Much Ado ´Bout Nothin’, Y’all

Theater companies have long experimented with setting the works of William Shakespeare in new locales. For the seventh annual Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis, director Jane Page has taken Much Ado About Nothing and moved the setting from a sixteenth-century Italian town to the wild west of late-nineteenth-century America. Fortunately, comedies about mistaken identity, stubborn lovers and joyous weddings can work in any time or place, so trading bodices for cowboy boots should be an easy transition. (And, at long last, Sheriff Dogberry seems appropriately named.) The Shakespeare Festival takes place nightly atop Art Hill in Forest Park from Friday, May 25, through Sunday, June 17 (please note, there are no performances on Tuesday). Much Ado begins at 8 p.m. and is preceded by the Green Show at 6:30 p.m., a pre-show event featuring jugglers, musicians and a twenty-minute abridged version of the play entitled Much a Doo-Wop About Nothing. Admission is free. For more information call 314-531-9800 or visit www.sfstl.com.
Mondays, Wednesdays-Sundays. Starts: May 25. Continues through June 17