The Politics Of Frogs

“A funny thing or two has happened to the original Frogs on its way to the present [at New York’s Vivian Beaumont Theatre]. It has grown increasingly politicized.  The creatures who give the play its title have evolved from a simple chorus of amphibians that serenades Dionysus on his disquieting ferryboat ride into today’s know nothing, say nothing, do nothing populace, lulled by leaders of dubious qualifications to okay “a war we shouldn’t even be in.”  The present version seems to fancy itself something of a left-leaning rabble-rouser, destined not to tour to the Red States. At the same time, the latter-day Frogs has become more theatrically ingenuous.”