"A total blast": Chicago can't get enough of Bard on the Beach's Beatles-driven As You Like It
Reviewers south of the border are giving thumbs up to director Daryl Cloran’s hit
Touchstone (Vancouver’s Kayvon Khoshkam) falls hard for the goatherd Audrey (Lachrisa Grandberry) in Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s new version of Bard on the Beach’s biggest hit show, As You Like It. Photo by Liz Lauren.
WITH THE RETURN of live theatre south of the border, a Bard on the Beach mega-hit is wowing reviewers.
The technicolour 1960s-set rendition of As You Like It, adapted and directed by Daryl Cloran and driven by more than 23 Beatles songs, is receiving solid thumbs up in a production by Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Cloran (artistic director of Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre) and Vancouver’s Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival receive top billing for conceiving the project together.
The Chicago Tribune’s Chris Jones has written, “Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s production on Navy Pier is a total blast, a pandemic-blasting gust of fresh, joyous air that does the spirit good.” He reserves special props for original cast member Kayvon Khoshkam, who Vancouverites will remember as the groovified, Austin Powers-styled court-jester Touchstone: his “exquisitely timed, emcee-like, tickling stick of a Touchstone comes off as a manic version of Elton John and really anchors the show”.
At the Chicago Sun-Times, the headline calls the show a “fab pairing of the Beatles and the Bard”": “Audiences are eager for light-hearted entertainment, and this delivers.”
Broadway World praises the design elements, especially Carmen Alatorre’s costumes and Pam Johnson’s sets: “Cloran's vision and the design elements work in tandem to make the Shakespeare-meets-the-Beatles storytelling come to life in the most entertaining way.”
Back in the summer of 2018 when the show debuted in Vanier Park, long before anyone had heard of COVID, Bard on the Beach artistic director Christopher Gaze called the rendition of As You Like It “an unprecedented hit”. The show—and season—broke the festival’s previous attendance records. Due to popular demand, As You Like It kept selling out and was extended through September that year due to popular demand. The show ended up winning an Outstanding Production of a Musical award at the Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards ceremony the following summer.
All of this has to be a much-needed burst of good news for Bard on the Beach, which has faced two summers of cancellations of in-person performances. The musical runs at the CST's Courtyard Theater all the way to November 21, with pandemic safety measures in place.
Related Articles
