Beatrice and Benedick are once again at it tooth and nail, but this time round she’s wearing a hoopskirt and he’s sporting a Civil War-era Army uniform as director Ellen Geer transposes the Shakespeare comedy classic from 16th-century Italy to 1860s Virginia while sprinkling in one I Love Lucy-inspired physical comedy bit after another.

Like many a Shakespeare romcom before it, Much Ado centers on not just one but two quite different pairs of lovers.

 This time around, it’s Union Army Sergeant Benedick (Aaron Hendry) sharing the stage with comrade-in-arms Captain Claudio (Kelvin Morales) and the duo’s love-hate interests Beatrice (Willow Geer) and her younger sis Hero (Audrey Forman).

 In classic romantic comedy tradition, the latter pair meet cute, fall madly in love, and make plans to be wed.

In equally popular romcom mode, it’s a case of abhorrence at first sight for B & B, which is why Claudio and Hero hatch a scheme with a certain Major General Penn (Lynn Robert Berg) to trick the feuding Beatrice and Benedick into falling for each other by making each believe that the other is already head over heels.

 Meanwhile elsewhere in Virginia, the General’s illegitimate brother Don John (Emoria Weidner), racked with jealousy over his half-brother’s power and his friendship with Claudio, makes his own plans to prevent Claudio and Hero’s wedding from ever taking place, aided in his endeavor by fellow baddies Boracio (Jonathan Blandino) and Conrad (understudy Hunter James).

 Oh, and because no Shakespeare comedy would be complete without its band of fools, Much Ado About Nothing has Sheriff Dogberry (Gerald C. Rivers) and his ragtag bunch of underlings stepping in to set things right, thereby ensuring that when all is said and done, it’s all been a whole lot of fuss about absolutely zilch, hence the play’s much-quoted title.

There was a time not so awfully long ago when audiences could expect to see Shakespeare characters sporting Elizabethan frills no matter where or when the play was set.

These days, you’d be hard-pressed to see a Shakespeare play that’s not been transported to another time, another place, and transposing Much Ado to Virginia circa 1860something means not only that costume designer A. Jeffrey Schoenberg gets to outfit the women in hoopskirts and the men in Union Army blue but that the returning war heroes harmonize to “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” and other assorted ditties.

Not only that, but by upping the physical comedy elements, Ellen’s daughter Willow gets to do Lucille Ball proud in scenes that have her sparring with worthy opponent Hendry, both Botanicum staples making hilarious use of the three or four steps leading up to the Theatricum stage in addition to bringing out the delicious best in the dueling wordplay Shakespeare has afforded his two anti-romantic leads.

 Things get considerably less jaunty where younger couple Claudio and Hero are concerned given the former’s mistaken belief that the girl of his dreams has cheated on him before their wedding day (blame Don John for that), and his rejection of her and her devastation at this repudiation of their love gives rising stars Morales and Forman the chance to show off dramatic chops rarely afforded young lovers in a Shakespeare comedy.

Having Weidner’s weaselly Don John speak with a Southern accent is an inspired choice, meaning that he and Benedick aren’t just feuding siblings, they’re Civil War enemies as well.

Berg is an imposing Major General Penn, Blandino and James make for a pair of deliciously dastardly plotters, Michelle Merring and Rebecca Oca-Nussbaum provide fine feminine support as Margaret and Ursula, Cynthia Kania (Antonia) and Shoshanna Green (Sister Frances) excel in roles Shakespeare wrote as Antonio and Friar Francis, Tim Halligan is a first-rate Leonato, and Robert Soloman proves himself the subtlest of scene-stealers as a guitar-strumming Balthazar and a Watchman of a thousand facial expressions.

 Last but not least, the always formidable Rivers has a ball playing it big as Sheriff Dogberry (and so do we watching him bumbling around), with Cole Dechant, Asher Edwards, Natalia Jofre, Shane McDermott, Andrew Rodriguez, David Salper, Cristian Venegas, and Sky Wahl completing the cast to tiptop effect.

Add to all this Hayden Kirschbaum’s richly textured lighting design (for those attending evening performances), Carter Vickers’ assortment of Civil War-era props, and Lucas Fehring’s expert sound design and you’ve got another Theatricum Botanicum production design winner.

 Sara Carpenter is assistant director. Karen Osborne is stage manager and Asa Fria is assistant stage manager. Beth Eslick is wardrobe supervisor. Lucy Pollak is publicist.

If you’re Shakespeare lover (and even if you’re not), I can’t think of a better way to spend a summer or early-fall evening or afternoon than by relishing the many comedic delights of Much Ado About Nothing under Topanga skies. I for one had a ball.

Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, 1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga.
www.theatricum.com

-Steven Stanley
July 20, 2025
Photos: Ian Flanders, Isabel Stallings

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Tags: Los Angeles Theater Review, Theatricum Botanicum, William Shakespeare