Transcript
Sasha (0:00)
I get so emotional, Jamie. Oh, it worked. Every time I think of you still. Wow. For those of you listening on podcast platforms, that was me, Sasha, veloring all over my floor. There is indeed much ado, considerable ado, some may say, about this latest production from the bold director Jamie Lloyd. But is this, as the title would suggest, much ado about nothing? Or is this production everything? Oh my God. Hey, welcome back to my theatre themed YouTube channel. Or hello to you if you're listening on podcast platforms. My name is Mickey Jo and I am obsessed with all things theatre. I am professional theatre critic here on social media as well as a stagey content creator. You can find me all across the theatrical Internet sharing my thoughts about the theatre that I see around the world. Apologies for my voice sounding like this today. I am still a little bit unwell. I've been seeing a lot of theatre this month and some of the earlier productions do seem to have taken their toll on me. Not only Em, but also medically. Don't worry, I'll be fine. And it's honestly all good because I am wildly excited to talk to you about this latest opening tonight in the West End. Much Ado About Nothing has opened at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, the second in a pair of Shakespearean productions brought back to the enormous West End venue for the first time in years by the bold director Jamie Lloyd, best known for his recent revivals of the musical Sunset Boulevard, as well as Romeo and Juliet in the West End with Tom Hol and Francesca Amawuda Rivers. Also his highly anticipated upcoming productions of Evita and Andrew Lloyd Webber's new musical the Illusionist, as well as a Broadway production of Waiting for Godot. Now, Jamie Lloyd's work, which has in the later years of his career tended towards the more threadbare. We have seen fewer and fewer sets, increasingly minimal costumes and a penchant for onstage cameras, handheld microphones and intense whispering. Also not an unreasonable amount of blood often proved div. And there has been some criticism of some of his recent theatrical outings that it's starting to feel a little bit Emperor's New Clothes. And ahead of this one beginning performances, the stage was really set, metaphorically speaking, for a lot of criticism, not only because its immediate predecessor, the Tempest, was not received particularly well by critics or by many audience members, and lived in the center of a Venn diagram between what I would describe as Jamie Lloyd Shakespeare misfires, which also included his production of Romeo and Juliet last summer, but also string of very recent examples of star casting that haven't quite worked, Sigourney Weaver's performance as Prospero being just one example of this. There is also the recent Oedipus with Indira Varma and Rami Malek at the Old Vic. There is also the divisive production of Elektra, directed by Daniel Fish in the West End, starring Brie Larson and Stockard Channing. And if you happen to be interested, you can find reviews of all of these productions wherever you are finding this one. But I do remember a little while ago talking about the number of upcoming Jamie Lloyd projects and how I had considerably more faith in his production of the Tempest rather than Much Ado, which happens to be my favorite Shakespeare play, because the vibes of this and its farcical nature and its comedy and its romance and its levity seemed so far from Jamie Lloyd's recent work. Not everything he's ever done on stage, but particularly from his recent work and the themes and the vibes that he seems eager to evoke over the last few years. The Tempest, meanwhile, is a lot more ethereal and has a greater ratio of melancholia to joy, and I thought that would for sure work a lot better. For whatever reason, I was entirely wrong about that. I would like to time travel back and slap myself around the face and say, you know nothing Mickey Jo Theatre because, and I'm thrilled to tell you this is great. Truly, it is a joyous night at the theater. I am wildly relieved and I'm very excited to tell you about it today. If you enjoy this review, make sure subscribe right here on YouTube. Turn on those notifications so you don't miss my upcoming theater reviews, before which hopefully I will get to take a small break because there's been so many plays this month. Or make sure to follow me if you are listening to this on podcast platforms. And as always, let me know your thoughts in the comments section down below. What did you think of this production of Much Ado About Nothing, and how did it compare with previous productions you may have seen and with previous Jamie Lloyd directed Shakespeare? For now, though, let me tell you exactly what I thought. Tell it to my heart, fam. Tell me I'm the only one Is it really love or just okay, the confetti's finished falling, now I can stop. So let's talk about the play then let's begin with the material. Much Ado About Nothing, if you are not familiar with it, is one of Shakespeare's greatest comedies. It follows these sparring individuals, Beatrice and Benedick, who are reunited amongst happy circumstances Benedick is part of a party of soldiers and royalty visiting Messina, where Beatrice lives with her uncle and her cousin, his daughter, whose name is Hero. One of the young men in Benedict's company, a man named Claudio, instantly takes a liking to Hero and falls immediately in love and sets about planning to win her favor and gain permission for the two of them to be married. Thankfully, she reciprocates the affections of this young man who she has never once spoken to at this point. But listen, this is Shakespeare. These are young lovers and they require no context whatsoever. It's basically married at first sight, circa 1599. Only things get a little bit more complicated. