MUCH NOTHING ABOUT ADO
Presenters Kelsey Grammer and Faith American Brewing Company offer a production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing at the Gene Frankel Theatre that is a daring experiment considering there are 15 actors from a rotating cast on such a tiny stage. Fortunately, it doesn’t seem quite so crowded given the bare set by Elle Kunnos de Voss that suggests a large hall with a long narrow banquet table and tridimensional faux windows. The company, directed by Thomas G. Waites, is an enthusiastic ensemble of emerging actors from his classes but the production feels more like an end-of-the-year recital than finished product.
Dillon John Collins (Claudio) & Jake Minevich (Benedick)
The play still takes place in Messina on the island of Sicily, as in the original, but is now set in the 1940s instead of the late 1500s, although the set and uncredited costumes barely showed it. One of the characters, a minstrel named Balthasar, sang and played downstage left — while Cedric Allen Hills is a talented actor, and it is a good idea to add a live score, the music had nothing to do with the times being portrayed or Shakespeare, and often added to the confusion of having too many actors and too many words bouncing in a tiny space.
Kaitlyn Mitchell (Beatrice) and Jake Minevich (Benedick)
We are in the living room of Leonato, Messina’s governor (David Manganiello), where he is spending time with his daughter Hero (Jordan Elizabeth Gelber) and niece Beatrice (a feisty Kaitlyn Mitchell). A group of soldiers arrive, among them Claudio (Dillon John Collins) and his friend Benedick (charming and comical Jake Minevich), who immediately become entangled with the two girls. Thanks to Minevich and Collins, the best part of the show is the warring couple at the heart of the play (she calls him “Signior Mountanto” he calls her “Lady Tongue”), both of whom are being duped into thinking that they are in love with each other; it’s banter worthy of the best from The Taming of the Shrew‘s Petruchio and Kate (Leonato explains, “There is a kind of merry war betwixt Signior Benedick and her”).
Matt McGlade (Ursula), Brandon Thomas Lima (Margaret),
Jordan Elizabeth Gelber (Hero) & Kaitlyn Mitchell (Beatrice)
Don Pedro, Prince of Aragon (an amiable Jacque Coqueran) and his malevolent brother Don John, “the Bastard Prince” (played with over-theatrical exaggeration by Surge — as is his servant Borachio, played by Matt “Ugly” McGlade), do their best to complicate the plot. Everyone is constantly eavesdropping on everyone else. Benedick overhears a conversation that informs him that Beatrice is in love with him; Beatrice overhears a conversation about how Benedick is in love with her; and the watchmen overhear a conversation in which Borachio talks about faking a sex scene in Hero’s room to make her look like a slut. In the end love triumphs, even if Benedick swore that he would never marry.
This production has a manic tone, which is fine, but the chaos and dizzying speed take away from the wit and humor of the dialogue. The point is that this a great opportunity for the cast. True to TGW Studios’ mission, this is a Company that “seeks to enhance the development of individuals by offering the tools and support necessary to students so that they may reach their full potential.
photos by Rob Klein
Much Ado About Nothing
Gene Frankel Theatre, 24 Bond Street (between Lafayette & Bowery)
Wed-Sat at 7:30; Sun at 3
run time two hours with intermission
ends on June 30, 2024 EXTENDED to July 7. 2024
for tickets ($35), visit On the Stage
