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.

Much Ado about Nothing (1993, PG-13)

Over the past few years, I’ve made a steady dent in Shakespeare’s body of work, and Much Ado about Nothing is my favorite of the comedies I’ve read so far.  It’s so sharp and funny, it has such excellent characters in Beatrice and Benedick, and the dialogue is to die for.  This adaptation is, I’d say, rightfully regarded as the definitive one, and my Shakespearean repertoire is decidedly fuller now that I’ve seen it.

Standard Much Ado about Nothing plot description:  three jovial wits return from the wars and are invited into the home of a prominent Sicilian.  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.

As with any adaptation, casting is key, and this film delivers big time.  Kenneth Branagh pulls triple duty, providing the direction, the script, and the role of Benedick.  He’s as excellent as ever, but I think my experience with The Hollow Crown and other adaptations are broadening my horizons, because he’s no longer the be-all end-all of Shakespearian performers for me.  It sounds like faint praise, but it’s no slight to Branagh – it’s just a celebration of having even more actors to love for their Shakespeare, like Ben Whishaw and Tom Hiddleston.  And Emma Thompson is stunning as Beatrice.  Sparkling with wit, both strong and playful as the situation requires, and all-around amazing.  If I were romantic, I’d probably be in love with her.  Other highlights include Denzel Washington, who is every inch the royal Don Pedro, a very young Robert Sean Leonard (Wilson from House) as Claudio, and a kooky-but-fun Michael Keaton as comic constable Dogberry.  Imelda Staunton and Phyllida Law are also in the film, but their roles are fairly small. 

Less successful is Keanu Reeves as Don John – let’s just say it doesn’t work and leave it at that.  And Kate Beckinsale’s Hero… She’s fine in the part, sweet and beautiful, everything Hero should be.  I have no complaints with her performance.  However, the movie is really striking in showing how limited her role really is.  I can’t remember the exact time, but I know it was at least 15 minutes before she had a scripted line, despite being present onscreen for much of that time.  Although the film obviously cuts stuff for time, her screentime is pretty proportional to her stage time.  It’s crazy how little she actually gets to do, which, as a commentary on the “perfect woman” of Elizabethan society, is interesting.  It’s no wonder Benedick and Beatrice pull the play out from under Claudio and Hero, and it’s clear which pair Shakespeare is more invested in.

The adaptation as a whole is excellent.  I especially like the opening of the masque, and the culling scenes with both Benedick and Beatrice are a lot of fun.  If I have a complaint, it’s that I wish the dirty jokes were more plainly delivered as such, because it’s always so much truer when the naughty bits are given their due, particularly in the comedies.

Warnings

Sexual content (including brief incidental nudity,) drinking, and thematic elements.

Favorite Characters: Beatrice (Much Ado about Nothing)

Let's face it:  no one reads Much Ado about Nothing for Claudio and Hero.  It's all about Benedick and Beatrice, and really, it's about Beatrice.  This Shakespearean lady is cooler, funnier, and fiercer than most female leads you see in today's romcoms.

Hero, undoubtedly, is the prototypical fairy tale princess.  Men fall in love with her at a glimpse, and, to borrow from another Shakespeare play, she's the one teaching the torches to burn bright.  She reminds me of one of Dickens's "angels of the house," but this ain't the Victorian age.  It's the Elizabethan era, where the Rosalinds and Portias take center stage in the happy endings.

Enter Beatrice.  Older and sharper than Hero, less rich and sweet, she's not the automatic prize her young cousin is, and while she knows this, she doesn't mind.  She has no plans to secure a husband, and she takes pleasure in mocking her uncle's expectations of what a young lady ought to do.  But right from the start, Beatrice explodes off the page.  While Hero can literally go hundreds of lines without speaking in mixed company, Beatrice dominates every scene she's in.  Men fall in love when they see Hero, but with Beatrice, they fall in love when they know her.

In the play, Benedick and his pals Don Pedro and Claudio are "wits," privileged young men-about-town who spar verbally as a recreational sport.  They can wile away hours spinning puns, slights, and innuendos, with bragging rights going to the man with the quickest tongue.  Not only, however, does Beatrice have the nerve to play with the big boys (demure she is not) - she also has more than enough brains and bite to wipe the floor with them.  She and Benedick go head-to-head numerous times, and she always gets the last word.

Where love is concerned, Beatrice is cynical without being bitter.  Her heart's bee toyed with lightly before, and that makes her keep romance at arm's length, but she's not some man-hating ball-buster.  She's playfully combative with Benedick, and when Don Pedro takes their mutual flirting a bit too sincerely for her comfort, she lets him down gently.  And when she does eventually find herself in love, she as usual has to outdo her beau; while Benedick gives his soliloquy o' love in blank verse, Beatrice's is a sonnet.

She's careful in romantic matters of the heart, but she's very free with her affections to her cousin.  She's forever advising Hero to go after what she, rather than her father, wants, as well as encouraging Hero to speak up for herself.  When Hero's happiness is threatened, Beatrice is the only one whose support never wavers.  She rages on her cousin's behalf, and her own potential happy ending takes a back seat to repairing Hero's.

Is it any wonder she's been played variously by the likes of Emma Thompson, Catherine Tate, and Amy Acker?  I can't imagine too many roles that must be more universally coveted by actresses.