Benjamin Mathew and Cast Photo by Jenn Udoni

Taub and Woolery's adaptation is a snappy, condensed take that centers the comedy and love stories while minimizing the politics (even more than Shakespeare himself does). The staging at Writers cleverly reintroduces the latter, to a certain extent, by roughly setting the action in the era of the speakeasy and the gangster and casting the exiles in Arden as a cross between romanticized notions of hobo communities and a hippie commune. The overall effect is one of both heightened comedy and a bit more dramatic depth without ever giving the impression that it is fighting with the source material.

Taub's songs are in a variety of styles, ranging from the hilariously dramatic baroque theme that introduces Duke Frederick every time he enters a scene to country-inflected barn burners, with plenty of more dead-center musical theatre mixed in. There are some occasional rough-around-the-edges elements in the performances of these, and the sound mix hides the vocals from time to time, but the execution is overall very good, and even these minor issues add to the show's charm, which is backed by the excellent choreography.

The set, co-designed by Sara Ryung Clement and Jacelyn Stewart, is integral to this clever vibe. At the top of the show, when most of the main players are still in the court of the villainous Duke Frederick, the set is a pub that is elegant but slightly claustrophobic, with the bar up right and a bandstand up left. But even here, the forest of Arden beckons, visible as a Japanese silk screen in a narrow band above the dark wood. This becomes (or at least appears) three-dimensional when the speakeasy is whisked away as characters go into exile. The bandstand remains, and characters playfully acknowledge its presence, regularly seizing the mic to advance their own plots through song. The change to the forest is a subtle but profound opening of not just space, but possibility. This feeling is well supported by the lighting, co-designed by Eric Southern and Daphne Agosin.

Raquel Adorno's costumes revel in the romantic imprecision of the setting. Duke Frederick and Oliver (Orlando's initially unscrupulous older brother) sport pinstripes and double-breasted suits, whereas the thugs in Frederick's entourage are swathed in outlandish fur coats. Rosalind and Celia's flapper gowns are exquisite, and their Arden disguises are effectively absurd. The one slightly questionable choice in the consuming comes at the very end when Celia and Rosalind wear wide-legged trousers, beaded tops, and close-fitting beaded headpieces to which their veils attach. Although the intention certainly seems to be to provide closing punctuation to a play that features Shakespeare's penchant for cross-dressing and gender play, the outfits for the two female leads at the end are rather frumpy and asexual, rather than expanding the way the original play and the adaptation toy with sex and gender.

The cast is excellent across the board, starting with Phoebe González (Rosalind) and Benjamin Mathew (Orlando), who are both charming and talented leads. González adds a fascinating, gleeful bravado to her "Ganymede" (her Arden alter ego), but also a touching, mature sweetness to Rosalind at the show's end. Mathew is delightfully hypermasculine (or delightfully attempting to sell himself as such) to begin the play, and even though the adaptation engages in some rigorous short-handing when it comes to character growth, Mathew sells Orlando's progression from wrestler to poet/lover (and forest vandal) to the man who saves his brother and stands ready for and worthy of a wife like Rosalind.

Andrea San Miguel is an excellent Celia. Early on, San Miguel plays the character as tentatively more at ease in her own skin, compared with her cousin, when the two are still in her father's court. But this proves comedically not to be the case, as Celia/Aliena finds herself very much out of element in Arden. San Miguel and Anand Nagraj (Oliver) also manage to quite convincingly sell some very eleventh-hour chemistry between their characters, and their dance with one another at the end of the play is charming.

The character of Touchstone a bit awkward in the adaptation. His romance with Andy (Jeff Rodriguez) is abbreviated, and it's a bit of a disappointment that his interactions with Celia and Rosalind are somewhat minimized, but Jackson Evans definitely elevates the material, infusing the vocals and choreography with comedy appropriate to the show's clown. Evans' performance works especially well juxtaposed with Matthew C. Yee's as the melancholy (but musical) Jacques.

The theme of well-matched pairs continues in the secondary characters. From the very beginning of the play, Scott Aiello (Duke Frederick) and Janet Ulrich Brooks (multiple roles) pull-off an amazing, dead-serious parody of any given movie about the mafia, as the Duke and the Wrestling Agent discuss the upcoming match where Orlando is meant to meet his maker. Later, Aiello and Paul Oakley Stovall, who is stunningly charismatic as Duke Senior, play out the drama and reconciliation between the two brothers in the briefest of interactions.

Finally, Dakota Hughes and Grace Steckler as Phoebe and Sylvia, respectively, take on the somewhat awkward romance between the two characters with skill and enthusiasm, making the most of the the way the adaptation shines a light on this subplot by turning "Phoebe" into a verb. The two are excellent vocally, and in terms of their physicality and comedic beats, they are absolutely in sync.

Writers Theatre's As You Like It runs through December 14, 2025, at the Alexandra C. and John D. Nichols Theatre, 325 Tudor Court, Glencoe IL. For tickets and information, please visit www.writerstheatre.org or call 847-242-6000.