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Because their immediate infatuation is contrasted by the extraordinary witty animosity shared between Beatrice and Benedick. They know each other of old and they resent each other entirely. Or do they? Because they're very verbose. Playground squabbling actually seems to betray more of an affection than either of the two of them are willing to believe. And this is noticed by their peers, by their families, by their friends, who decide it would be at the very least entertaining or ultimately beneficial to the two of them to try and set them up with each other by convincing each of them that the other secretly loves them, despite their protestations to the contrary. And this has become a narrative trope in relationships that we have seen time and time again, particularly in movie rom coms, but also in classic musicals. We see this in Oklahoma. Laurie and Curly are described as having this Beatrice and Benedick esque relationship. It's that whole I hate you so much because I actually love you thing. And it's very satisfying because they're able to come to each other on very even terms, particularly in a well directed production, when there is a good balance of power between Beatrice and Benedick and when they are cast with actors of equal power. Now all of this is love and comedy and delight. And there's a little bit of mistaken identity at a masked ball. And Beatrice and Benedick both hide to overhear the very deliberate conversations that are being had in order to convince them that the other is in love with them. Farce, comedy, silliness. But like the best of Shakespeare, there's a little bit of creeping darkness and despair as well. This comes in the form of the villainous brother of the prince. The prince is Don Pedro. His brother is Don John, who when he arrives to Messina, just about everyone is like, oh, that guy's awful. Which admittedly has got to suck if you're Don John and he's clearly not having a nice holiday. But at the same time, they really ought to be more wary of, I don't know the exact circumstances that will follow, because he conspires with an accomplice to try and dist the love that is being found here between the young Claudio and Hero. Initially, they try and interfere at this masked ball. When that is not as successful as they might like, they plant a rumor and then create a ruse in order to seemingly confirm it, that Hero has been unfaithful the night before her wedding and she is not virginal and virtuous, as of course she would need to be circa 1599, married at first sight has come a long way. The aftermath of this is then heavy and sorrowful, with characters who were formerly friends becoming enemies with her father denouncing her because he believes these allegations with Beatrice and Benedick, who were ready to unite as lovers by Hero's side, and Beatrice coldly demanding that Benedick kill Claudio in order to avenge her cousin, who she knows to have been slighted. And it's for this reason that the best productions of Much Ado About Nothing are able to find and deliver both elements. We need very much the levity and the comedy and the romance. This is, after all, about love. But we also need that darkness. We also need the sorrow and the despair. We need to feel all of these emotions intensely. And I've seen two productions previously which I felt have lived at either end of this spectrum. I saw it at the National Theatre with Katherine Parkinson and John Heffernan not too long ago. Simon Godwin, I think, had directed that one. Light and comic and charming and farcical. We never really found the requisite weight. That Kill Claudio moment did not land in the way I was hoping, hoping that it would. Previously to that I had seen a Mark Rylance directed production at the Old Vic, which had cast get ready for this, Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones. And before Jamie Lloyd had decided to do away with set pieces, this had a very bare set with just one strange structure in the middle, and it was reasonably bleak and without charm. And we felt the darkness and we felt the weight and we felt the condemnation of this much maligned young woman. But we didn't really laugh as much as I would have liked to. So I have been waiting many years for a Much Ado About Nothing that can deliver on both fronts, and this one does, let me tell you why. So a little about this production then, and this is what you're probably most curious about how does this compare stylistically to previous Jamie Lloyd work? There are no cameras on stage. There are no screens on stage. He'd already done away with those in the Tempest and like in that production, making full use of the enormous playing space at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. While in that one we had these mountains of, like, sand and dirt. Here, the floor is simply covered in pink confetti. Pink confetti that is raining onto the stage from the fly space above intermittently throughout the production and, you know, seems to accompany the mood of the room. When things get mournful and serious and bleak, it comes down very steadily, very sparsely, or stops entirely. When things become more joyous, more light, it's more consistent. And then when we burst into euphoric song, it is flooding down. It is a monsoon of pink confetti. Not words I expected to be telling you when talking about a Jamie Lloyd production. Not words I assume that you were expecting to hear. There are not really set pieces to speak of. There is a table that