I’m always fascinated by how directors disconnect Shakespearean plays from their own period to… the wild west, the fascist 1940s, a Victorian villa. In the Old Globe’s current Much Ado About Nothing, Barry Edelstein surrounds the story with a musically infused, somewhat timeless club culture. The liner notes tell me the play is in Messina, but the brightly colored set, comfy daybed and other accoutrements say otherwise. It’s Shakespeare through the lens of Miami Vice.
Much Ado is a love story about some who maybe dive in too quickly and others who refuse to dive in at all. Just returned from the wars, Count Claudio (Ainsley Melham) is immediately besotted with Hero (Stephanie Hinck).
At the same time, Claudio’s comrade Benedick (Tally Sessions) is having running verbal skirmishes with Beatrice (Eden Espinosa). They both loudly abjure all thoughts of marriage but, yeah, they protest too much.
Claudio and Hero are to be married but there is mischief afoot. Don Pedro (Seth Gilliam), who commanded Claudio and Benedick in the wars, has an evil brother, Don John (Jose Balistrieri), who is eager to disrupt the nuptials. John leverages a bit of street theater to convince Claudio (and pretty much everyone else) that Hero is a slut and not worthy.
Meanwhile, another set of conspirators, led by Don Pedro, maneuver Benedick and Beatrice into falling in love, which does not appear to be that far a drop.
Much Ado is built on the conflicts between Benedick and Beatrice and that really works in this production. Sessions and Espinosa are Broadway pros who bring a musical theater ethos to a show that features Take on Me (A-ha) and Wichita Lineman (Jimmy Webb via Glen Campbell). They also exude a world-weary presence that makes their eventual love even more resonant.
Overall, the show is a fun romp through the various clubs and gardens of Messina. People sing karaoke and dance with great abandon. Still, outside Benedick and Beatrice, the production is fairly blank. Even the incompetent constable Dogberry (Jimmy Smagula), played as a broad Italian American goombah, doesn’t pack the comic punch it could.
The Globe’s Much Ado About Nothing is a worthy entry. There’s good music, great voices and the Espinosa/Sessions partnership is amazing. It just doesn’t seem particularly well-rounded and sometimes tries a little too hard to distance itself from Shakespeare.
