"As You Like It" at SF Playhouse

 

SF Playhouse production photo by Jessica Palopoli

It's a musical adaptation of a Shakespeare play. Updated with some modern touches.

The Play

It's substantially Shakespeare's play As You Like It, with some extra gender-bending to give it a queer component as well as the gender-confusion that is built into Shakespeare's plot. And much of the script has been edited out, converted into songs in various popular genres to explain the parts of the plot that have been elided.

I found the juxtaposition of the modern songs and the Elizabethan text rather jarring, both from a stylistic standpoint and because the songs are pretty much all expository. As a wise character once noted, "nothing can kill a show like too much exposition."

The Production

The show is for the most part well done. The set design is pretty clean, so we have large spaces to represent the forest or Arden. I think my major criticism of the production itself would be that there is far too much standing around on the set. Someone starts singing, and they and everyone else sort of stand around, unless they happen to be dancing. Director Bill English needed to come up with some better blocking for a lot of the scenes.

And things are a bit heavy-handed when we're dealing with the usurping Duke Frederick. It seems unnecessary to play loud, martial music and have everyone goose-stepping. We get that he's an authoritarian. Of course, the script also undercuts that by having characters refer to him as "Your Duke-ness". WTF? Make up your minds whether we're supposed to take all of that seriously. Don't let the snark overwhelm the message of the show, folks!

Bottom Line

I didn't really care for the adaptation or the production. I thought most of the songs were pretty banal and the presentation heavy-handed. It's as if neither the adapters (Shaina Taub and Laurie Woolery) nor the director thought the audience would understand the show. Yet they kept long passages of Shakespeare's text, and no one got lost. It's not as if the show survived for 400 years by confusing people.

On the other hand, I appeared to be in the vast minority on this one. Most of the audience seemed to enjoy the show immensely. And indeed, it was well done, with a lot of obvious joy on the part of the cast. So I'd give it a passing grade, but not a rave. Seems like it could have been much better, either in the adaptation or in the production (or preferably, both!).