Discover how contemporary storytellers reimagine classics like Othello, King Lear, and Romeo and Juliet, transforming these timeless tales to provide even more resonance with today’s audiences. These modern adaptations offer fresh perspectives and employ innovative storytelling techniques, breathing new life into Shakespeare’s works and highlighting their enduring relevance.
Musicals
Desperate Measures; Book and Lyrics by Peter Kellogg, Music by David Friedman
Photo by Marc J. Franklin, 2018 Off-Broadway production
When the dangerously handsome Johnny Blood’s life is on the line, he must put his fate into the hands of a colorful cast of characters including a mysterious sheriff, an eccentric priest, a narcissistic governor, a saloon girl gone good, and a nun out of the habit. Together, they face uncharted territory as laws are broken and hearts are won. Before the sun sets, will they be able to rise up and pull off the greatest act yet, or will Johnny be left hanging?
This witty and wild new musical comedy takes the Bard’s Measure for Measure and shakes things up with a toe tappin’ score by award-winning composer David Friedman. Featuring fresh and feisty book and lyrics by two-time Tony nominee Peter Kellogg, Desperate Measures is fully loaded with laughs. Saddle up and see why audiences and critics alike have branded Desperate Measures a grade ‘A’ musical!
Othello: The Remix; Book and Music by Q Brothers (GQ and JQ), Developed with Rick Boynton
Othello is spun out and lyrically rewritten over original beats in this high-energy spin on Shakespeare’s play, proving that the Bard himself was the original master of rhythm and rhyme.
Like You Like It; Music by Daniel S. Acquisto, Book and Lyrics by Sammy Buck
All the world’s a mall in this totally awesome musical mashup of Shakespeare and John Hughes. It’s 1985 and the brand new Arden Mall is hosting a high school dance. Bookworm babe Rosalind wants to go with varsity wrestler Orlando, but she’s never had the guts to talk to him. Rosalind disguises herself as a frat dude named Corey and discovers Orlando’s true feelings for her. But things get tricky when “Corey” complicates the lives of three other couples at Arden. Rosalind will do anything to get Orlando, even if it means showing up at the dance as both herself and Corey. Filled with memorable ’80s-inspired tunes, a hip sense of humor, and heart, it all works out like you like it if you take the biggest risk of all: being yourself.
County Fair; Written by Taylor Ferrera and Matt Webster
After the death of their father, two sisters, Claudia and DJ Stratford, return home to deal with their inheritance: a massive and beloved county fair in rural Georgia. Thinking that this could be the cash windfall that they desperately seek, the sisters plan to sell off the fair land to the highest bidder, then high tail it back to civilization. But when Claudia starts to fall in love with the fair, the townsfolk, and an over-apologetic board member, her heart leads her away from her sister and down a path she’s unprepared for. Needing the money to pay off a large, secret gambling debt, DJ must do whatever it takes to sell the fair – even if that means sabotaging her sister’s new romantic relationship. Betrayals, imposters, and mistaken identity lead to sister battling sister in a winner-take-all Messina County Dixie Derby competition to save the fair. Loosely inspired by Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing and full of all your favorite country hits like “Chicken Fried,” “Hey Good Lookin’,” “The House That Built Me,” “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” and so many others, County Fair is a new musical comedy about sisters, community, and being proud of where you come from.
Plays
Desdemona, a play about a handkerchief by
Photo by Mariah Miranda, 2022 We Happy Few production
Having slept with Othello’s entire encampment, Desdemona revels in her bawdy tales of conquest. Her foils and rapt listeners are the other integral and reimagined women of this Shakespeare tragedy: Emilia, Desdemona’s servant and the wife of Iago, and Bianca, now a majestic whore of Cyprus. The reluctantly loyal Emilia pesters Desdemona about a military promotion for her husband. Her motive, however, is that he leave her a wealthy widow, preferably sooner than later. Bianca, now a street-wise yet painfully naive prostitute, visits Desdemona, thinking she is a very good friend and fellow hooker (at least one night a week). Bianca thinks the worst when she discovers that Desdemona knows intimate details of the life of her lover, Cassio. Though Desdemona has never been intimate with Cassio, her life is soon in danger when her husband, Othello, also suspects her of infidelity.
