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class=MsoNormal align=center><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Great
Lakes Theater does a delightful ‘Much Ado’ make-over<?xml:namespace prefix = o
ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal
align=center><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"
class=MsoNormal align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Bob
Abelman<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"
class=MsoNormal align=center><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">News-Herald,
Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times, Geauga Times
Courier<o:p></o:p></SPAN></I></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"
class=MsoNormal align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Member,
International Association of Theatre Critics <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"
class=MsoNormal align=center><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></I></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"
class=MsoNormal align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">This
review will appear in the <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">News-Herald
o</I></SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">n
4/12/13<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"
class=MsoNormal align=center><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P
style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=MsoNormal align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Beatrice
and Benedick have been bickering for over 400 years and, remarkably, it never
gets old.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Although Shakespeare did
not invent the “I hate you/I love you” dynamic tension that drives romantic
comedies, the hesitant affection these two display in “Much Ado About Nothing,”
on stage at Great Lakes’ Hanna Theatre, is as good as it
gets.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN>Returning from war, Don Pedro (David Anthony Smith), Prince of Aragon,
his two friends and noblemen Benedick (J. Todd Adams) and Claudio (Neil
Brookshire), and Don Pedro’s bastard brother Don John (Juan Rivera Lebron) are
guests at the home of Leonato (David McCan), the governor of Messina.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>While being wined and dined, the young
Claudio is attracted to, woos and wins the lovely Hero (Betsy Mugavero), the
governor’s daughter, while confirmed bachelor Benedick reignites his much
fraught relationship with Leonato's niece, the man-hating, marriage-repelling
spitfire Beatrice (Cassandra Bissell).<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>While Don Pedro creates a clever deception that will hopefully bring
Beatrice and Benedick together, the black-hearted Don John plots to ruin the
festivities by maliciously undermining Hero’s reputation and destroying her
pending marriage to Claudio.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">What
makes “Much Ado” so intriguing is that the vast majority of its gloriously
overstuffed sentences are written in prose rather than the poetic verse that
typically dominates Shakespeare’s comedies.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This gives “Much Ado” a more modern
feel, which not only renders it more accessible to today’s audiences but makes
it particularly amenable to a restaging in more modern times—something Great
Lakes Theater does remarkably well and with relish.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">When
last performed 12 years ago, Great Lakes’ troupe transported this play to
post-World War II Italy.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This time
around, the post-World War I era serves as its backdrop.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">While
many of these restagings of the Bard’s work are intended to shed light or offer
perspective on the work itself—such as turning the 1590s reverie “A Midsummer’s
Night Dream” into a</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">
1960s hallucination—this <SPAN style="COLOR: black">production merely employs
time travel for the fun of it.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>A
jazz-era motif gives way to Esther M. Haberlen eye-candy costuming and
</SPAN></SPAN><STRONG><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">Martín
Céspedes’ delightful </SPAN></STRONG><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">ragtime
choreography, and allows the two, stale Elizabethan songs to become something
</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN>Rudy Vallée </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">would
have crooned.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It also, arguably,
gives the director license to reduce Shakespeare’s five-act text to a more
conformative and comfortable two.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">The
post-World War I context also justifies the Key Stone Cop-like slapstick infused
into scenes featuring the addle-minded and asinine </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN>Constable Dogberry (a terrific Dougfred Miller) and his wonderfully
dim-witted assistant Verges (M.A. Taylor).<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>It’s Dogberry and Verges that discover Don Pedro’s deception and, in
their own nonsensical and genuinely hilarious way, save the day.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Sharon
Ott’s brilliant direction gravitates toward and embellishes these and other
comedic moments since, as she acknowledges in the playbill’s Director’s Note,
“Much Ado” doesn’t have the famous speeches of “As you Like It” or clever
subplots of “Twelfth Night.”<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>What
it does have in spades is the fascinating dynamic between its central
couple.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Amidst the extreme
lighthearted and darker elements in this play, a </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN>production of “Much Ado” is only as good as its Beatrice and
Benedick.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN>As <SPAN style="COLOR: black">Beatrice, Bissell </SPAN>delivers a
formidable, sharp-tongued and quick-witted feminist while never losing—even when
dressed in a man’s tuxedo—the alluring feminine qualities that eventually reels
in a reluctant Benedick.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Both the
character and the actor are forces to be reckoned with.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: black"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN>She is matched by J. Todd Adams as Benedick.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>While the two together lack sufficient
tension to be believable—dueling with Shakespeare’s dialogue as if it were too
precious a thing to be vehemently spit out—he, on his own, owns the stage and is
at his best when dueling with himself over his conflicted feelings about
Beatrice.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In fact, Adams
establishes a more affectionate rapport with the audience than he does with
Bissell’s Beatrice. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN>These two are surrounded by a talented ensemble of performers, each
turning in interesting and complementary performances that give this production
a pleasant fluidity and, upon occasion, wings.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>“Much Ado About Nothing”
continues through April 14 at PlayhouseSquare’s Hanna Theatre in downtown
Cleveland.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>For tickets, which range
from $15 to $70, call 216-241-6000 or visit <B><A href=""><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal"><FONT
color=#004488>www.greatlakestheater.org</FONT></SPAN></A>.</B></FONT></SPAN></I><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>