they bring on and off. There is a giant inflatable heart that lowers down from the back of the stage at one point that Tom Hiddleston, as Benedick, momentarily secrets himself in inside of that comically, then descends to obscure him completely. There are also a handful of plastic chairs, reminiscent of Jamie Lloyd's production of the Seagull, that had all of the actors sat on these chairs in this sort of like IKEA esque space that was just a box comprised of these plyboard walls. This feels like a cousin of that idea, only reinterpreted in a way that is vibrant and fun and a little bit campy and joyous and contemporary and in convers with the audience. I'm going to circle back to that. But what I love about this production is that it still feels like Jamie Lloyd, it still feels familiar of his recent work, and it still feels like we are uplifting the script and the material and that's what we are focusing on. In previous productions, when he's used these microphones, when he's had everything just played forwards, when he has stripped back the set, when he has had the actors sat on plastic chairs like it's a rehearsal space, the intention has been to uplift the text and really focus on the performances and what they are saying. And here the text sings and it comes through and it's delivered with such a clarity. We understand every single intention. The room is laughing at every single Shakespearean joke. It's so thrilling to me. I'm gonna Talk about why I'm getting to it. Hold on. But what really comes across in this one, even more so than the text, is the emotion of it all. It's the emotional exchanges between these characters. And that is what I have been missing. That is what I have been missing, Mr. Lloyd, from these productions. That is what was absen from Romeo and Juliet. That is what we didn't have enough of in the Tempest. It is abundant here. You feel the feelings between each of them. It's pivotally important in Much Ado. This is all about feelings. These are all people getting entirely wrapped up in their feelings, their feelings clouding them from thinking clearly. Claudio loves so much that he condemns Hero on the day of their wedding because he has been led astray. Beatrice and Benedick can't get past their passion to realize how they actually feel about each other. Now, I suppose, spoken twice about the relationship between this piece and the audience. It's absolutely my favorite thing about this production because I wonder often what it would have been like to experience Shakespeare during his lifetime and the way that those plays were initially received, because now it's become quite academic, and the context in which most audiences meet Shakespeare for the first time is at school, reading it, learning about it, studying it. And it's become this historical thing. It's become this slightly inaccessible thing with a speech that is difficult to understand. And if you go and see productions at the Globe, they often uplift the comedy, and it is uproarious, and it does involve and invoke the audience. But in plenty of other theaters, it is performed with an intensity and a solemnity and a reverence that doesn't necessarily evoke in the audiences the same kind of reactions with which it would have been initially received. Shakespeare, in his own lifetime, played to the crowds. Shakespeare offered song and dance and comedy and smut. And with this production, that gets wolf whistles, that gets cheers, that gets so much freaking laughter. It feels like this is really Shakespeare having a similar kind of a reaction in 2025 to what it would have had in the very late 16th century. And that, I think, is a triumph. This audience is having a great time. The ushers are having a great time. That I always is a good sign before a show begins, because rather than the Bleak Auditorium that we entered into for the Tempest, where the whole thing just felt inherently cold, we walk into a disco at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, where the ushers are literally dancing around in the aisles. They are blasting this nostalgic club music. There are lights, there are disco balls. Moving around the auditorium, the whole thing has suddenly come alive with joy. And it retains that Jamie Lloyd wit that I enjoy so much that we saw in Sunset Bo of Art that felt like it was beginning to become a little absent from other things. I like that it pokes fun at Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell. There's a little bit of a Marvel reference moment. You don't have to keep your eyes peeled for it. It's fairly conspicuous. And while sort of piercing the immersive narrative bubble, it felt like, you know, pandering to the crowd in a very traditionally Shakespearean way, in a very crowd pleasing way. Crowd pleasing are not words you have associated with Jamie Lloyd's work in some time. Time. It's very satisfying for it to happen now. Hayley and Tom both point out into the audience and address specific audience members. We feel so like people at this party. Even though the stage is huge and they play some scenes half a mile back, sat on these chairs, we feel so involved in this thing. Music is a big part of this. Almost immediately, Mason Alexander park, who was such a wonderful and magical Ariel in the Tempest, is playing Margaret in this. And I was a little bummed to hear about that because I was like, margaret's not a particularly large role. Mason gets to sing often in this. Mason is used to tremendous effect because they're not only a magical performer, they're a brilliant vocalist as well. And so Mason sings a handful of nostalgic dance floor hits around the idea of love, including, but not limited to When Love Takes