"Funk It Up About Nothin" at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre on July 19th in Chicago

This is the second of Shakespeare's comedies that the Q Brothers have created, the other being "The Comedy of Errors." In the days of "updating" Shakespeare, the Q Brothers have done great service to these plays by adapting them as hip hop productions. First of all, this production was 90 minutes long instead of 3 1/2 hours. As far as I'm concerned, the only people who could possibly be interested in a full production of "Much Ado About Nothing" are Shakespeare scholars. For the rest of us, it's great to pare it down to just its basic plot because those are the entertaining parts of this play.

The medium of hip hop, at least as employed by the Q Brothers, works very well here. It's a bawdy story and their lyrics bring that out, the style of lyricism serves the battles of wit well, and it plays effectively with the rhyming couplets. The Q Brothers adaptation of the language is fantastic, often rewriting complete sections of dialogue but keeping Shakespeare's original text in pieces as well. It's a clever adaptation and the most fun anyone's had seeing this play in at least a century, I'm sure.

Some of the odd characteristics of this show are dealt with masterfully here. For example, the Q Brothers comment on the ridiculous series of disguises in the play by being over the top about them. It's as though they're purposely not even trying to be convincing. At the same time, the costumes take their basic form from hip hop fashion and make them more costumey. Talentwise, the woman who plays Lady B (Beatrice), is hysterical. She has that "three snaps in a Z formation" kind of attitude down.

One aside is the ever growing practice of adapting plays and musicals using hip hop. Oddly enough, but not surprising, is that the hip hop music itself is never very innovative or new. This music, while exuberant and tons of fun, felt like something the Fresh Prince of Bel Air would have made in the late 80's. It's nothing that a current hip hop musician would have written. This is the primary reason, I think, that the audience is packed but with people who don't really listen to hip hop. Be that as it may, there was a dj on stage. Whether she was spinning improvisationally, I don't know; I doubt it. nevertheless, this was a fantastic show. Highly entertaining, incredibly witty, and quite smart.

"The Lion in Winter" at Writer's Theatre on July 18th in Glencoe, IL

Writer's Theatre's directors always pay such careful attention to scripts that they inevitably wring more meaning out of them than just about any other theater company in town would. Plays that I've never liked, I've loved when seeing their version. Frankly, the directors just seem smarter to me. It also helps that they attract the best actors in Chicago.

Seeing "The Lion in Winter" was a surprising thing here. I've seen the play before a couple time and seen the movie many times. Not unsurprisingly, Rick Snyder decided to downplay the camp humor and emphasize the pathos. As usual, the direction was careful and the acting first rate. However, I ended up feeling rather unmoved. Without the camp humor, the rest of the play didn't quite hold up. So, while I can't say I was enthusiastic about this production, it was more than solid and I realized that this play is primarily a comedy and can't stand up without it.