REVIEW: ‘These Paper Bullets!’ Atlantic Theater Company, NYC
If you’re a Beatles nut who also happens to be a Shakespeare nerd –- or a Shakespeare nut who also happens to be a Beatles nerd –- then the new musical These Paper Bullets!, recently presented at the Atlantic Theater Company in New York City, will likely be right up your alley. Originally conceived at the Yale Repertory Theater in New Haven, CT, the show came to New York after a successful run at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. A clever riff on Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, the show also features spot-on songs by Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong that will delight the heart of British Invasion fans everywhere.
In a twist on the plot of the classic play, instead of featuring the story of four soldiers returning home from a successful campaign, author Rolin Jones has transmuted the characters of Don Pedro and his men into Ben, Claude, Balth, and Pedro (Justin Kirk, Bryan Fenkart, Lucas Papaelias, and James Barry), a group of cheeky musicians from Liverpool returning to England after a successful tour. The evil Don John has been transformed into Don Best (Adam O’Byrne), the group’s former drummer who will do anything to get back at them for sacking him, and cousins Beatrice and Hero are now Bea and Higgy (Nicole Parker and Ariana Venturi), mod fashion designer and model muse.
The dialogue shifts back and forth from modern prose to Shakespearean iambic pentameter with little effort, sometimes lifting whole sections of the original. (In fact, the title of the show comes from a line in one of Benedick’s soliloquies in Much Ado About Nothing.) The use of video clips, 1960s set design, and period costumes set the scene at the exclusive Hotel Messina, owned by Higgy’s father, Leo (Stephen DeRosa) — replacing the setting of the original at the estate of Leonato, Governor of Messina. Altogether it’s effective in evoking the days of Swinging London, Beatlemania, and the hysteria that accompanied it all.
Rounding out the company are the bumbling Scotland Yard inspector, Mr. Berry, and his associates, Mr. Urges, Mr. Cake, and Mr. Crumpet (Greg Stuhr, Brad Heberlee, Tony Manna, and Christopher Geary) who are assigned to guard the Quartos and who stumble onto Don Best’s plot.
As in the original, the story centers around the antics of two couples: the more “serious” love story of Claude and Higgy, who fall in love at first sight and plan to marry, and Bea and Ben, who spend a lot of time verbally jousting and declaring that they will never marry anyone, let alone each other, only to find their attraction deepening no matter how much they protest. Of course, the audience knows right from the start that these two are destined for each other.
And, of course, there are complications: the insidious Don Best, resentful that he was fired as the band’s drummer and replace by his brother, Pedro, is determined to destroy the Quartos (and Claude’s happiness) by any means necessary, and sets out to sabotage the love between Claude and Higgy by spreading falsehoods about Higgy’s faithfulness to her betrothed, only to be caught in his own web of deceit, and Ben and Bea are forced to come to terms with their attraction to each other through the intricate web of gossip woven by their friends in order to get them to see the obvious.
Much of the cast comes directly from the original production in New Haven, the most notable exceptions being Justin Kirk and Nicole Parker in the roles of Ben and Bea, respectively; the rest of the cast reprises the roles they originated. I saw the show in its original run in New Haven, when it ran about half an hour longer, and while the revised show is still a lot of fun, by cutting some of the length, the producers also cut some of the things that made it work so well. Much of the action has become less verbally clever and director Justin Gay has allowed it to degenerate in places into very broad farce; one of the things that was particularly engaging about the Yale Rep production was the dueling dialogue between Bea and Ben along with the physical comedy, much of which is absent here.
Having enjoyed the show so much during its New Haven run, I was expecting that I’d still have just as much fun when seeing this production. Unfortunately, this was not the case. In New Haven, when the roles of Ben and Bea were played by David Wilson Barnes and Jeanine Serralles, the dialogue seemed wittier and the performances tighter (especially Barnes, who played Ben as a letter-perfect riff on John Lennon — so much so that it was tempting to ask how many times they’d made him watch A Hard Day’s Night to prepare for the role). Sadly, in this production neither Kirk nor Parker seemed to have much chemistry between them — and with the cuts to the script that removed much of the verbal sparring between the “feuding” lovers, there was not much left to make the audience really care about them.
Additionally, Kirk’s performance, while not bad in itself, was completely devoid of any Lennonesque mannerisms, rendering the character uninteresting. Rather than being the witty leader of the Quartos, Kirk’s Ben was reduced to a one-note joke, a broad Liverpool accent and not much else — rather than entering a scene and taking charge of it (like Lennon — or Barnes — might have), he shambled across the stage in a stoop-shouldered slouch, with little to remind viewers that this guy was pretty much supposed to be John Lennon. However, people coming into this production cold, not having seen it in New Haven, might not be put off as much by the performances and would have still found them engaging.
The rest of the cast, reprising their roles from Yale and the Geffen Playhouse, are charming, particularly Fenkart and Venturi as Claude and Higgy, and the hysterically funny Keira Naughton as Ulcie, another model whose antics figure heavily in the plot to destroy the Quartos. O’Byrne, as Don Best, gives a strong performance with the proper balance of brooding moodiness and seething anger. Also, special mention must be given to Liz Wisan playing the role of Paulina Noble, a BBC reporter sent to cover the highly publicized wedding of Higgy and Claude, whose performance takes the pretentiousness of celebrity broadcasting to a whole new level in the funniest way possible.
The strongest thing about this production of These Paper Bullets! remains the songs by Billie Joe Armstrong. Perfect pop British Invasion-style confections, they lend an air of authenticity to the setting of Swinging London. Armstrong is clearly a Beatles fan, and his songs do such a great job evoking the era that they are irresistible. Audiences can still hear his own hand in the music — the song “Regretfully Yours,” sung by Claude to a despondent Higgy has all of the best hallmarks of Green Day as well as the pop sensibility of the Beatles — but will find nothing lacking in the songs or the performances.
These Paper Bullets! is likely to be making the rounds of regional theaters, although it has closed in New York at the moment. If you enjoy Shakespeare and like the British Invasion, it’s well worth two hours of your time to check it out. There’s a lot to like here, and the show is certainly worth seeking out if it comes to your town. Be on the lookout — there is no doubt that this show will pop up again in the future.
