Much Ado About Nothing / New York Shakespeare Festival (Broadway Theatre Archive) (1973)
Once upon a time, a stage version of Shakespeare's comedy "Much ado About Nothing" was performed to be filmed, and in this case it starred Kathleen Widdoes as "My lady Tongue," Beatrice, Sam Waterston as Benedick, and a variety of others, including Barnard Hughes. This was set in the era of Teddy Roosevelt's "Rough Riders" and as such is filled with a bit of hoopla which I think, in spite of what others may believe who think Shakespeare is high culture, adds a kind of merriment and looseness to the characters. Certainly SW looks NICE in a uniform!
Overall, I quite enjoyed the give and take between the main character, though I was not all that impressed with the second leads, Claudio and Hero as the smitten kittens.
The play was shown on CBS and is now part of the Broadway Theater Archive, which means one can buy it on video! I recommend it for its interesting, perhaps a bit more biting version of the play than Ken Branagh's lovely but labored version.
Interestingly enough, Waterston starred in a 2004 version of Much Ado as Leonato, Hero's father-- Check this review out:
(from The New Yorker, July 26, 2004) "The idiosyncratic, perpetually boyish, and unequivocally American actor Sam Waterston is giving the performance of his career as the alternately loving, baffled, and furious patriarch Leonato in Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing” (at the Delacorte Theatre, in Central Park). The governor of Messina, on the island of Sicily, Leonato is also the father of Hero (played by Waterston’s own daughter, the lovely Elisabeth Waterston) and the guardian of Beatrice, his niece (Kristen Johnston)."
Find the whole review at http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/07/26/040726crth_theatre
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The best things about the SW version
