated by avarice and a mania for cuckolding, comes a-wooing, sending identical letters to Margaret and Alice, the wives grow merrier as they set a trap for their shameless suitor, whose uncontrolled appetites make him an easy mark.

Margaret and Alice are the forerunners of Lucy and Ethel, and Shakespeare’s comedy, written expressly to entertain, gives us a sense of what an Elizabethan-era situation comedy might look like. The Falstaff of Shakespeare’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor” is not the complex figure of the “Henry IV” plays. (The late scholar Harold Bloom, a Falstaff fanboy, called this version of the character “pseudo-Falstaff, “ and considered “Merry Wives” to be, along with “The Two Gentlemen of Verona,” Shakespeare’s “slightest” comedies.)

Sonya Cooke (Margaret Page) and Sarah Hentges (Alice Ford) in “The Merry Wives of Windsor Cove.”

(Jesus Lopez Vargas)

Revivals of “Merry Wives” are not all that frequent. I’ve seen Verdi’s “Falstaff,” which heavily relies on Shakespeare’s plot for the opera, more times than I’ve seen the play. But Margaret and Alice’s quick-witted machinations provide the basis for a merry outing at the theater.

When the possessive and paranoid Frank Ford runs into Margaret as she’s scurrying to meet his wife, Alice, he pointedly remarks, “I think, if your husbands were dead, you two would marry.” To which she replies in savvy screwball fashion worthy of Carole Lombard: “Be sure of that — two other husbands.”

I have a soft spot for “The Merry Wives of Windsor.” The refreshing sight of the women teaming up against Falstaff never fails to amuse. And I appreciate the frank and forgiving light the play sheds on long-term marriage.

But swaths of the comedy are antiquated. And the language has a dashed off quality in places, suggesting there’s some truth to the legend that Shakespeare wrote the play at the request of Queen Elizabeth, who was said to be so charmed by Falstaff that she wanted a sequel depicting Sir John in love.

Falstaff isn’t exactly in love in Shakespeare’s comedy. And he definitely isn’t motivated by pure romance in this adaptation, written by New Swan founding artistic and producing director Eli Simon and Anna Fitzgerald, with music by Zachary Dietz. As in all things, Falstaff is led by his belly, a gargantuan metaphor for his gluttonous nature.

Megan January (Nym), Wyn Moreno (Johnny Falstaff) and Sam Schneider (Pistol) in “The Merry Wives of Windsor Cove.”

(Jesus Lopez Vargas)

The pastiche score, indebted to the pop charts of the 1950s, isn’t allowed to dominate. As modern musicals go, this is a low-key affair. The comedy is still the thing in this frolicsome outdoor production, which takes place in the charming ambiance of the festival’s portable, mini-Elizabethan venue.

The cast is principally composed of UC Irvine students, past and present, with a few guest artists in the mix. Under Simon’s direction, the presentation is smooth and professional, though the ensemble reflects different levels of experience.

My general note is particular to the genre: Comedy works best when exaggeration arises the way it does in nature, as a fact of personality rather than as a calculated theatrical effect.

Certain members of the cast push the humor a little too vociferously. How much funnier Shakespeare’s motley crew can be when we’re allowed to discover the variety of eccentricity and ludicrousness on display for ourselves.

Falstaff’s girth is worked into the comic mayhem, but the character should be more than a sight gag. Moreno tries to preserve a measure of dignity while wearing a jumpsuit from Elvis’ Las Vegas era. But the sight gag nature of the characterization is overworked.

Garcia’s Ford seems not just jealous but borderline apoplectic. (Garcia is more nuanced when Ford is operating in disguise to suss out Falstaff’s true intentions.) As Doctor Cayo, one of the risible suitors for Anne Page (Marilyn Alonzo), Heriberto Cruz Jr. delivers a flailing, full-body performance that practically holds the audience hostage for laughs.

Evan Lugo (George Page), top left, Sonya Cooke (Margaret Page), top right, Zane Caputo (Abraham Slender), from bottom left, Zach Trent (Skateboard Fenton) and Heriberto Cruz Jr. (Doctor Cayo) in “The Merry Wives of Windsor Cove.”

(Elijah Waller)

Robert Shallow (Greg Ungar) does what he can to promote Abraham Slender (Zane Caputo, appropriately zoned out), his socially inept nephew, as a prospective husband for Anne. But neither gentleman is what anyone would call efficacious. In truth, both performers seem more at home as members of the Banana Splits Band, the quirky onstage combo that ushers in the show’s retro beat.

