Much Ado about Nothing (2019)

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.