Combine the mischief and mayhem of fairies with the magic of Tinseltown, and the result is a comedic effort to bring the Bard to the big screen.
“The problem we’ve got with this play is that it is so funny, that you don’t wait for laughs, because if you do, you’ll never finish the play,” director Dennis Brown said. “It’s just one laugh from the next. It is continuously funny.”
Vero Voce’s production of “Shakespeare in Hollywood” opens Friday at the St. Charles theater. Performances, which run through Oct. 18, are at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 6 p.m. Sundays.
Written by award-winning playwright Ken Ludwig, whose famous works include “Lend Me a Tenor” and “Be My Baby,” the farce is set in 1934 Hollywood and features characters that were real Hollywood figures at the time, such as James Cagney, Dick Powell and Max Reinhardt.
In the play, stage actor Reinhardt just completed a production of William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in the theater. Having enjoyed the experience and show so much, he thought it would translate to a movie and pitches the idea to Jack Warner of Warner Bros. Studios, Brown said. While Warner is skeptical, his mistress, who wants a leading role in the film, talks him into the plan.
“They decide to produce the show called ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ against the better judgment of Warner Bros. Studio,” Brown said. “And while they’re in the process of beginning the show, the real Oberon and Puck turn up, having taken a wrong turn on their journey to the forest outside Athens.”
The duo, fairies in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” finds themselves inside the movie studio, on the set of the film.
“So we now have the real Oberon and the real Puck, in the real story, in the midst of all these Hollywood actors trying to put on ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ in the movies in 1934,” Brown said. “Lots of fun ensues. It’s hilarious. We are having so much fun producing it and making sure it does so much justice to the author.”
Ludwig’s play, which was commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company, won the Helen Hayes Award for Best New Play of the Year in 2004.
“There’s a lot of twists and turns in the plots of people falling in and out of love because of flowers that are magical that are produced by Oberon and Puck,” Brown said. “And Puck himself falls in love himself with someone — a human — who happens to be the leading lady of the show, then is called back to his own forest outside of Athens and has to leave.”
Appropriate for teen through adult audiences, Brown said the show would have a PG-13 rating.
“There is one naughty word that is used, and lot of sexual innuendo that goes on,” Brown said. “There is one major naughty word that is used, rather important to the plot, but nevertheless it’s there and I always recommend that people are aware of that.”
The play features a cast of 12, which includes Brown after he stepped into a role when the actor originally cast had to leave. There were actually a couple of roles in the show that had to be recast because of conflicts with actors’ work schedules.
“I thought we were going to have ‘that Scottish play’s’ problem, but we didn’t. We’re OK,” Brown said. “We managed to find what we needed to do the show. And the actors that we have are so good.”
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While Brown is “having more fun than I can possibly say,” being on stage, it can be challenging to both direct and act in the play, he said.
“I really love acting, I really do. It’s very difficult to direct and be in the show,” Brown said. “The director’s job is to basically see the show from the audience’s eyes. And if you’re on the stage, of course you can’t do that. And that’s why a director exists. It’s really to make sure the truism and realism of the show comes through to the audience.”
He said is “so fortunate to be able to direct this group of players,” who are doing a great job.
“We have such a band of actors doing this, that the experience is astounding. And what they’re doing with the show, as a director I don’t have to do anything. I just watch them and they do it themselves,” Brown said. “My job’s just to say ‘perhaps you can tweak that there, or this might work a little bit better.’ But most of the time I just sit back and laugh, because I’m having so much fun.”
Audience members will have a good time as well, he said.
“I can guarantee people will enjoy the evening out at the theater with this one,” Brown said.
Kathy Cichon is a freelance reporter for the Beacon News.
“Shakespeare in Hollywood”
When: Oct. 2-18
Where: Vero Voce Theatre, 951 State Ave., Suite F, St. Charles
Tickets: $20 adult; $18 senior/student; $12 child
Information: 630-584-0139 or verovoce.com