The Cast Photo by Mikki Schaffner

Here's the story: King Ferdinand of Navarre (Patrick Earl Phillips) and his three friends, Berowne (K.P. Powell), Dumaine (Jason Coffenberry) and Longaville (Grant Niezgodski), sign a pact to improve themselves through celibacy and study over the next three years. Just as they begin their commitment to no women and no love, they're tested by a visit by the lovely Princess of France (Courtney Lucien) and her attractive ladies-in-waiting, Rosaline (Jasimine Bouldin), Maria (Dani Grace Nissen) and Katharine (Elizabeth Chinn Molloy). Of course, each of the men tries unsuccessfully to hide his attraction–Berowne to Rosaline, Dumaine to Maria, Longaville to Katharine, as well as Ferdinand to the Princess. They quickly forego their serious commitment to their studies, pursue clandestine appeals to the ladies, and manage to be teased and duped by the women. Boyet (Billy Chace), their fawning servant, assists their turnabout.

Director Matthew Lewis Johnson has staged this tale with a heavy-handed layer of 1980s pop culture in the style of the teen-filled films of John Hughes–such as Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Pretty in Pink, and The Breakfast Club–relocating the story to a preppy high school from that decade. Accordingly, there is a steady overlay of music, dance, and behavior.

Love's Labour's Lost's subplot is replete with comic characters, translated here into the school staff. Jeremy Dubin is "Mr." Costard, turning Shakespeare's clown into the school's jokester janitor; his performance and appearance are inspired by Groucho Marx. Giles Davies, a longtime Cincy Shakes favorite, returns to play Don Armado, an overly dramatic Spanish foreign exchange student who's really too old to be in high school. Jim Hopkins plays loquacious Holofernes, an over-the-hill teacher with a Meerschaum pipe clenched in his teeth, and Hannah Gregory becomes Ms. Jaquenetta (a dairymaid in Shakespeare's play), an over-sexed lunch lady. Cary Davenport, Aiden Sims and Robert Carlton Stimmel round out the comic ensemble.

Powell's introspective, skeptical Berowne has a lot to say in long speeches about love, matched by Bouldin's feisty Rosaline. Together they spar and spark, but the adolescent overlay feels at odds with their more profound thoughts.

While the comic characters have ample amusing moments–especially their performances as the "Nine Worthies," esteemed historic personages hilariously portrayed by incompetent over-actors, much in the vein of the "Rude Mechanicals" in A Midsummer Night's Dream–the "modernization" of the tale to a remembered and stylized time from four decades ago grew tiresome for me. It provides many moments of high humor, but the more serious implications of the many deep thoughts expressed about courtship and love get lost in the disco shuffle.

That being said, this Cincy Shakes production–publicized as "a totally tubular 80s-inspired high school setting"–offers an admirable application of the concept. Samantha Reno's scenic design uses bright pastel colors and school details, including a locker room (with lockers big enough to conceal eavesdroppers) and a big boombox for songs. Fluorescent lighting accents by Watson pulse with the rhythms. Costumes (designed by Rainy Edwards) are authentic recreations of what people wore in the 1980s, and Kayla Cieslinski's wig designs are stupendous works of hair art. Lots of bopping tunes from the '80s provide the soundtrack, and the show opens with a pseudo-Casey Kasem, tongue-in-cheek message about Top 40 songs. Each scene change has an emotive individual dance break by one of the characters. (Susan Jung is the show's choreographer.)

Love's Labour's Lost is a laugh-filled evening of theatre, much enjoyed by the opening night audience. But director Johnson has employed so much clowning that a lot of the underlying message about mutual respect and the power of love gets lost, and the actual clowning in Shakespeare's text feels watered down by overexposure. The tale's abrupt shift to a solemn tone following all the hilarity, when a messenger arrives with the sobering message to notify the Princess that her father has died and she must return to France. It's why the play's title is <>Love's Labour's Lost. Johnson has muted this surprising turn of events by tacking on a dance party to the end of the show–zesty, to be sure, but another misstep in conveying Shakespeare's more serious notion that true love might require a test of pain.

Love's Labour's Lost runs through December 6, 2025, at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, 1195 Elm Street, Cincinnati OH. For tickets and information, please visit cincyshakes.com or call 513-381-2273.