over and Tell It To My Heart. And these joyous performances reverberate throughout the rest of the cast. It's very Shakespearean. We get a proper, like boy band macho entrance from Benedict Claudio and the Prince. There is a gorgeous curtain call sequence where the whole cast are dancing around where it becomes this dance party and everyone's dancing in character. I'm going to talk more about the choreography, but there is even a moment where Tom Hiddleston, as Benedick, attempting to write a sonnet for Beatrice about his love, sings what he has written to the tune of a popular and much memed 90s boy band song. I will let you have a guess as to which one it is, if you haven't seen the play yet. Yet. At every turn, these creatives have sought out fun and joy and laughter and romance, making it basically impossible for the audience to do anything but just love it. I have many more things to say about particular creative choices within this production, some of which will be Very specific that you may not want to know about until you have seen it. But in the meantime, I want to continue talking about the company. So Hayley Atwell and Tom Hiddleston are playing Beatrice and Benedick. And they are both so sensational. They are wonderful in this and I had a lot of faith in them already. But it is so rewarding, it is so fantastic to see a Beatrice and a Benedick who are so well matched, who have such a fantastic chemistry, who have such an easy rapport and are both exceeding, are both utterly at the top of their game, masterfully in control of every single line, every single moment on stage. So witty, so brilliant. Tom Hiddleston is so incredibly charming and so beloved by the room and by the auditorium. He has so many moments where he does takes to the audience. There is a moment where he got this organic cheer of encouragement about being desirable and he sort of nodded multiple times, almost in a Maggie Smith esque triple take sort of a way as a gesture, unexpected gratitude. But he is also, when he needs to be a buffoonish clown, when he is hiding on stage among all of the pink confetti and he is holding it up above his head, or when he is swimming amongst it and spitting out clumps of it at a time when he jumps fully into the stage and disappears, Vicar of Dibley style, he allows himself to become a total fool. And it is such a sensationally good performance. He is wonderful in this. He is just so, so good at it. And it's hard to imagine that many actresses who could be cast alongside him who would not just be entirely overpowered. But Hayley Atwell is so, so good in this. She is brilliant. She is a perfect Beatrice. The tone and the snark and the biting wit and the little bit of insecurity and sadness that lives beneath that, that she masks is all, all excellent. For her part, when they have her overhearing the conversation between Margaret and Hero about Benedick's supposed affections for her and how sad they are that this will never come to pass between the two of them because Beatrice is so indifferent to the idea of romance and has closed off her cold and lonely heart. Rather than have her, as other productions have done in the past, also hiding herself under some sort of farcical and visually comedic circumstance, they have her standing center stage while Margaret and Hero are hidden, obscured behind the big inflatable heart and simply staring out into the audience, looking devastated about it. And it's a very profound and striking choice. It connects to this really sincere emotional depth that continues into the second act when Beatrice is utterly undone by what happens to Hero on her wedding day. And you understand from that the resolve with which she asks Benedick to kill Claudio and that furiously she means it. And so it all works. The courtship works. The balance of the power between the two of them works because it's so even because they are both so winning in these roles. And then that twist into the second act works as well when we have that turn for the darker. It's also pretty damn wonderful to see such terrific and accomplished and successful actors barely taking themselves seriously while delivering. Delivering glorious Shakespearean performances. They are having so much fun and they are also doing incredible work. Now, many among the rest of the company are returning. Having been in the Tempest, it's almost as if the two productions were running in rep, except that they weren't. But they do share many company members. So Mason Alexander park, like I mentioned, had played Ariel, is now playing Margaret and has a lot of bawdy comic moments. Has a little bit of a role to play in the emotional gravitas of the second act, but is such a compelling are when they are singing. I am thrilled that Jamie Lloyd has discovered and recognized Mason's talent here. And I really hope that Mason becomes a fixture of future Jamie Lloyd productions. In particular a musical, because vocal talent aside, and it is considerable, there is something just mesmerizing about the way that they deliver a song. Mara Huff and James Phoon have returned as young lovers. They were Ferdinand and Ariel in the Tempest and they are now Hero and Claudio in this. I enjoy the way that it's characterized. They feel young and trendy and Gen Z and like they're gonna go and chat about it on Snapchat later when they're dancing together during one of these disco sequences and they're grinding on each other. It's fun, it's cute. It's not like the most high class Shakespeare that you're getting. But I do think that the two of them are really interesting performers, particularly James Phoon. I love the way that he puts across these enamored young men. He does it