Staff Writer Abigail Curd reviews Jamie Lloyd’s ongoing production of Much Ado About Nothing, highlighting both its successes and areas of disappointment.
When it was announced that award-winning director Jamie Lloyd would be putting on two Shakespeare plays at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ came as a surprise. Lloyd is known for his pared-back sets, monochrome colour palettes, and experimental direction. Shakespeare’s comedies, on the other hand, are known for their song, dance, and of course their humour. ‘The Tempest’ seemed a much more fitting play for his style. It has come as a surprise, then, that ‘Much Ado’ turned out to be the better of the two, praised by critics and loved by audiences alike.
After ‘The Tempest’ opened to poor reviews, especially regarding Sigourney Weaver’s flat performance as Prospero, it has to be said that expectations were low for ‘Much Ado.’ Lloyd’s style was clearly the weakest point of the production. His work always favours his own iconic style over the actual content of the play, but it was especially stark here.
Nevertheless, Lloyd’s penchant for stunt casting paid off. It stars Tom Hiddleston (known for his role as Loki in the Marvel movies) as Benedick and Hayley Atwell (another Marvel alumnus) as Beatrice. The audience especially loved Hiddleston, employing copious amounts of charisma and flaunting his famous smile throughout.
It seems that, in the 2020s, every play needs a celebrity or two to sell tickets. Walking around the West End, the theatres are plastered with the names of various famous people. Stunt casting has always been a risk, as was plain to see in Weaver’s performance in ‘The Tempest’.
Thankfully this was not the case here. Hiddleston, who had his started out playing supporting roles in ‘Cymbeline’ and ‘Othello’ and trained at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), knows his way around Shakespeare.
Of course, ‘Much Ado’ relies on the performances of its two leads, and Atwell did not let the side down. Her Beatrice was strong and funny. The true test of any Beatrice is the ‘I would eat his heart in the marketplace’ speech, and she held her own against her predecessors in the role.
Some of the cast from ‘The Tempest’ carried over to ‘Much Ado’. And, just as in ‘The Tempest’, the standout supporting performer was Mason Alexander Park, this time as Margaret, a friend of Beatrice. They provide musical interludes between the scenes- this show has a soundtrack of 90s and 00s pop hits which had the audience dancing in their seats.
The heavily teased choreography did not disappoint, although at moments it felt like it was relying too hard on the novelty of watching famous people dance than on creating something new and unique. The costumes were nothing special, and it was disappointing that there were no costume changes at all for the two leads.
Lloyd himself drags this production down. Except for a massive inflatable love heart and a few plastic chairs, which felt more school drama club than West End production, the set was bare. Pink confetti fell from the ceiling throughout. This made one of the most famous, and important, sequences of ‘Much Ado’ fall flat. The supporting cast trick Benedick and Beatrice into thinking the other is in love with them, and other productions use these two scenes to show off their lead’s physical comedy. Unfortunately, the bare set meant Hiddleston had exhausted all the possibilities for hiding and sneaking around. Atwell, and indeed the audience, lost this second brilliant comedic scene, and it is a great disappointment.
The script was trimmed to the bare bones of the story. There was no Dogberry, the incompetent yet self-important constable, to be seen. Lloyd knows what the audience is here for and unfortunately this meant that this subplot had to be dropped. Like most productions of ‘Much Ado’, the focus was squarely on Benedick and Beatrice’s relationship, a factor enhanced by the casting.
Although this production will never make it into the annals of great ‘Much Ado-s’ (a personal favourite is the 2011 version, with David Tennant and Catherine Tate), surely the whole team is relieved that this was not a second dud for the Jamie Lloyd Company. As well as the Broadway production, brought over from the West End, of Sunset Boulevard, it has recently been announced that Lloyd will return to the West End with a production of Evita with Rachel Zegler in the titular role. It is clear Lloyd is showing no sign of stopping his domination of the West End stage.
