With a show like “As You Like It,” you know you should be glad.
Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s new production is a joyful mashup of Shakespeare’s romantic comedy with two dozen Beatles songs. It works so well you’d think Will, John, Paul, George and Ringo hashed it out together in some timeless tavern near the Globe.
Adapter Daryl Cloran, who first staged this concept in Vancouver in 2018, also directed the Rep’s production, which opened Friday night in the Quadracci Powerhouse Theater for an enthusiastic capacity crowd. He’s pulled music from across the Beatles’ timeline, from “I Want to Hold Your Hand” to “Helter Skelter.” These songs advance the story while also providing aural relief for people concentrating on Shakespeare’s language.
Cloran and the cast infuse “As You Like It” with the playful spirit that made the early Beatles so distinctive and so sensational. This production’s 1960s setting supports that playfulness — and lets costume designer Carmen Alatorre run wild with hippie couture.
“As You Like It” contrasts life at court with tyrannical Duke Frederick to life in forest exile with his brother Duke Senior, whose duchy Frederick usurped (Don Noble plays both men, exuding warmth as the hippie duke). When Frederick exiles Senior’s daughter Rosalind (Savannah L. Jackson), his own daughter Celia (Lizzy Brooks) joins her. For safety’s sake, Rosalind disguises herself as a male youth, Ganymede. (In Shakespeare’s time, that would have meant a male playing a female impersonating a male.)
Before long, the forest abounds with wooing couples: Rosalind and Orlando (the winsome Justin Gregory Lopez), the clownish Touchstone (Adam Wesley Brown) and goatherd Audrey (Sophie Murk), Celia and Orlando’s brother Oliver (Tony Carter), and shepherds Silvius (Michael Dashefsky) and Phoebe (Heidi Kettenring). But Phoebe pines for Ganymede, and Orlando doesn’t realize yet who Ganymede is. So romantic hijinks definitely ensue.
Adding to the fun, cast members serve with panache as the show’s band: Dashefsky, Morgan Matthew Bernhard, Kieran McCabe, Kurt Schweitz (who even has several moments on trombone), Marquis Wood, Nancy Voigts and others.
As Touchstone, Brown is the right kind of ham, given leeway to break the fourth wall, which he does masterfully. As the melancholy philosopher Jaques, Trish Lindstrom, in a Warhol fright wig and glasses, is a fusion of Eeyore and Tigger, popping up from time to time to drop some gloom on the amused forest denizens.
With so much romance going on, you might not realize right away that Rosalind and Celia are two of the great BFFs in theater, combining the best parts of being cousins, sisters and friends. Jackson and Brooks make this bond look effortless and natural.
Cloran has expanded the wrestling scene at the beginning of Shakespeare’s comedy into a long Superstar Wrestling prologue, with garrulous Touchstone as announcer. This action begins before curtain time, so make sure you arrive early. It’s one more grace note that makes this “As You Like It” such an inviting experience, you’ll be saying “yeah, yeah, yeah.”
Contact Jim Higgins at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @jhiggy.
If you go
Milwaukee Repertory Theater performs “As You Like It” through March 20 at the Quadracci Powerhouse, 108 E. Wells St. Proof of vaccination or a recent negative COVID-19 test required. Mask required. For tickets, visit milwaukeerep.com or call (414) 224-9490.
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