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'Much Ado About Nothing' a delightful riff on male foolishness Shakespeare takes on jealousy in popular comedy By Lucy Komisar NEW YORK
The real charmer of the piece is Jimmy Smits, who is as wide-eyed and tough guy a Benedick as you want to see. He segues smoothly from the cynic to the love-smitten. Esbjornson gives him some over-the-top bits, including a slapstick falling down a well in the garden while he's listening to his "friends" feed him the invention that Beatrice is mad for him. One of them nonchalantly throws orange peels down the well where Benedick is floundering.
The theme of the play seems to be male foolishness. The ladies are more together. Beatrice, for example, is a cynic who might take on this swain, Benedick, but really seems not to take too seriously what's going on. Why do I think she's a New Yorker? Don John, in black shirt and striped brown pants, is curiously a rather fey villain. Another Esbjornson first, since this fellow is usually pretty macho. His bad guy buddies wear gangster-style gray pin-striped suits, black shoes and spats. A delightful cameo is Brian Murray's Dogberry, the sheriff in red hat and epaulets and wonderfully Malapropian phrases who pulled into the scene in a boat as if from a Venetian canal discovers the plotters in spite of himself. Too over-the-top is Sam Waterston as Leonato, Hero's confused, anguished father. When he starts emoting, he seems like a noisy volcano (Vesuvius?) that no one can put out. The major problem with the production is that you can't really believe that Beatrice and Benedick really love each other, even after their defenses have been destroyed by well-meaning friends. Nor Hero and Claudio, for that matter. So, suspend belief. It's still a delightful production.
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