Funk It Up About Nothin’ Chicago Shakespeare Theater
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The show’s Chicago-bred author-director-stars Jeffrey and Gregory Qaiyum—aka JQ and GQ—are smart young men, and their stated goal of putting “Shakespeare in the hands of everyone, from profs to pimps to punks to poets” is admirable. If you believe that the Bard is the bedrock of Western literature, it’s even necessary. But in compressing Much Ado into a 70-minute rap musical, the Q brothers have dispensed with Shakespeare’s language—and, more important, with the complexity of thought, emotion, and character that goes with it.
The plot comes pretty much straight from the source. It concerns two couples—the romantic Claudio and Hero and the bickering Benedick and Beatrice—whose relationships are shaped and twisted by friends and foes. Claudio and Benedick, originally soldiers back from a victorious military campaign, are now rappers returned from a successful tour. Claudio falls in love with Hero, the innocent daughter of the elderly Leonato, and they plan to marry. But the wedding’s off when a jealous rival, Don John, tricks Claudio into thinking Hero’s not a virgin. Meanwhile, Benedick verbally spars with Hero’s cousin Beatrice, now called MC Lady B; neither wants to admit being in love for fear of being rejected. It’s up to the other characters to make these two couples overcome their misunderstandings and their pride.
Postell Pringle doubles as a macho rap star and a flamboyantly gay cop. Hunky Jackson Doran and petite Elizabeth Ledo make an improbably perfect couple as Claudio and Hero. Doran also does a nice John Wayne parody as the traveling judge who presides over Hero and Claudio’s wedding. The fact that Doran can’t possibly play both Claudio and the judge in the same scene gives the actors a chance to break character and snicker at the show’s silliness—one of those pandering Carol Burnett/Jimmy Fallon bits: I can’t keep a straight face, I’m gonna crack up onstage, oh gee I’m a real person just like you. It’s cheesy, but it gets a laugh.
