SHAKEN AND STIRRED
“Shake it up” is exactly what this cabaret-style production does—blending rock ’n’ roll and R&B classics with lines from Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets. The focus is on love: love as passion, love as pain, love as betrayal—romantic love in all its forms, as expressed by Hamlet and Ophelia, Beatrice and Benedick, Romeo and Juliet, Portia and Brutus, and Viola and Duke Orsino. Created and directed by Allyn Burrows and Jacob Ming-Trent, the show—now in its second year and slightly expanded from the 2024 version—features Ming-Trent as emcee. He delivers smokin’ performances of “Try a Little Tenderness” and “Nothing from Nothing,” along with a stirring rendition of Richard II’s “Let’s talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs…” If that sounds heavy, don’t worry—it arrives late in the show, after we’ve already been treated to searing scenes from Romeo and Juliet performed by a strikingly beautiful and downright electrifying Merlin McCormick and a seemingly smitten Raya Malcolm; knock-your-socks-off renditions of Janis Joplin’s “Piece of My Heart” and West Side Story’s “Somewhere” by the versatile Jennifer Apple; and delightful repartee from Much Ado About Nothing, capped by a desperate demand, courtesy of Naire Poole and Gregory Boover.
Some of the transitions from Shakespeare to the musical selections don’t always make perfect sense—if you stop to think about them too long. But this high-energy production doesn’t give you the chance. You’ll be too wrapped up in the excellent performances of songs by Bob Dylan, The Doors, Bonnie Raitt, and many others. The show sweeps you into the emotional current of Shakespeare’s greatest scenes and poetry, then lets you shake it off with foot-stomping, shoulder-shaking numbers performed by lead guitarist Johnny Irion, with Benny “Fingers” Kohn on keyboard and Connor Meehan on drums. A fiddle, a bass, and an additional guitar round out the band. Many of Shakespeare’s lines are projected onto a screen at the back of the stage (Brendan F. Doyle, sound and projection design), which proves a big help—it’s a loud show, and not every lyric lands clearly, but that hardly matters. What does come through in Shake It Up: A Shakespeare Cabaret, loud and clear, is echoed in the show’s adaptation of an old Neil Young anthem: “Hey hey, my my, Will Shakespeare will never die.”
photos by Katie McKellick
Shake It Up: A Shakespeare Cabaret
Shakespeare and Company
Tina Packer Playhouse, 70 Kemble St. in Lenox, MA
July 22-30: Tues-Sun at 7:30; August 1-27: Tues-Sun at 2
ends on July 6, 2025
for tickets, call 413.637.3353 or visit Shakespeare
