New songs add grunge power to Milwaukee Repertory Theater's 'Much Ado About Nothing'

Go ahead, bust out a flannel shirt for Milwaukee Repertory Theater's new staging of Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing."

Director Laura Braza has set her production in the 1990s during the heyday of grunge, with songs composed by music director Dan Kazemi that may remind you of Nirvana, Soundgarden and their scruffy ilk.

As Kazemi explains it, this staging isn't an entirely whimsical decision.

Shakespeare's great romantic comedy begins with soldiers returning from battle. Braza's production casts them as recent veterans of the first Gulf War. Not only was grunge ascendant then, its dark, brutal honesty fits the heart of these characters, Kazemi said.

This "Much Ado About Nothing" is not a musical per se. But Kazemi has composed seven songs that are performed by characters onstage.

Over the past decade, Kazemi has music-directed more than 30 Milwaukee Repertory Theater productions, including both installments of "Titanic," "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," "A Christmas Carol" and "Man of La Mancha." Sometimes he's on stage as part of the show, as he was in "Hedwig" and in the Rep's video production of "Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol."

Kazemi began his "Much Ado" research at the Milwaukee Public Library, where he devoured a book that broke down all of the songs that appeared in or were referenced by Shakespeare in his plays. Some jumped out at him immediately, including "Come Away Death" from "Twelfth Night" and the wonderfully titled "Can’st Thou Not Hit It?" from "Love's Labour's Lost." "That's the thing that I was looking for — what felt like a hit already," Kazemi said.

One big puzzle for Kazemi was finding a text for the caustic Beatrice to sing. Along with Braza and dramaturg Deanie Vallone, he looked through writing by female contemporaries of Shakespeare without finding what he wanted. During rehearsals for "A Christmas Carol," he mentioned this to Jayne Pink, who urged him to look at female French poets of the era. That's where he found Renaissance poet Louise Labé's "I live, I die, I burn, I drown," which Kazemi turned into the song "Joyful/Sad." "It has a beautiful insight into the character," he said. "And then it was something that could be manipulated into the end of the play as well."

Now that's he collaborated with Shakespeare on a number of songs, what would the composer Kazemi say to his lyricist partner?

"Well, sometimes I'd say I need more repetition in order to make a hook!"

If you go

Milwaukee Repertory Theater performs "Much Ado About Nothing" Jan. 10-Feb. 12 at the Quadracci Powerhouse, 108 E. Wells St. For tickets, visit milwaukeerep.com or call (414) 224-9490.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: New songs add grunge flavor to Milwaukee Rep's 'Much Ado'