It's not like Shakespeare hasn't been transposed to other cultures before—consider West Side Story—or that Old Will himself never sampled. But no longer can geezers ( like me ) diss or dismiss hip-hop music as a viable means of introducing its adherents to classical literature. Is the lingo arcane? We listen to foreign-language opera, don't we? Are the rhymed couplets frivolous? Aren't we the generation who grew up chanting Dr. Seuss? Is the imagery vulgar? How about Willie Shakes' sonnet to masturbation? ( 'Expense of spirit in a waste of shame' this, kids! )
Playwright: music & lyrics by the Q Brothers,based on the play by William Shakespeare. At: Chicago Shakespeare Theatre
at Navy Pier, 800 E. Grand. Phone: 312-595-5600; $25-$30. Runs through: Aug. 3
To be sure, we might not yet be ready for the beat-box King Lear, but Much Ado About Nothing is simplicity itself: a squadron of victorious soldiers are camped in a village where a lovesick GI now woos a likewise smitten local girl, to the amusement of their sophisticated sidekicks. Alas, the commander's evil brother plots to derail the wedding by convincing Claudio of his fiancée's unfaithfulness, but with the help of the local constabulary, all ends well.
For this updated and abridged ( 65 minutes ) adaptation by the team that made The Bomb-itty Of Errors a runaway hit in 2002, the 'hood is a day-glo matrix decorated in a style labeled 'Asian Baroque' by one audience member, 'Frida Kahlo's Back Yard' by another. Our swains are now rap-champions. Slimeball Don John's ruse is accomplished by means of an inflatable party-doll ( serenaded tenderly, post-coitus, by the perp ) . Sheriff Dogberry—euphoniously re-dubbed 'Dingleberry'—is garbed in cavalier drag, and equipped with a deputy modeled on the Village People ( precipitating a shout-out to same-sex marriage amid all the pro-marital antics. )
Ericka Ratcliff's statuesque MC Lady B is well-matched in co-author JQ's bantamweight Benny, while the latter's creative cohort, GQ, doubles—no, make that triples—as the badass Don J, dotty papa Leonato and suave Dingleberry. Jackson Doran and Elizabeth Ledo make a suitably sappy pair of lovers, Postell Pringle oozes presence in roles ranging from the lofty Don P to the swishy officer Verges, and DJ Adrienne Sanchez keeps the music forthcoming from her vantage point high above the action. The exuberance generated by this ensemble—even with a text incorporating such doggerel as 'He swore his affection/I saw his erection'—conjures an aesthetic jubilant enough to be embraced by the most stubborn baby-boomer curmudgeon.