In a nicely balanced performance, Alejandra Villanueva’s Mistress Quickly, the play’s go-between and overseer of mischief, embodies the free and easy spirit of Simon’s production. Lugo’s George has a simple affability that’s infectious. And Alonzo’s Anne and Zach Trent’s Skateboard Fenton, the young lovers swerving around parental obstacles, are a delightful throwback to those gaga California kids from the age of “Gidget.”

Cooke’s Margaret and Hentges’ Alice remain, as they should, defiantly in charge. The adaptation delves more into their marital melancholy, but I felt I understood them better in Shakespeare’s original, which recognizes the power of suggestion and interpretive restraint.

Yet “The Merry Wives of Windsor Cove” succeeds in extending a warm communal embrace to its audience, which is the ultimate aim of this mischievous and kind-hearted comedy.

The Trump Department of Justice going after people who make the president mad or even sad is nothing new, in this dangerous age when the presidency is increasingly about placating the desires of the old man in the Oval Office.

Leticia James, James Comey, Adam Schiff. Most recently, E. Jean Carroll, who sued President Trump personally and won a huge settlement on her claim that he sexually assaulted her. Now, the Department of Justice is investigating her for potential perjury.

It would be easy to think of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s announcement Monday that the U.S. Department of Justice is now targeting his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, as just another addition to that list.

But this attack on Siebel Newsom (alleged attack, anyway — the Department of Justice has not confirmed she is a target) is something much darker in our slide into authoritarianism. While the details of what is being investigated are murky and the president hasn’t chimed in yet, it has all the appearances of the Trump administration seeking to stop a political rival who has a real shot at knocking MAGA out of the top office.

“It’s not just random or accidental that the wife of a major presidential candidate is being investigated,” Steven Levitsky, a professor of politics at Harvard University, told me Monday. “That’s the nature of selective prosecution and that is a pillar of authoritarian rule.”

Levitsky is an expert on authoritarian regimes, and how they take and keep power. His point that Newsom is a viable challenger may seem obvious — Newsom himself is already fundraising off of it. But this particular alleged investigation bears a moment of pause because it is not the regular decline of justice we have been witnessing to this moment.

“This is different,” he said. “This is forward-looking persecution.”

Until now, Levistky points out, Trump has screamed and hollered for the prosecution of those who have wronged him in the past, sometimes even the distant past. Yes, he’s disgraced the Department of Justice with the demand it function as his own personal hammer of retribution, even putting his own personal attorney, Todd Blanche, in charge when Pam Bondi wasn’t accommodating or successful enough at stomping perceived enemies and quashing the Epstein files.

But those prosecutions have largely been grievance-based, not aimed at keeping power.

Going after Siebel Newsom seems more like a forward-looking, preemptive strike targeting Newsom ahead of the 2028 election through every decent man’s Achilles’ heel, his family.

In fact, the right-wing media — which is closely tied to the whims of the White House — has been targeting Siebel Newsom for months.

In particular, Siebel Newsom has been attacked for her work as a documentary filmmaker who focuses on female empowerment and parsing how and why we have the gender norms that we do when it comes to masculinity and femininity. I’ll let you figure out how popular that is in MAGA world, where real women make sandwiches.

Conservative commentator Sean Hannity has gone after Siebel Newsom for saying she sometimes changes the gender of a book’s character from “he” to “she” when she’s reading to her children. Fox News has attacked her for daring to give her boys dolls to play with, leading some MAGA influencers to label her “psychotic” or “abusive.” Right-wing icon Megyn Kelly called her a “nutcase” for sharing the tragic story of her sister’s death when Siebel Newsom was 6.

And other media have focused on the fact that some of the films she has been involved with have been approved for use in California schools, leading to conspiracies that Newsom used his influence to force his wife’s “woke” agenda on kids, by which we are apparently talking about the liberal plagues of decency and inclusion.

Newsom’s office said that in recent weeks, relatives, friends and business associates of the family have been contacted by investigators from the FBI and IRS. Siebel Newsom also does work around online safety for children, but it seems likely that any attention would focus on these films, and related nonprofits, and the perennially popular MAGA boogeyman of schools forcing ideologies on kids. Throw in Siebel Newsom’s company making even a dollar, and the way the IRS can find problems with any tax return, and you’ve got about 10,000 hours of right-wing propaganda.

