Review: In ‘As You Like It’ at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, the Beatles meet the Bard and it’s a terrific party

Back in 1964, the Beatles took part in a spoof of Act 5, Scene 1 of William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” for Britain’s ITV network. For the record, Paul McCartney played Pyramus, John Lennon played Thisbe, George Harrison essayed Moonshine and Ringo Starr played the lion.

Yup. Really happened. They wore the traditional doublet and hose.

And as the “Beatles Bible” helpfully notes, McCartney even later named his cat Thisbe. Perhaps there’s a clue there as to how why McCartney has been talking of late as to who really broke up the band.

Either way, it’s certainly prima facie evidence of a bonafide connection between the Bards of Stratford-upon-Avon and Liverpool, as now exploited by the adaptive director Daryl Cloran, who has stuffed 23 Beatles songs inside the comedic vessel known as “As You Like It.”

This is how it goes: You get most of the traditional story, scenes and characters but then, at various points, characters break into everything from “Let it Be” to “When I’m 64,” as accompanied by a live band on stage.

It’s like a Shakespearean version of “Mamma Mia!” Only the Beatles were better lyricists than ABBA.

And this entire show works way, way better than at least this critic imagined it would. In fact, 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.

“Little darling, it’s been a long cold lonely winter. Little darling, it seems like years since it’s been here. Here comes the sun do, do, do. Here comes the sun. And I say it’s all right ...”

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

How is all this achieved? First, Cloran makes sure that the show is genuinely funny. And let’s be honest, most productions of “As You Like It” are not exactly knee-slappers. But this one has some exceptionally adept comic performers, especially Kayvon Khoshkam, whose exquisitely timed, emcee-like, tickling stick of a Touchstone comes off as a manic version of Elton John and really anchors the show.

Heidi Kettenring (who plays Phoebe, et al), Lachrisa Grandberry (Audrey) and Melanie Brezill (Celia) also keep the laughs coming, as does the band, posing on and off their podium to do their stuff. The milieu, as gorgeously rendered in Carmen Alatorre’s costumes) is one of wacky 1960s pageantry, replete with a psychedelic set from Pam Johnson. Much of the singing is a blast. Liam Quealy, who plays Orlando, drives his way through songs like “Do You Want to Know a Secret?” and “Can’t Buy Me Love.” He is also a very generous performance, since he helps Lakeisha Renee (Rosalind), a less confident vocalist but charming actor, find her way into the show’s musical demands.

But at the same time, Cloran (who co-conceived this show with the savvy Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival) doesn’t neglect the play’s emotional resonance. In this employ, he relies heavily on Kevin Gudahl (Duke Frederick) and, especially, Deborah Hay, who plays the sardonic Jacques.

Hay’s rendition of the famous “all the world’s a stage” monologue truly is a jaw-dropper. Looking like a Warholian Cassandra, Hay switches the mood of the theater on a dime and reminds us first why it remains important that we still have something called Chicago Shakespeare Theater and, second, that the big laughs of life invariably are undercut by the decline and death that awaits us all. As the actor Anthony Hopkins once remarked, “none of us are getting out of here alive,” and that awareness is a constituent part of all Shakespeare, comedies or otherwise.

Happily, it’s a consciousness that also shoots through Beatles lyrics, making the essential that this combination meal comes with thematic logic.

The best example of how Cloran puts things together? Jacques moving from “second childishness and mere oblivion” to “The Fool on the Hill.”

Hearing those two great artistic achievements together is alone worth the price of admission.

Ergo, you get a very accessible show (ideal for kids and teens who otherwise hate Shakespeare) and poignant resonances for the Shakespeare superfans. No small feat, that. Most productions manage only one. Plenty neither.

Other theaters already have this show on their docket. It’s a fine candidate, in fact, for Broadway.

Sure, you don’t get the whole play, but you don’t miss the rest (and rest assured it is still there for next time). The show finds just the right self-referential tone: characters say they are going to go hide “because it’s Shakespeare.” But unlike so many other textual mashups at this and other theaters, this one comes with a remarkable sense of unity, as if you can’t quite tell where the Bard is ending and contemporary lines beginning.

That’s because the Beatles were, of course, poets on a Shakespearean level, similar masters of high- and low-comedy, of sadness and ecstasy, joy and rebellion, populism and formative experimentation.

And, like Shakespeare, they knew all you need is love.

You know, given all the givens right now.

Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.

cjones5@chicagotribune.com

Review: “As You Like It”

When: Through Nov. 21

Where: Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier

Running time: 2 hours, 40 minutes

Tickets:$49-$90 at 312-595-5600 or www.chicagoshakes.com

COVID protocol: Audience members must provide proof of vaccination, or a negative COVID-19 PCR test from the last 72 hours, or a negative COVID-19 antigen from the last 6 hours. Masks required in the theater.