Merry Wives by
Photo by Sara Krulwich at the Delacorte Theatre
Set in South Harlem, amidst a vibrant and eclectic community of West African immigrants, Merry Wives is a New York story about tricks of the heart. A raucous spinoff featuring the Bard’s most beloved comic characters, this hilarious farce tells the story of the trickster Falstaff and the wily wives who outwit him in a celebration of Black joy, laughter, and vitality.
Included in Broadway Book Club’s Black Voices Specialty Collection.
Game of Tiaras by Don Zolidis
Photo by Nick Smirnoff, 2022 Tehachapi High School production
When the aging king of a Magical Kingdom (England) decides to split his empire between his three daughters, Cinderella, Belle, and the Snow Queen (who in no way resembles a copyrighted character), terrible tragedy ensues. Terrible, hilarious tragedy. Combining the gut-wrenching plot twists of Game of Thrones and the soul-numbing despair of Shakespearean tragedy, this adaptation of King Lear will leave you dying with laughter as the body count mounts. When you play the Game of Tiaras, you win or you die.
Teenage Dick by
In this brilliant retelling of Shakespeare’s Richard III, one of the most famous disabled characters in history is reimagined as a 16-year-old outsider taking on the political turmoil of high school. Bullied for his cerebral palsy (and his sometimes disturbing tendency to speak with a Shakespearean affect), Richard plots his revenge…as well as his glorious path to the senior class presidency. But as he falls deeper into a pattern of manipulation and greed, Richard is faced with an unexpected choice: Is it better to be feared or loved? TEENAGE DICK is a hilarious and sharp-witted adaptation about perception, disability, and the treacherous road to ascendancy.
Mac Beth adapted by Erica Schmidt
Photo by Carol Rosegg, 2019 Off-Broadway revival
from Macbeth by William Shakespeare
After school, seven teenage girls convene in an abandoned lot to perform a play. They drop their backpacks, transform their uniforms, and dive into a DIY retelling of Macbeth. As the girls conjure kings, warriors, and witches, Shakespeare’s bloody tale seeps into their reality. Mac Beth recontextualizes a classic text to expose the ferocity of adolescence and the intoxicating power of collective fantasy.
Shakespeare’s R&J an adaptation by Joe Calarco
Four young prep school students, tired of going through the usual drill of conjugating Latin and other tedious school routines, decide to vary their very governed lives. After school, one breaks out a copy of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, and they all take turns reading the play aloud. The Bard’s words and the story itself are thrilling to the boys, and they become swept away, enmeshed in the emotion so much so that they break school rules in order to continue their readings. The rigidity of their lives begins to parallel the lives of the characters in the play: roles in the family, roles in society, and the roles played by men and women soon seem to make all the sense in the world, and then, suddenly, they seem to make no sense at all. Although they had been taking turns playing all the parts, two eventually emerge playing Romeo and Juliet exclusively, bringing a whole new dimension to the proceedings. Perceptions and understanding are turned upside-down as the fun of play-acting turns serious, and the words and meanings begin to hit home and universal truths emerge.
When Shakespeare’s Ladies Meet by
Imagine the fun when six of Shakespeare’s heroines get together to discuss the universal topic—love. That’s what happens in this thirty-minute playlet. Juliet has just fallen in love with Romeo and the other ladies of the Bard’s imagination convene to enlighten her on the best method of conducting a romance.
Lions in Illyria by Robert Kauzlaric
Giraffes are gentlemen, aardvarks are card sharks, and animals rule the world in this retelling of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. When young lioness Violet is separated from her twin brother by a storm at sea, she must find her way alone in an unknown country. Disguised as a boy, she finds work helping a preposterous peacock win the love of the most graceful gazelle in town, but it’s not long before Violet is torn between multiple masters and the whole menagerie is tangled in matters of the heart. Travel to the weird and wonderful land of Illyria in this magical, clever comedy.