So whether the pressure to target Siebel Newsom came from the White House or not, Newsom’s announcement raises the troubling specter that this administration is getting more serious about remaining in control by kneecapping potential replacements before they grow too strong.

In his Monday video, Newsom urged Trump with mano a mano bravado to come after him as much as he wanted, but to leave his wife and family out of it. But I would not underestimate Siebel Newsom, who showed her strength when she testified against disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, laying out publicly a private, painful tale.

Siebel Newsom’s office told me she’s fine being part of any fight against Trump.

“There are clearly no boundaries to what Donald Trump will do to get his way or to challenge those who get in his way,” Siebel Newsom said in a statement.

The “governor and I will continue to speak truth to power because the American people deserve so much more.”

By coming out in advance of any official announcement of an investigation by the Department of Justice, Siebel Newsom and her husband may be able to take control of the narrative, something Trump detests.

That pushback, Levitsky said, is critical, not just for them, but more importantly for all of us. After last year, when so many institutions and individuals crumbled in the face of Trump’s power, the strength of our democracy increasingly depends on those with political capital standing up to him.

Coming out punching first does just that.

Whitney Leavitt is leaving “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.”

The reality star announced the news during her final performance of “Chicago” on Sunday. Leavitt has played tap-dancing murderess Roxie Hart in the Broadway revival since February. TMZ published a video of the moment, in which a Broadway castmate shows Leavitt a newspaper mid-scene. Leavitt, in character as Hart, points to the headline and reads aloud: “Whitney Leavitt announces she’s leaving ‘The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.’” The audience is heard hollering and cheering.

Leavitt followed the big reveal with an Instagram video Tuesday morning and assured fans that, although the forthcoming season will be her last, she would still appear in Season 5 of the Hulu series.

“It’s honestly so crazy to me looking back on this journey, because I had been trying to get into theater, film, way before ‘Secret Lives’ even came into my life,” she said. “The reality show just fell into my lap organically and I said yes to it. It’s definitely not the path that I had envisioned in my mind to get to where I am today, but I wouldn’t change a thing. I have experienced so much with this group of women, and through that process, I have also learned so much about myself.”

Leavitt continued, saying that the “Mormon Wives” had been through so much together, including more extreme highs and lows than audiences have seen. “No matter what happens with our relationships, that is something that will always be a part of our life, that will always be a part of my life, and I wouldn’t change a thing.”

“The times I’ve walked away from ‘MomTok,’ it came from a place of anger and frustration,” she continued. “But this time, it’s significantly different, because I’m leaving with gratitude. I feel content. I feel like this is a chapter that’s closing in my life, and honestly, I believe that’s how it was always meant to be. I’m so grateful for ‘The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.’ It’s gotten me where I am today. It’s given me the opportunities that you all have seen. But I’m ready. I’m ready for the next chapter. And I cannot wait to share with you guys what’s next.”

Much like her “Chicago” character, Leavitt’s place in the spotlight has come with less-than-favorable tabloid fodder. She told “Oprah Daily” that, although she doesn’t fully agree that she’s a series “villain,” she’s embraced her on-screen persona. She’s been candid about being a “very ambitious woman” and using “Secret Lives” as a launchpad for a career in Hollywood — and this isn’t the first time she’s departed the show.

“I had walked away from the show,” she told Gayle King about her brief hiatus after Season 2. “I wasn’t enjoying it anymore. I left the show, and then they were almost midway through the season, and I got a call from the producers, and they said, ‘If you come back, we know that you really want this opportunity to go on “Dancing With the Stars,” but the only way that you would get this opportunity is to come back and film.’”

Last year, Leavitt partnered up with pro dancer Mark Ballas and competed on Season 34 of “Dancing With the Stars.” She was eliminated in the semifinals, finishing in sixth place, but her “Cell Block Tango” performance impressed casting directors of the long-running Broadway production. One thing led to another, and the reality star was headed to Broadway.

Although Salt Lake City may not be known for the excitement synonymous with the Big Apple, Leavitt has plenty of drama to keep her busy back in production on “Mormon Wives.”

The show hit pause in March amid a series of domestic violence investigations involving stars Taylor Frankie Paul and her on-again, off-again partner Dakota Mortensen. The Salt Lake County district attorney’s office announced in mid-April that it would not be filing charges against Paul, and shortly after, the Hulu series said it would resume filming Season 5.

In the comments section of Leavitt’s Instagram video announcing her departure, Paul wrote, “You will be missed. Chase those dreams my girl. I’m excited to see your next chapter.”