Much Ado About Nothing | Theatre Royal Drury Lane | ★★★★★
Jamie Lloyd’s production of Much Ado About Nothing is a blockbuster of such proportions the entire street outside the Theatre Royal Drury Lane was closed so fans could gather en masse to catch a glimpse of Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell.
The festival vibe continues inside, where 90s dance music pumps through the foyers and stairwells of London’s most beautiful theatre. Even the ushers wielding “TURN YOUR PHONE OFF” signs throw some shapes. The message is clear: this is the Bard staged for the sole purpose of giving everyone a jolly good time.
And boy does it deliver.
I’m not sure I’ve ever grinned quite so widely through a production (doubly impressive given I’m something of a sceptic when it comes to Shakespeare’s comedies). From the moment Hiddleston, Atwell and the rest of the cast burst onto the stage through a candyfloss whirlwind of pink confetti to the strains of Fight for Your Right, you just know Lloyd has created something special.
The machinations of the play largely take a backseat to the overall spectacle: this is all about good, silly fun. There’s a bubbly chemistry between Atwell and Hiddleston’s Beatrice and Benedick, whose good-natured bickering is genuinely charming. Will they, wont they? Of course they will! And they’ll look fantastic as they do it! Even the villainous Don John, who attempts to sabotage the parallel romance between Claudio and Hero is played for laughs, with his dry, catty asides and string of pearls.
Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell in Jamie Lloyd’s production of Much Ado About Nothing
Lloyd was recently parodied in the Inside No.9 stage show for overusing using live video in his productions but there is no such visual trickery here. Indeed the vast Theatre Royal stage is virtually bare apart from a huge inflatable heart, a few plastic chairs and a mountain of confetti. It’s difficult to overstate just how much confetti this production gets through – it’s forever raining bright pink wads of the stuff, which occasionally builds to a joyful deluge. Characters bury themselves beneath it, chuck fistfuls at each other, end up with it stuck in their hair and plastered on their faces.
The staging has the vibe of a 1990s gay club, with everyone dressed in fabulous outfits in various shades of pick ‘n’ mix. Occasionally they all don giant animal heads – dogs and cats and octopi – a surreal, psychedelic take on the traditional masked ball. Mason Alexander Park often takes centre stage as Margaret, ostensibly one of Hero’s entourage but reimagined from the ground up as a crooning cabaret singer, setting the tone with some cracking takes on club classics, including a heartfelt version of Taylor Dayne’s Tell It to My Heart.
There’s a slight tension in the second half between the play’s more problematic and overwrought scenes – a father threatening to kill his daughter because he thinks she’s been shagging around, for instance – and the unrelentingly camp tone of this production. But we’re soon back to the candyfloss bliss of clubland, watching Hiddleston grin his way through some seriously impressive dance moves, forever breaking the fourth wall, the audience lapping it up. “I am loved of all ladies,” he beams while cupping his ear to the screaming crowd.
This Much Ado About Nothing isn’t concerned with life’s Big Questions, and that’s just fine. Sometimes the only question that matters is whether Tom Hiddleston can twerk. And like most things in Lloyd’s glitterbomb production, the answer is: yes. Yes! YES!