Shakespeare Says Love is Hard Work

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Last week's post got me thinking about the wealth of source material that Shakespeare has provided for musicals. West Side Story, All Shook Up, The Lion King, and Kiss Me, Kate all owe their storyline to the Bard. I'm not going to talk about any of those shows just yet, but wanted to focus on one of my favorites that never played on the Great White Way.

Love's Labour's Lost was adapted by Michael Friedman and Alex Timbers (of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson fame) in 2013 for The Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park and I cannot rave enough about it. It utilizes the existing Shakespearean text while adding new songs that are funny and beautiful. I am definitely of the belief that more community theaters should be doing Shakespeare on the regular because it's great stuff, but I understand that it's not going to bring in the buckaroos like a musical can. So this seems like a pretty good compromise. Also, I think the songs in this show can help add some clarity to the plot for those that have a hard time with Shakespeare. 

Quickly summarized, Love's Labour's Lost is about love and how it kind of messes up your best laid plans. The King of Navarre and his three companions swear an oath to stay away from women for three years of studying and fasting, but all that goes awry when they meet the Princess of France and her three companions. These two groups all end up falling in love but don't want to admit it because it's a betrayal of their sworn oath. This particular Shakespearean comedy ends kind of strangely in that it ends with a death rather than a wedding, but I think that difference makes it all the more interesting and sweet.

You can see a few excerpts of songs from the video below, but because I love you I put a playlist of the entire OCR (Original Cast Recording) from Spotify below. I would check out "Love's a Gun" and "Stop Your Heart" for the ladies. All of the men's songs are hilarious and therefore I cannot pick a favorite, but maybe "I Love Cats."

What are your favorite musicals adapted from good ol' Will Shakes?



Hooked yet?
(The rights are available right here just in case anyone who reads this is someone who makes important decisions like that for a local theatre as I am not one of those people, but would love to be in this show. Thankyouforlistening).

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