Despite memorable moments, ‘Macbeth’ seems uninspired

Macbeth" is getting a competent mounting at the Utah Shakespearean Festival; which is to say, an adequate production that is inadequate to one's hopes.

The performances are mostly intelligent, clear-spoken and easy to understand. Director Joseph Hanreddy keeps the action sharply defined.

Grant Goodman, in the title role, is typical of what's right/wrong with the show. Goodman comes across as a California golden boy: blond hair, light eyes, youthful matinee-idol good looks. We don't associate that kind of physical optimism with Macbeth.

On the other hand, just because Goodman's playing a dark, brooding killer who will stop at nothing to be king, that doesn't mean he can't appear to be a typically wholesome almost-teenager.

Goodman's trouble, though, is that he doesn't seem to have any connection to Macbeth's horrible emotional experiences. We get little sense of a man so ambitious he's willing to kill a king, slaughter enemies and murder babies. While the actor seems to be working hard, he can't work hard enough to give the role the star power it needs. Goodman is not yet interesting enough to dominate a stage the way Macbeth must.

The play wakes up when Tony Amendola as the self-effacing, pun-loving and good-hearted porter Seyton appears well into the first act. In his relatively brief, mostly comic role, Amendola captivates us not by hard work (seemingly) but by the gravity of his presence. We quickly become more interested in the porter's plight. And while that's a credit to Amendola, it's not a credit to the production.

Kymberly Mellen, as the scheming Lady Macbeth, comes across at first as a lightweight. But by the time her guilt has reduced her to madness, Mellen slips into craziness with surprising sanity. She makes us understand her pain.

Hanreddy achieves several memorable visual moments: The crowning of Macbeth provides an unexpected bit of pageantry and a hint of the ill-adventures to come; the killing of a group of children and pregnant wife is appropriately horrific and yet poetically understated; the climatic battle between Macbeth and his rival Macduff (Michael Brusasco) is rousing and complete enough to allow us to feel the tale has come full circle.

Much of the cast is made up of journeymen actors. They communicate the heart of the play satisfactorily, but with little inspiration. This would make for a fine graduate-school production.

You expect a little more, though, from a professional festival.