425 YEARS LATER, THE O.G.
ROMCOM STILL CASTS A SPELL

Writers Theatre in Glencoe, a charming North Shore Chicago suburb, has developed a reputation for impeccably produced theater of extremely high quality. Their newest production, a Midwest premiere of the musical adaptation of William Shakespeare’s As You Like It by Laurie Woolery and Tony-winner Shaina Taub (for Suffs), continues that tradition.

Phoebe Gonzalez, Andrea San Miguel, Dakota Hughes

This production moves the action of the play to Chicago, at an unspecified time in the 20th century. The Duke’s Court is now a Chicago bar, complete with art deco interiors (natch) and a musical act — viz. the band — on a dais one step above the main floor. Sara Ryung Clement and Jacelyn Stewart’s set for the court is handsome, and clearly expensive, but rather unimaginative. My expectations were deflated until we got to Arden, which is beautifully rendered.

Paul Oakley Stovall and cast

The plot of the play is about as convoluted as one would expect from one of Shakespeare’s comedies, but let me give it a go:

Duke Frederick has exiled his older brother Duke Senior from the kingdom. He soon follows this up by exiling Duke Senior’s daughter Rosalind, who flees to the forest of Arden — disguised as a man — accompanied by Frederick’s daughter Celia — disguised as a pauper — who will not be parted from her dearest friend, along with Touchstone, a sprightly fop from the Duke’s court.

Elisa Carlson, Matthew Yee, Matt Edmonds, Mason Moss

Meanwhile (there are a lot of “meanwhiles” in this play), Orlando, a spirited young man who has fallen in love with Rosalind (in her womanly form), and is locked in a power struggle with his older brother Oliver, learns that Oliver plans to have him killed. Orlando flees to Arden himself, where he encounters Ganymede (Rosalind, now in male garb) and is convinced to practice pitching woo at her — er, him — so that when he finally meets Rosalind (as Rosalind, not Ganymede) he will be as smooth as he needs to be to win her heart.

Meanwhile, a shepherdess, Silvia, is hopelessly smitten with another shepherdess, Phoebe, who… oh, just go watch the damn thing.

Elisa Carlson, Andrea San Miguel, Phoebe González

The ensemble is wonderful. Benjamin Mathew as love-sick puppy Orlando and Andrea San Miguel as feisty, funny Celia are excellent, and Paul Oakley Stovall brings much-needed gravitas and paternal benevolence as Duke Senior. Really, the entire cast is great. That said, there is one star here: Phoebe González as Rosalind walks away with the show. She even overcomes Raquel Adorno‘s Chaplin costume (why? Just for a sight gag?) as Ganymede. It’s a phenomenal performance at every step of the way.

Phoebe González, Paul Oakley Stovall, Andrea San Miguel, Janet Ulrich Brooks, Torrey Hanson

Shakespeare’s plays have been twisted, turned, and adapted to different eras, locales, and climates: sometimes the changes work beautifully (I adored Robert Falls’ Balkans-set King Lear at the Goodman), sometimes they stink (the less said about Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet, the better), and the bulk of them fall somewhere in between. The wonderful thing about As You Like It is that it stubbornly resists this process: you can move the action anywhere; you can change the characters from male to female (nicely done here with Silvia, Silvius in the original); but as yet I haven’t seen anything that fundamentally alters the play. That’s not to say it hasn’t been influential; there has been considerable scholarship in gender studies about the gender roles in the play as well as its homoerotic subtext (Class Assignment: go look up the etymology and significance of “Ganymede”), and you can draw a straight line from Rosalind to Viola in Stoppard’s marvelous script for Shakespeare in Love: a woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman — a neat reversal of what would have been the situation in the play’s original productions.

Benjamin Mathew, Andrea San Miguel, Paul Oakley Stovall (back) Elisa Carlson

No matter what you do to it, As You Like It remains the same: a frothy, insubstantial, and absolutely delightful play about falling in love and love conquering all. This musical honors that philosophy even as it guts the play of most of its dialogue. Taub’s songs are incredibly catchy and the performers are in top form. The casting (Katie Galetti) is effortlessly color- and gender-blind. Michael Mahler‘s band is small but terrifically talented (Elisa Carlson, who’s also part of the ensemble, might want to order replacement bows for her violin in bulk if she plans to keep fiddling at that intensity) and ringmaster Braden Abraham deserves all the kudos for successfully delivering one hell of a highwire act.

Benjamin Mathew and cast

If I may be permitted one sort-of-but-not-really-a complaint, it’s that I wish there were more of the original text in the show. It’s such a pleasure to hear Shakespeare roll off the tongue of actors who know how to deliver it with wit and insouciance that I was briefly saddened every time I sensed a song coming on. The show is not even two hours long. Let’s have more of the verse.

And good luck getting “You Phoebe Me” out of your head.

Andrea San Miguel, Phoebe Gonzalez, Benjamin Mathew

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photos by Jenn Udoni

As You Like It
Writers Theatre
Nichols Theatre, 325 Tudor Court in Glencoe
2 hours with one 15 minute intermission
Wed at 2 & 7:30; Thurs-Fri at 7:30; Sat at 2 & 7:30; Sun at 2 and 6
ends on December 14, 2025
for tickets, call 847.242.6000 or visit Writers Theatre

for more shows, visit Theatre in Chicago

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