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<p class="" style="text-autospace:none"><b style><span style="color:windowtext">A
wonderfully delightful MUCH ADO at Great Lakes Theater</span></b></p>
<p class="" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext"> </span></p>
<p class="" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext">Roy Berko</span></p>
<p class="" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:windowtext">(Member, American Theatre
Critics Association and Cleveland Critics Circle)</span></p>
<p class="" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:windowtext"> </span></p>
<p class="" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:windowtext"> </span></p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0.25in"><span style="color:rgb(38,38,38)">Boy hates girl. Girl hates boy. Boy overhears that girl
is secretly in love with boy; girl hears vice versa. <span style> </span>Other boy and girl love each other, but something gets in the
way of their happiness.<span style> </span>That's the
basic premise of MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, which is now on stage at Great Lakes
Theatre.<span style> </span>Throw in a couple of
interesting subplots, including an idiotic sheriff, a phony death, an
irrational lover (is there any other kind?), and a vengeful half-brother, and
you have the makings of one of William Shakespeare’s best comedies.<span style> </span>In fact, the fifth best of all of the
Bard’s plays, according to a renowned Shakespeare expert.</span></p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0.25in"><span style="color:rgb(38,38,38)">MUCH ADO, first published in 1600, was first performed
during the winter of 1612-13 during the festivities preceding the marriage of
Princess Elizabeth and Frederick Palatine.<span style> </span>It proved to be a sublime battle of wit and will, much like
the Bard’s other superb comedy, TAMING OF THE SHREW.</span></p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0.25in"><span style="color:rgb(38,38,38)">What makes the script very welcoming to North American
audiences is that the majority of the text is written in prose, rather than in
traditional Shakespeare rhyme.<span style>
</span>This allows for an ease in understanding the language.<span style> </span>GLT’s production goes one step further
and uses basic Midwestern pronunciation, to further aid.</span></p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0.25in"><span style="color:rgb(38,38,38)">The story, which Shakespeare set in the sixteenth
century in Messina, Sicily, concerns two parallel love stories.<span style> </span>One, between Beatrice, she of quick mind
and sharp tongue and her love/hate relationship with Benedick, who also
verbally thrusts and parries with Beatrice.<span style> </span>Their match makes for one of the comic tracks of the script.<span style> </span></span></p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0.25in"><span style="color:rgb(38,38,38)">Then there is the match between handsome Claudio and the
beautiful Hero, who fall in love and are to get married.<span style> </span>Unfortunately for the duo, the
villainous Don John slanders Hero with a false tale of sexual infidelity.<span style> </span>The planned wedding turns out to be a
shameful disaster when the prospective groom reveals his repulsion for his
bride-to-be’s lack of chastity.<span style> </span></span></p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0.25in"><span style="color:rgb(38,38,38)">A fake death, uncovering of the nefarious plot against
Hero by a quartet of bumbling police, Beatrice and Benedick overcoming their
need for being the winner in their battle of wits, and a happy-ever-after ending,
brings the play to a happy conclusion.</span></p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0.25in"><span style="color:rgb(38,38,38)">In this script, Shakespeare’s attitudes toward
courtship, romance, social realities, marrying for social betterment to ensure
inheritance, and female chastity, all roll out.</span></p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0.25in"><span style="color:rgb(38,38,38)">What makes MUCH ADO intriguing is that it combines many
of Shakespeare’s best writing styles…farce, comedy and drama.<span style> </span>This is also what makes the play so
difficult to produce.<span style> </span>Few
directors and casts can pull off all of the various performance levels.<span style> </span>Fortunately for area audiences,
director Sharon Ott has razor sharp control of all the elements, and her cast
and production crew are up to their end of the task.<span style> </span>She nicely transforms the plot into the 1920s.<span style> </span>This image is aided by Esther
Haberlen’s period-correct costumes, Hugh Landwehr’s fragmented artistic scenery
and designs, and Rick Martin’s lighting. </span></p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0.25in"><span style="color:rgb(38,38,38)">Ott has clearly separated the dramatic reality, the
comic elements and the over-the-top farce…a hard thing to do.<span style> </span>Her cast understands the differences
and paces, pauses and stresses to create the right effects.</span></p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0.25in"><span style="color:rgb(38,38,38)">The staging is aided by the creative choreography of
Martin Céspedes.<span style> </span>He uses
Charleston dance moves of the ‘20s, combined with some hints of Shakespearean
attitudes.<span style> </span>Even the scene changes
and exits and entrances have choreographic images. <span style> </span>The classically trained actors look at ease doing dance steps,
which, for most of them, my be a performance stretch.<span style> </span></span></p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0.25in"><span style="color:rgb(38,38,38)">Cassandra Bissell is spot on as the sarcastic
Beatrice.<span style> </span>She is balanced by J.
Todd Adams (Benedick), who matches her barb for barb, in spite of a distracting
fake beard.<span style> </span>Their interactions are
like watching well choreographed verbal sword fights.</span></p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0.25in"><span style="color:rgb(38,38,38)">Betsy Mugavero is charming as lovely Hero.<span style> </span>Neil Brookshire nicely balances both
the love-struck and dramatic scenes with fidelity.</span></p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0.25in"><span style="color:rgb(38,38,38)">David Anthony Smith well portrays Don Pedro, while Juan
Rivera Lebron is evil incarnate as Don John, the villain of the story.<span style> </span>He was so convincing that on
opening night, he received boos from the audience during the curtain call.</span></p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0.25in"><span style="color:rgb(38,38,38)">Laurie Birmingham was her usual delightful self as
Antonia, Hero’s mother.<span style> </span>David
McCann was her equal as her husband.</span></p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0.25in"><span style="color:rgb(38,38,38)">Dougfred Miller as the bumbling constable, and M. A.
Taylor as his sidekick, Verges, nearly stole the show with their keystone cops
personas.<span style> </span>The duo was so over the
top realistic that they achieved farce at its highest level, having us laugh with,
rather than at, a difficult task indeed.</span></p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0.25in"><i style><span style="color:windowtext">Capsule judgement: GLT’s
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, under the creative and disciplined direction of Sharon
Ott, and choreography by Martin Céspedes, is Shakespearean comedy at its
highest level.<span style> </span>Bravo! Bravo!<span style> </span>Bravo!</span></i><span style="color:rgb(38,38,38)"></span></p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0.25in"><i style><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Bookman Old Style";color:windowtext">Roy Berko's blog, which contains theatre and dance reviews
from 2001 through 2013, can be found at <span style><span style><a href="http://www.royberko.info">www.royberko.info</a></span></span>. His reviews
and commentary can also be found on <span style><span style><a href="http://www.coolcleveland.com">www.coolcleveland.com</a></span></span> and
www.NeOHIOpal, Broadwaynews.com and ArtsAmerica.org.</span></i><span style="color:rgb(38,38,38)"></span></p>
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