Good morning, all! Last night I got hooked watching the Joseph Papp production of Much Ado About Nothing, which I hadn't seen since a PBS broadcast around 1975 or so. It's set in 1912 or thereabouts and directed much like a musical so it's reminiscent of The Music Man, and director A.J. Anton, keeping the turn-of-the-century Americana, has several silent film sequences, the Keystone Kops, and some funny business.
My friends April Shawnan and Barnard Hughes are both in it, and I really enjoyed seeing it again. Peter Link's ragtime score is quite wonderful, and the choreography by Donald Saddler and Helen Gallagher - waltzes, the Castle Walk, and the turkey trot - are as graceful as Theoni Aldredge's costumes.
I will shortly head down to Toyland to put the orchestra books together. I have no idea how long that will take;