A Big Ado About Something

Unlike George and Jerry’s pilot episode, Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing is about something. Boy meets girl, boy and girl get engaged, evil Don John tricks boy into thinking someone is shagging girl, girl fakes death, the truth is revealed, and Dogberry saves the day. It’s a little more action than you find in your average day, and you can experience it at the end of one by going to New Theatre’s Shakespeare Festival.

“We started off doing Shakespeare’s Hamlet in the summer of 2002, and we have done two to three Shakespeare plays in the summer ever since,” explains the theater’s managing director, Eileen Suarez. “It was formally called the Shakespeare Project, which we now changed to the Shakespeare Festival.” Also playing in rotating repertory is the Bard’s The Winter’s Tale, an almost polar (wink, wink) opposite from the comedic Much Ado (despite the drab summary, it is a comedy). Though Winter’s Tale is still set in good old Sicily and Bohemia, Much Ado has been adapted to take place in 2006 Miami. The festival runs through August 27. Showtimes are Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8:00 p.m.; Sundays at 1:00 and 7:00 p.m. Tickets cost $55 for tonight’s pre-opening-night show and reception; regular tickets cost $40, $15 for students. Call 305-443-5909, or visit www.new-theatre.org for a complete schedule.
Thursdays-Sundays. Starts: Aug. 3. Continues through Aug. 27