Conceived, adapted, and directed by Daryl Cloran originally for Vancouver’s Bard on the Beach, this joyful and zany adaptation of As You Like It uses the Beatles’ sprawling songbook to sculpt Shakespeare’s “play with music” into a full tilt musical. Currently onstage at the Grand Theatre in London, the imperfect but polished production is a true joy.
At first, the mashup feels a bit jarring. The audience is welcomed into the theatre with about 20 minutes of pre-show showcasing “Dame Francis” (aka Duke Frederick)’s wrestling tournament. A pre-show is always fun and the concept adds context to the action of act one while expanding the spotlight for Jonathan Hawley Purvis’ brilliant fight choreography. What doesn’t quite work, however, is the jolt into act one scene one as the actors switch from improvising in modern prose to performing early modern verse (similarly, Touchstone’s random text breaking throughout the play forces the ear to readjust far more than is necessary). More whiplash is in store when the characters start bursting into song. The first cover in the show is a diegetic performance within the wrestling show but, once Celia starts singing her feelings to the tune of “We Can Work It Out”, the extent to which this is a Musical becomes clear.
As You Like It is often referred to as “Shakespeare’s Musical” because there is so much music written in but foresters singing around a campfire does not a proper musical make. Here, Cloran has mined the Beatles’ work to find songs that reflect the inner lives of Shakespeare’s characters and those songs are deployed theatrically to reflect the classic structure of a conventional musical, complete with longing love ballads (“I Want to Hold Your Hand”), character pieces (“I Am the Walrus”) and the customary end of act one showstopper (“Eight Days a Week”). Once your ear and expectations adjust to the bold concept and massive text cuts that facilitate a 2:30 runtime with room for 23 musical numbers, the joy of the piece and the fun of reinvention is undeniable.
The production is bright and energetic with swift transitions and fabulous character-centric 60s costuming by Carmen Alatorre. The capable band doubles as foresters and small roles, including the always wonderful Tyler Check delivering vocal highlights as Amiens and Hymen (by way of John Lennon). The rest of the cast is one of the strangest mixed bags I’ve ever seen. Very few performers deliver replacement-level work, everyone falling either well above or well below expectations. In the disappointing category, Nadien Chu reduces both Dukes (here referred to as “Dames” so as to not upset the meter with “Duchess”) to broad cartoons, ignoring completely the deep sadness in the oft-double-cast contrasting characters. The fool Touchstone is the biggest victim of the drastic text cut but Leon Willey’s maximalist performance is best kept to small doses even opposite Jenny McKillop’s charming Audrey. Most upsetting though is the top of the ticket as Daniela Fernandez’s whiny and effortful Rosalind fights the heroine’s easy intellect at every turn. The largest single-play female role in the canon, Rosalind should never be so easily eclipsed even in the loosest of adaptations.
What’s so bizarre about the frustrating lows of the cast is how incredibly high the highs are. Known for his stunning voice and thus sometimes overlooked for his strong classical work, Jeff Irving is an all-time-great Orlando. His natural physicality and grounded goofiness are a masterclass in heightened performance that feels unforced, and of course there’s that voice. Matthew MacDonald-Bain is a dynamic and thoughtful Oliver, somehow making that character’s wild veering into a believable arc, while Alexandra Lainfiesta makes a feast out of the under-written Phoebe, brilliantly layering in a small opening of her heart in 5.2 which allows her fate in the final scene to sit a tad more comfortably.
But it’s Jan Alexandra Smith who completely walks away with the production. Less than a month after closing the spectacular Dinner with the Duchess with Stratford’s Here For Now Theatre, Smith unlocks new dimensions of the enigmatic Jaques with her second take on the character (she was nominated for our Supporting Actress award back in 2014 for the same role at Dream in High Park). Far from distanced mocking, Smith centers Jaques’ observations about Touchstone as a core yearning for the character, her remarks about a motley coat standing in for the chance to be heard and respected rather than scorned for honesty. Her care for Adam and genuine connection with Dame Senior silently soften her edges even as her words slice sometimes brutally. It’s a slightly absurd, deeply felt, all-in performance full of fresh readings and sharp insight. In a big, flashy, love-centric production, Smith is the beating heart.
Imbalanced but loveable and at times inspired, Bard on the Beach’s As You Like It: The Musical is a fantastic addition to the Grand’s season.