BY ANDREW KALLOCH
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From Crazy at Law to Farewell my Dean, the Harvard Law School Drama Society’s The Hark Knight, offers, in the words of co-directors Megan Gaffney ’09 and Harry Drozdowski ’09, “a chance to laugh at ourselves and others, and remember that the best way to get through this strange law school world is with humor.”
Indeed, the show is at its comedic best when it is making fun of the audience-“Fed Soc Waterboarding Party” anyone?-though one cannot help but roar when Professors Noah Feldman (Dave Baron ’09) and Alan Dershowitz (Craig Convissar ’11) face off for the title of greatest…well…everything.
The sheer force of the writers’ creativity revives even the oldest jabs at Harvard, such as grade inflation. “Under the B,” is a high point early in the show, before the need for plot movement handcuffs the play in the second act. That said, the plot, which stars a devious Ellen Cosgrove (Lauren Schreiber ’09) and a Dean Elena Kagan (Stacylyn Dewey ’10) obsessed with getting a spot on the Supreme Court, is clever enough to bring in a cast of characters well known to HLS students, including Professor Cass Sunstein (Steve Quinlan ’10) and former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer (Craig Convissar ’11).
The Hark Knight does not pretend to be what it is not-a high-brow, well-financed Broadway show, which is something of an oxymoron to begin with. Despite the lack of professional resources, the amount of talent displayed on stage-from dazzling dance moves, to brilliant song-and behind the scenes, with a rambunctious band led by Kevin Blum ’09 and Nick Perros ’10 should cure any misconceptions that the world at-large may have about HLS students as mere automatons of bluebooking. Audrey Christopher ’09 deserves special acclaim for powerful (and hilarious) depictions of Professor Elizabeth Warren and a Restaurant Associates employee.
The show does run long-2