very, very well. There is something so earnest and so endearing about his romantic conviction. I think it's really char. I think he's brilliant. Dare I say he has the Shakespearean heartthrob we deserve. And even as he turns on Hero and even as he hurls this malice towards her at the altar and has to be restrained by the men around him, it is so evidently coming from a place of pain and anguish and grief for the woman that he thought that she was, who she actually still is, who she actually was the whole time. Because men are what? Foolish. That is the takeaway from this play. The moral of the story being that your life would be much easier if you simply had a conversation with a woman first. Forbes Mason, who played Caliban in the Tempest, returns to play Leonato. I enjoy him an awful lot more in this production, I have to say. He has a huge tonal shift to portray because he is simply convivial and jovial in the first act, lands an awful lot of comedy. And then in the second, denouncing his own daughter, feeling so betrayed, and then having this whiplash reaction of realizing that she's not actually, actually at fault here and being convinced to go along with this plot and suggest that she is dead in order to engineer a specific reaction. Gerald Kidd, very, very charming as Don Pedro. He has one particular interaction with Halley's Beatrice in the first act. That is so beautifully sincere, that is so warm. It's a little section of the material I'd never really noticed before, but it sang beautifully in this production. It's a moment when there seems to be this little bit strange connection between them, and he asks if she would consider marrying him or a relationship with him. They're just sort of noticing each other, and she declines, but in a very respectful and meaningful way. And there is sort of a reprise of this moment towards the end of the piece. It's quite beautifully done by the two actors. Tim Steed plays Don John. He's another one returning from the Tempest. Again, I enjoyed him more in this production. I do think that both for him and for Micah Onyx Johnson, who plays his associate. Where is it? Where is it? Where is it? Borachio. Excuse me, Forgot the name there. There's a lot to remember. Their villainy and their malevolence lacks the requisite oxygen to really come alive in this space. It's a fire that can't really get started amongst all of the pink confetti, amongst all of the laughter and the joy. And I would still rather have that. I think these are really the only two characters who suffer a little bit from the tonal context of this production. And as we meet, Don't John, he is a little bit of a laughingstock. And we find a little bit of a comedy in his indifference to it all. And even in the way that he is costumed, he is made to look a little silly, a little insincere. He starts to approach pantomime villainy more so than someone who is going to create an elaborate lie that may lead to death. In short, because this production feels like it's playing out on a disco dance floor, he can't really feel like a malicious murderer. He just feels like the creepy annoyed guy who is standing in the corner because no one wants to talk talk to him. An interesting footnote here is that we also have entirely cut Dogberry and the Night Watch. I don't know that this production really needs it. I think the running time and the pacing works as it is. I was a little sad when I realized with the casting announcement that this was likely going to be a choice, but I was fine with it. I didn't think anything felt absent. It felt like a very complete narrative and like going there and spending that time there. It wouldn't have added anything because so often it just provides provides comedy and a levity that we didn't need here because we found it in other places throughout the company. I would echo the comments I made about Tom and Haley's performances. Everyone seems to be having such fun. It is joyous. I keep saying the word joy because that is what reverberates throughout this production. Let's talk about some more of my favorite creative trail choices from this piece. I have spoken about this confetti that covers the floor that rains down. It is used to tremendous effect. That is one component of the design by Sutra Gilmour, a longtime collaborator of Jamie Lloyd. Sutra has designed the set and the costumes here. I love the costumes. I think they are fun. I think they are vibrant. I think they are whimsical. I love that Claudio is in this Disco 2 piece. Very familiar of what Kit Connor wore as Romeo in the recent Broadway Romeo and Juliet when he attended the Capulet ball. I love Hayley Atwell's brother bronze belted disco bell bottomish shimmery pantsuit. I think it's empowering. I think it's Beatrice. I like that she gets to wear a trouser. That feels important and correct. There's also a kinship between that and the satin almost pajama esque coordinated set that Tom Hiddleston's wearing. That's like a navy blue button up situation that he unbuttons at one point if that's reason enough to get you to buy a ticket. It's brief but it happens. There's just so many details in this costuming that tells you exactly who these charact are and tells you how to interpret them. Claudio wearing A T shirt that shows off, like, a little bit of midriff above his silver trousers. Hero in cute little shorts again in a matching set with, like, festival glittery makeup and, like, shimmery sparkly tights going on. The two of them are young and Gen Z and a little bit silly and charming. I think so often the costuming in Shakespearean productions really can lead the way. And, you know, there's been criticism of, like, this and the recent Romeo