All last
month, PBS aired recordings of live stage shows on Great Performances. Often,
they do musicals, and the same held true here, but I’m glad that this
production made the cut. I was excited for it for several reasons. 1) All-Black
Shakespeare production, yes please! 2) I loved Danielle Brooks on Orange is the New Black. 3) I’ve never
seen Shakespeare in the Park before. And of course, 4) Much Ado about Nothing is awesome!
Three
jovial wits return from the wars and are invited into the home of a prominent
Georgian. Young Claudio is instantly
taken by Hero, the lovely, demure daughter of the house, and self-declared
bachelor Benedick protests too much in his “hatred” for Hero’s spirited,
quick-tongued cousin Beatrice. It’s a
play of interference in love. While
Benedick and Beatrice’s friends conspire to throw the love/hate pair together,
the piece’s villain seeks to pollute Claudio and Hero’s prospective happiness.
This
production has a lot of neat things going for it. Design-wise, it’s all top
drawer. I especially like the soldiers’ uniforms, and the lawn setting of
Leonato’s palatial house serves as a nice backdrop for all the goings on.
Swapping out the Shakespearean tunes for modern music in key scenes is really
effective, and plenty of the cast members have terrific singing voices.
The big
comic scenes all hit home here, with the cast balancing the Shakespearean
wordplay with physical humor. The “culling” scenes, of both Benedick and
Beatrice, are great fun, as are Benedick and Beatrice’s reactions to one
another afterwards. All the scenes with Dogberry and Verges are also a blast.
On the more dramatic side, the long back-and-forth between Benedick and
Beatrice (are you sensing the theme here?) after the pivotal wedding scene is
excellently done.
Danielle Brooks,
my beloved Taystee, brings all the verve and pluck you would imagine for
Beatrice, along with the dramatic chops required, and Grantham Coleman matches
wits with her as Benedick. Really, the whole cast does well with the material,
but I’ll single out Lateefah Holder (a very funny Dogberry,) Hubert Pont-du
Jour (subtly effective as Don John,) and Margaret Odette (Hero is defined as
much between the lines as through them, and Odette does a nice job navigating
that.)
Warnings
Sexual
references, drinking, brief violence, and thematic elements.
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