By Rom Watson
c. September 15, 2015
These Paper Bullets opened at The Geffen Playhouse on September 16. I saw the second preview performance on Sept. 9, and it was very ragged. There were numerous technical glitches, and the turntable embedded in the set seemed to get slower each time it revolved. The audience response was tepid.
Though billed as “a modish rip off of William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing,” it doesn’t feel like a rip off, nor an adaptation. It feels like Much Ado About Nothing, albeit with mod trappings. Set in London in 1964, Jessica Ford’s costumes for the women are often fun and deliberately garish. The costumes for the men are blah in comparison, with some in need of pressing. The unit set is serviceable but disjointed.
The show is peppered with faux-Beatles songs, written by Billie Joe Armstrong and performed by the faux-Beatles in the cast, Pedro, Claude, Balth and Ben. The four actors are attempting to be the rock band the script calls for, and perhaps in a few weeks they’ll be up to par, but the numbers did not have the verve and panache they require to be convincing.
The songs themselves are the least impressive part of the show. They succeed as the pastiche they are meant to be, but unfortunately they don’t sound like Billie Joe Armstrong songs. For those of us who admire his songwriting, and who bought a ticket based on his involvement, that is a big disappointment indeed.
The cast is talented, with Nicole Parker and Justin Kirk faring best as Bea and Ben. I would like to see this cast, especially Nick Ullett, in a traditional version of Much Ado About Nothing. Everyone on stage appears to be having fun, and a little of that fun trickles into the audience, but These Paper Bullets is apparently one of those shows that’s more fun to be in than it is to watch.
In updating the play, Rolin Jones has incorporated not only the manners and dress of 1964 London, but also the shallowness and brittleness of that era, which does not blend well with the warm-hearted source material.
What’s best about this production is the Shakespeare that shines through the updating. In fact, the main pleasure of seeing it was being reminded that I like Much Ado About Nothing, which I had not seen since the excellent production at South Coast Repertory Theatre in 2001. These Paper Bullets, (the title comes from one of Ben’s monologues), is difficult to recommend. This version of Much Ado About Nothing retains too much Shakespeare to appeal to those who find his plays enervating, and not enough Shakespeare to appeal to those who find his plays invigorating.
Nice work! Thanks for the heads up. Though I love Shakespeare, especially Much Ado, I will probably miss it intentionally… sort of messing with a classic… 8^)
I saw a preview too… maybe the same one, Rom. I agree the timing was off; there were technical glitches and I was disappointed that the music didn’t have a greater part in the show. On the other hand, sometimes I was extremely impressed by Jones’ modernized verse … he can have a real dexterity with language. Some of the choices in writing and directing were both brilliant and then alternately flat-footed (or should I say club footed?), e.g. the puking scene. I came to a different conclusion for what would improve the show, though for the same reason: the show was so much Much Ado, I thought it would work better if it was less slavish to the plot, shaved a half hour off the show and was more itself… the disjunct between the 60’s setting and the original would have been less pronounced. But yes, as the play stands now, I agree, the original Shakespeare ends up outshining the Mod-ish rip-off and this cast probably would do well in a traditional Much Ado.