***** First of all, I know that many of you are NOT lovers of the works of William Shakespeare. The language is only part of it, but as a lover of theater and in particular the works of the “Bard”, I am happy that the theater world has found a way to make Shakespeare more “audience-friendly” by adding music to the story and updating much of the language and characters. A few years back, they added music of “The Beatles” and now they have found a way to mix music from the creators of  “Suffs” ( Shaina Taub- music & lyrics) adapted by Taub and Laurie Woolery, and put on the stage at Writers Theatre by Braden Abraham. I must tell you, this is not your old “As You Like It”, and will bring those who shy away from his works, to them. This is magical theater!

“As You Like It” is a story that could have been written in the 1500’s and first published in the “First Folio” in 1623. The basic story is about our heroine, Rosalind ( in this version played with the perfect attitude, and a lovely singing voice by Phoebe Gonzalez). She is fleeing persecution in her uncle’s court ( in this version, the Duke Frederick, deftly handled by Scott Aiello). Her cousin Celia ( a marvelous sidekick role played to perfection by Andrea San Miguel). Rosalind pretends to be a man so she and her cousin can move safely through the woods to end up in the Forest of Arden.

This is followed in this production with many sidetracks along the way, where we slowly meet the other characters. The opening ( and as it turns out closing) song is “All The World Is A Stage” ( our narrator is the very personable Matthew C. Yee) and we also have some power from Paul Oakley Stovall as Duke Senior , Rosalind’s dad, the exiled Duke! There are a number of little stories contained within the whole, involving two brothers as well. Oliver ( Armand Nagraj) and his younger brother Orlando ( an incredible job by Benjamin Mathew) who becomes the man that Rosalind has set her eyes on. As the play goes on, we find all of the characters with the exception of the Dukes and Jaques ( Yee) finding love and a mate. It is how they all come together and the type of pairing off that makes this production one for the mass audience.

The ensemble is powerful and able to sing, dance and often play an instrument. Actors like Janet Ulrich Brooks, Elisa Carlson, Matt Edmonds, Elliott Esquivel, The hilarious Jackson Evans, Torrey Hanson, Grace Steckler, Jeff Rodriguez and Dakota Hughes- a terrific ensemble that I am certain Abraham, and choreographer Erin Kilmurray enjoyed working with. The musical direction was placed in the hands of Michael Mahler, who has no boundaries. He is amazing!

On the tech side, this is a play with hardly any set , but Jacelyn Stewart and Sara Ryung Clement found a way to make us see things that were only spoken about, but with the aid of the actors, moving things with great ease. Raquel Adorno’s costumes were modern, which is what this adaptation was all about. This was not the 1600’s, but rather almost today and perhaps Arden is in reality a forest preserve out near O’Hare Airport. Max Fabian handled the intimacy and violence choreography. I must tell you there are three powerful wrestling matches that I found quite realistic. The props were done by Rae Wilson and the lighting by Eric Southern and Daphne Agosin, with sound by Lindsay Jones.

“As You Like It” is truly a story about love and friendship. It talks about friendship and brings it to a much higher degree than most of us look at it. These characters find themselves accepting those who threatened their very existence, but to use one of Shakespeare’s other titles, “Alls Well That Ends Well”!

” As You Like It” will continue thru December 14th with performances as follows: