Musical Staging is no Labour's Lost

It seems so easy: take a play with engaging characters whose motivations and contradictions are quickly comprehensible. Add a gifted composer and an incredibly talented director who also writes delicious dialogue. Add to this a group of performers, mostly quite young, who are so versatile and likable that we audience members instantly love them and want them to do well. Then add production values that are solid and professional but do not scream “Concept!” Blend well, rehearse for a few weeks, and then—presto!—you have a magical night of musical theater.

Such was the case with Love’s Labour’s Lost, the early Shakespeare play that has been transformed into a musical enchantment presented by the Public Theater as part of its annual summer season at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. The show only runs through Sunday [which is tomorrow] but merits another life in an indoor space. It won’t have quite the sense of idyll that a beautiful night in the park provides, but that will be compensated for by the intimacy that a theater can offer.

So writes Fred Plotkin in Shakespeare, Musical Muse.  I enjoyed his writing thoroughly, not only for the unapologetic passion he experienced from this musical staging of "Love's Labour's Lost," but also for the context and background he offered on Shakespeare-cum-opera.

Shakespeare’s plays, with their gorgeous language, are not always congenial for musical adaptation. The music of the words sometimes overwhelms the music itself. The text also asks the performers to not only sing well but recite the words in meaningful ways. The words also pose challenges for composers whose melodies are forced to conform to (or go against) the meter of the original Shakespearean text.

And yet, the stories and characters in Shakespeare are among the most suitable of all for adapting to musical theater because they are so vivid and, yes, human. To me, the best musical adaptations of Shakespeare plays are the ones that draw from the essences of the characters and the strong points of the dramatic plotting to create a new work. Think of how "Romeo and Juliet" became a wonderful template for "West Side Story," even though Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim did not slavishly imitate the Shakespeare play. I think this worked at least as well as Bellini’s "I Capuleti e i Montecchi" and Gounod’s "Roméo et Juliette."

Below was a sneak peek of the performers singing pieces from the musical.  They were very much still in rehearsal, back in May, but I love their public display of it.  The age of social media makes it such a curiosity and delight to have this behind-the-scenes look.  Clearly the performers enjoyed what they did and even how the audience teased them.

Finally, it's been such a long time since I read "Love's Labour's Lost."  It wasn't part of the curriculum for any of my Shakespeare classes at Northwestern University.  I read it on the side, so it didn't have the kind of thorough study I had with "Hamlet" or "The Tempest."  I therefore appreciate this audiobook of the entire play, plus the synopsis, on YouTube.

The play opens with the King of Navarre and three noble companions, Berowne, Dumaine, and Longaville, taking an oath to devote themselves to three years of study, promising not to give in to the company of women -- Berowne somewhat more hesitantly than the others. Berowne reminds the king that the princess and her three ladies are coming to the kingdom and it would be suicidal for the King to agree to this law. The King denies what Berowne says, insisting that the ladies make their camp in the field outside of his court. The King and his men meet the princess and her ladies. Instantly, they all fall comically in love. 

The main story is assisted by many other humorous sub-plots. A rather heavily-accented Spanish swordsman, Don Adriano de Armado, tries and fails to woo a country wench, Jaquenetta, helped by Moth, his page, and rivalled by Costard, a country idiot. We are also introduced to two scholars, Holofernes and Sir Nathaniel, and we see them converse with each other in schoolboy Latin. In the final act, the comic characters perform a play to entertain the nobles, an idea conceived by Holofernes, where they represent the Nine Worthies. The four Lords -- as well as the Ladies' courtier Boyet -- mock the play, and Armado and Costard almost come to blows. 

At the end of this 'play' within the play, there is a bitter twist in the story. News arrives that the Princess's father has died and she must leave to take the throne. The king and his nobles swear to remain faithful to their ladies, but the ladies, unconvinced that their love is that strong, claim that the men must wait a whole year and a day to prove what they say is true. This is an unusual ending for Shakespeare and Elizabethan comedy. A play mentioned by Francis Meres, Love's Labour's Won, is believed by some to be a sequel to this play.