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“Much Ado About Nothing” is the original screwball comedy. Before we had Rosalind Russell battling Cary Grant, or Katharine Hepburn outwitting Spencer Tracy, we had Beatrice and Benedick, sworn enemies to each other and to love. You know it’s going to end well, but the trip will be twisted and hilarious.
In Chicago Shakespeare’s sparkling production of “Much Ado About Nothing,” we get the spirit of those classic 1940s romantic comedies. As Beatrice, Deborah Hay is a wisecracking broad, in the best sense. She’s Hepburn, she’s Russell, she’s Bette Davis—shooting darts at Mark Bedard’s Benedick like an expert archer. “I wonder that you will still be talking, Signior Benedict, nobody marks you,” she drawls, casually yet with so much bite. Bedard is the perfect foil to his “Lady Disdain”—charming, cynical and urbane, giving almost as good as he gets. He declares that “I will live a bachelor” to a member of the audience, shaking his hand on it. We can’t wait for him to be proved wrong.
The plot centers around the house of Leonato, a wealthy governor played with benign gravity by Chicago Shakespeare veteran Kevin Gudahl. Beatrice is his niece, and Hero (Mi Kang) his daughter. Benedick and Claudio (Samuel B. Jackson) are soldiers under the powerful Don Pedro (Debo Balogun). Claudio and Hero fall in love and plan to marry. The friends of Benedick and Beatrice want them to marry, too, and play silly tricks to bring them together. There’s a lot of funny business in which Benedick and Beatrice are supposed to be hiding while they overhear how one secretly loves the other.
That’s the first half—the second has a much darker story about how Don Pedro’s misanthropic brother Don John (a cool and steely Erik Hellman) concocts a false story that Hero has been unfaithful, leading to her public shaming. It’s one of those Shakespearean plot turns that’s hard for a modern audience to forgive and reconcile with a happy ending. Fortunately, the second half also contains Dogberry, the idiot constable, dropping malapropisms whenever he opens his mouth. (“Only get the learned writer to set down our excommunication…”) The versatile Sean Fortunato is terrific in this role, channeling Huntz Hall of the Bowery Boys’ movies. He uses every inch of his long face and body for laughs, and gets them. The character continues to be funny after over 400 years because we know this type so well—a buffoon who pretends to be smarter than he is, pompously sucking up to authority without knowing what he’s saying.
The two-level courtyard set by Tom Piper works well for the show, creating visual interest without clutter. Piper also did the effective modern-dress costumes—Beatrice’s dresses convey her sophistication and Hero her innocence. The lighting by Jason Lynch suggests sunshine in the Mediterranean, a welcome respite during a Chicago November.
Under the direction of British actress and director Selina Cadell (who also did Eddie Izzard’s solo “Hamlet” last year), this production delivers solid Shakespeare—clear and easy to understand without dilution. The hijinks never overshadow the language, even in the Dogberry scenes. There is also good music throughout, composed by Eliza Thompson, with cast members playing accordion, saxophone, drum, flute, guitar and even banjo. At one point, the audience is convinced to sing along with the “hey, nonny” and there were few holdouts. This fun production is impossible to resist.
“Much Ado About Nothing” runs through December 21 at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, on Navy Pier, 800 East Grand. Tickets start at $49, available at chicagoshakes.com.