and Juliet, and it just being like, generic, fun, youthful vibes. But Shakespeare costuming, I think, is always about vibes. It's either historic, period, accurate vibes, or it's like Mute's generic contemporary vibes. Like in a lot of the Heitner productions, like in the one currently seen at the Bridge with Richard ii. Or you have something that is more vibrant, more queer, a little bit of a 90s throwback, even. I love it. I think it looks great and I think it helps the audience understand what they're looking at and enjoy it really quite quickly. Now, there is another of Jamie Lloyd's frequent collaborators who we really have to celebrate in this one. That is the choreographer Fabian Aloise, who you have to assume has been waiting for another opportunity to really put a lot of dance onto the stage because there wasn't as much in the Tempest, but boy, do they dance in this. And it's whimsical and it's funny, but it's also character driven because the way in which these characters dance, like the costuming, speaks to their personalities, speaks to these characterizations. When you have Hero and Claudio, like, grinding on each other, other, when you have Beatrice and Benedick in this performative dance off confrontation, but also Tom Hiddleston dancing in a way that is, like, legitimately charismatic and a little bit suave and impressive, but also that little bit silly, that little bit insincere, allowing us to laugh at him immediately, that's going to continue throughout the play. Heck, even Leonato, the father figure dad dancing. There has always been this relationship between Shakespearean performance and dance and choreography. And I love that it is so alive in this one. It feels so truthful to what this would have been and what it allows it to be now, has such a parallel to that. And like I mentioned before, it does sort of situate everything. Like it's happening on this slightly tipsy night out, like it's all playing out on a disco dance floor. We spend much time at this masquerade ball in the first act. I can't believe I haven't Spoken to you about the masks yet this is going back to Sutra Gilmour's design because there is always a role for masks in this play. But the masks have to obscure the identities of several characters. Because it's important that people don't understand who it is that they're actually speaking to or that some characters are aware who it is they're speaking to. But there has to be some level of confusion. There has to be some level of plausible ignorance. And so rather than just wearing tiny little masquerade masks that obviously don't hide anyone's identity. Identity. They have entire character heads that feel specifically familiar of the television show the Masked Singer. I would bet a large amount of money that that is the specific inspiration for these masks. For these character heads, you have a rabbit, you have a chick. It comes back later when Margaret is being used by Borachio to give the implication of hero to smear hero's goodness name. That's very clever. You also have, like a spaceman head. You have a cat and a dog. Obviously, that's Beatrice and Benedict. The whole cat and dog thing, that creative idea, like so much of this production, lives perfectly in the intersection of fun and witty and intelligent and meaningful and gets used brilliantly. Truly, I do not know what has happened in between Romeo and Juliet and the Tempest and this production. I don't know if it relates to some sort of personal awakening that Jamie Lloyd has had or. Or if he's just thrown his hands up in the air full of confetti and said, screw it, we're gonna have fun with this one. Because it is such a departure in so many ways. Not only the vibrancy of the color palette, not only all of the dancing and all of the music, but also just the idea of having these actors who six months ago were being filmed in close ups and walking around on the roof for no reason and holding microphones and whispering angrily while not looking at each other but staring, staring like, sullenly out into the auditorium. They are now embracing and kissing and hugging and dancing and twirling each other around. It is. Oh, my God, it's so much better. And there is a place, I think, in the right material for that other thing. And we can still have that brooding intensity and we can still have those stylistic choices and we can still have cameras. But I like that both things can exist. And I liked this very, very much. I am holding the program upside down. That is better. There is probably much more I could tell you about this. Exciting, hilarious, charming and passionate and romantic staging of my favorite Shakespearean play, but my my head is all a fluster with the enjoyment of it all. I had the best time watching this. I just love this. I would love to see it again. It is already very well sold. If you have been waiting, if you have been on the fence and not sure because of recent things about whether or not to get your tickets, I'm here to tell you this one's really, really good. Get your tickets. And if, like myself, you have seen it already, let us all know what you thought of it in the comments section down below. Particularly if your thoughts were different to those that I have shared in this review. But if you have enjoyed this review, make sure also to subscribe right here on YouTube. Turn on notifications so you don't miss my upcoming reviews or follow me on podcast platforms. Thank you so much for listening to this one. I hope you've enjoyed and that you are staying safe and you have Have a stagey day. For 10 more seconds, I'm Mickey Jo Theatre. Oh my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a Stagey Day. Subscribe.
