These Paper Bullets! – Atlantic Theater Company, New York

(left to right) James Barry, Christopher Geary, Bryan Fenkart, Lucas Papaelias and Justin Kirk These Paper Bullets! at the Atlantic Theater Company, New York. Picture: Ahron Foster

These Paper Bullets! continues at the Atlantic Theater Company, New York until 10 January.

Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩

William Shakespeare has long proven to be a proficient collaborator for creators of musical theatre. So, there’s not much new in that regard about These Paper Bullets!, a new Off-Broadway adaptation of the Bard of Avon’s Much Ado About Nothing. What’s notable is the enthusiasm and freshness playwright Rolin Jones, director Jackson Gay and an ebulliently gifted cast have brought to the task.

An ingenious writer for both stage and television, Jones has moved Will’s battling lovebirds Beatrice and Benedick and their whole gang to 1964 oh-so-Mod London. Benedick is now Ben (Justin Kirk); he’s a member of the greatest rock band to ever come out of Liverpool, a four-man ensemble with mop-like haircuts known as – no, not The Beatles, but in a cagey Shakespearean reference – The Quartos. When he’s not making music, Ben spends his time trading insults with the tart-tongued Bea (Nicole Parker), a designer of fabulous mod fashions. They obviously have a great chemistry that somewhere in the past went awry; it takes the whole play and the conniving of their friends to get them romantically together again.

Also prominent in the plotting is Claude (Bryan Fenkart), another band member, whose love for Bea’s cousin, a perky model named not Twiggy but Higgy (Ariana Venturi), goes sour when a villain named Don Best (Adam O’Byrne) falsely defames her chastity. Best was once the drummer for The Beatles – oops, sorry, The Quartos – but was replaced by his brother Pedro (James Barry), who is simply a much better drummer. Completing the musical quartet is Balth (Lucas Papaelias), whose main function, outside of joining in vocals and playing a mean guitar, is making wry observations about all the hubbub around him.

The hubbub is heightened by some bumbling Scotland Yard detectives (Greg Stuhr, Christopher Geary and Tony Manna), out to determine what’s making British youth so unruly. They are Jones’ take on Shakespeare’s inept policeman Dogberry and his crew. Geary takes on a couple of other roles, including none other than Elizabeth II. Among others cavorting through the hijinks are Higgy’s uncouth gal pal Ulcie (Keira Naughton); Higgy’s dad, Leon, who owns London’s luxury hotel Messina (Stephen DeRosa); the gossip journalist Boris (Andrew Musselman) who gets mixed up in Don Best’s villainy; an intrepid BBC reporter (Liz Wisan), and finally the marrying reverend (Brad Heberlee).

The show’s score is by Billie Joe Armstrong, front man for Green Day, the rock band whose music inspired the Broadway musical American Idiot.  Armstrong has written some eight or so songs that delightfully capture early Beatles style, and they’re performed with infectious gusto and joyful musicianship by the guys portraying The Quartos.

The one problem with the songs is that there isn’t enough of them. Jones’ script is quite knowing in mashing up Shakespearean plot, language and wit with a contemporary sensibility, while also sending up the foibles of Swinging London. It’s a ploy carried through in Jessica Ford’s comical costumes and the cartoon-like cityscapes depicted in Michael Yeargan’s sets and Nicholas Hussong’s projections. Director Gay adds to the jokes with a variety of sight gags. Nevertheless, there are times that the show could have used another song or two, times when the farce is extended almost – but not quite – to the point of running out of petrol. The relative skimpiness of the score may be one reason the show’s publicity identifies it as ‘a play with music’ rather than a musical.

Whatever you want to call it, though, both the breezy literary playfuylness and buoyant music of These Paper Bullets! add up to a lot of Shakespeare-inspired musical theatre-type enjoyment. It may not have the sophistication of Kiss Me, Kate or the drama of West Side Story, but it hits its target with an abundance of sometimes snarky but often adorable frivolity.

Ron Cohen  

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