'As You Like It' by Lantern Theater Company

I've long felt that As You Like It is the Shakespeare play students should encounter first. Its mix of romantic comedy, philosophical musing, and interfamily drama — all in language easily accessible to modern audiences — would seem the perfect introduction to Western culture's greatest playwright. Instead, high school students often slog through the density, violence, and politics of Macbeth, Julius Caesar, and Romeo and Juliet, ensuring that most young people will fear and loathe Shakespeare.

Take them to the Lantern before it's too late.

Musical Shakespeare

Director Charles McMahon's production boasts clarity and charming characterizations from an adept cast, who also play instruments and sing composer Michael Hahn's gentle, lovely versions of the script's songs.

Though its characters are many and memorable, As You Like It is driven by Rosalind, arguably Shakespeare's smartest, most capable, and most likable heroine. Liz Filios — better known for Barrymore Award-winning performances in musicals the past two seasons (Midsummer and Passion) — is an ideal Rosalind. She channels the character’s intelligence and wit, balanced by her wide-eyed girlish romanticism, and also contributes cello and accordion accompaniment that informs her character. All that's lovely and magical in this production flows through Filios.

Wolf likewise charms as Rosalind's cousin Celia, whose father, Duke Frederick (Kirk Wendell Brown), usurped and banished his brother, Duke Senior (also Brown), Rosalind's father, before the play's action begins. Frederick's staid court is expressed well in Janus Stefanowicz's costumes, which don't echo a specific period or culture but rather define their own. The two women witness a wrestling match — cleverly staged by J. Alex Cordaro — between young Orlando (Jake Blouch) and the current champion (Chris Anthony). Afterward, Rosalind and Orlando fall instantly, hilariously, beautifully in love, but both must flee.

When the women escape to the Forest of Arden with their trusty fool Touchstone (J. Hernandez), Meghan Jones's elegant set transforms, and Stefanowicz's costumes explode with happy colors and playful patterns. We meet more characters: shepherds, noblemen in exile with Duke Senior, and Orlando all wander the forest, where romance sprouts like spring flowers.

Manic Touchstone meets his opposite in dour misanthrope Jaques (Frank X), and McMahon — who can't resist adding penis jokes where none exist or are needed — raunches up their foolery. He also allows Hernandez to ad-lib audience interaction, apparently forgetting Shakespeare's wise advice voiced by Hamlet: "[L]et those that play your clowns speak no more than is set down for them."

Magic moments

These missteps, and a sometimes leisurely pace, don't hinder this delightful production, however. Some of the many enjoyable moments: Adam Altman's vivid variety of smaller characters plus his fine work as vocal soloist; the fun surprises in Ruby Wolf's voice and her smirky smile as Rosalind's often teasingly cynical confidante; Meghan Winch's hilarious interpretations of two very different country wenches; Jake Blouch's boyishly awkward yet fiercely independent Orlando, and the sly way he sees through (or does he?) Rosalind's disguise as shepherd boy Ganymede; Hernandez's incisive take on Touchstone's witty banter; Brown's fatherly dignity as Senior; and Frank X's private dancing during Jaquez's musical reveries. Inspired work from all!

First, last, and always is Filios's sparkling sincerity as the thoroughly 21st-century Rosalind, who Shakespeare penned over 400 years ago.

For Carol Rocamora's review of the Royal National Theatre's recent production, playing in HD in local movie theaters, click here.