Chicago Shakespeare Theater charmingly adapts Oscar-winning comedy
Whenever some enterprising producer floats the idea of adapting a hit film to the stage, I find myself pondering the same question. What did the original leave unsaid that warrants a theatrical reboot?
The answer is: not much. Overall, I imagine money motivates such adaptations. After all, potential profits from devoted fans willing to spend 10 times the price of a movie ticket to see their favorite tale retold, on stage, can be a temptation impossible to resist.
That's not to say film adaptations lack merit. Shows like “Spamalot,” “The Color Purple” and “Billy Elliot” reinvented themselves as musicals and triumphed in their new medium. On Sunday, Chicago Shakespeare Theater's charming, thoroughly entertaining U.S. premiere of “Shakespeare in Love” increased that list by one.
“Shakespeare in Love” is no musical reinvention. Faithfully adapted by Lee Hall from the 1998 Academy Award-winning romantic comedy by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard, it's a play-with-music whose score pairs William Shakespeare's poetry with music by Neil Bartram.
This fictionalized version of William Shakespeare's early career imagines the playwright struggling with writers' block in an amusingly accurate way. Anyone who has sat before a blank page (or screen), searching desperately for the ideal adjective or well-turned phrase will recognize the malaise afflicting young Will (Nick Rehberger). He meets his muse and his match in the spirited young Viola (Kate McGonigle), who disguises herself as a man so she can work as an actor at a time when the law forbade women appearing on stage.
But the romance that blossoms between poor, married Will (played with disarming ingenuity by Rehberger) and wealthy, betrothed Viola (a winsome McGonigle), isn't the only expression of love driving this dramedy. “Shakespeare in Love” is also about the artist's love for his or her art. Stymied by a dearth of ideas, insufficient funds and egotistic actors, Will persists in his devotion, encouraged by genial rival and mentor Christopher Marlowe (a confidently accommodating Michael Perez). Dropping in from time to time, Marlowe supplies a few key phrases that Will incorporates into his famous sonnet, “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer Day?”
Peppered with lines from Shakespeare sonnets and plays, the witty script posits how offhand remarks like “out, damn spot” directed at a disobedient dog (a scene-stealing pooch from Happy Trails Rescue) found their way into some of the world's most beloved plays. A subplot traces the evolution of Will's unfinished comic romp “Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter” into one of the world's great tragedies. Part celebration, part sendup, it depicts the often maddening, always exhilarating creative process, which director Rachel Rockwell's affectionate, exuberantly acted production so richly conveys. As ever, Rockwell's production reflects her skill at communicating credibly the most intimate relationships.
A joyful show, it brought a smile to my face in the opening moments that remained through the final bows.
One of the actors responsible is Larry Yando, who delivers a perfectly timed comic turn as struggling theater owner Philip Henslowe, who presses Shakespeare for a hit play that will help pay off Henslowe's debts to loan shark Fennyman (Ron E. Rains, a first-rate Elizabethan heavy). It turns out, Shakespeare has also promised a play to Henslowe's bumptious rival Richard Burbage (the superbly self-important Timothy D. Stickney).
Relishing the role of villain is Dennis Grimes, who plays Lord Wessex, the cocky cad who intends to marry Viola for her money, subject to the approval of Queen Elizabeth, whose theatrical preferences tend to comedies that include a bit with a dog. She's played with wry majesty by the terrific Linda Reiter, unfazed opening night after a glitch with the trapdoor stranded her about a foot below the stage.
Also deserving mention is Luigi Sottile's preening Ned Alleyn, Catherine Smitko's cagey nurse and Scott Danielson's endearing Wabash, a stuttering tailor-turned-actor who finds his voice in the footlights.
In the end, “Shakespeare in Love” is a valentine for everyone who holds words dear, and respects the men and women who bring them to life.
“Shakespeare in Love”
★ ★ ★ ½
Location: Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Navy Pier, 800 E. Grand Ave., Chicago, (312) 595-5600 or
Showtimes: 1 and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday; 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday; 3 and 8 p.m. Saturday; 2 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday; through June 11. Also 7:30 p.m. May 16 and 23. No 6:30 p.m. shows May 7, 21 and 28. No 7:30 p.m. show June 9
Running time: About 2 hours, 30 minutes, including intermission
Tickets: $58-$88
Parking: $16.80 with validation at the Navy Pier garage
Rating: For teens and older