Cheap Seats Funk It Up About Nothin’

Welcome to Cheap Seats, where every Thursday we’ll talk to folks behind the scenes of the stage events happening around town in order to give you a flavor of the productions that won’t be found in any of the promo materials.

Funk It Up About Nothin’ at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater (through Feb. 13)

Promo pull quote: “A fresh urban take on a story as old skool as love itself, and complete with a live DJ, B-boys and girls, MCs and divas, Funk It Up About Nothin’ is more than a rom-com street party with bangin’ bass. It’s an outrageous ‘hip-hoptation’ based on the Bard’s classic comedy, Much Ado About Nothing.”

What it’s really about: Created by sketch comedians GQ and JQ, Funk It Up About Nothin’ is a “hip-hoptation” of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, telling the classic story of rivals turned lovers, but through rap. For those unfamiliar—shame for sleeping in high school English—Beatrice and Benedick are longtime enemies that, of course, harbor a secret passion for each other. Meanwhile, Beatrice’s sister, Hero, is in love with the count Claudio, but the evil Don John will do anything to stop their wedding. Honor is lost, regained, and someone fakes their death without actually dying in the end, so it’s a comedy. “It’s pretty much the same story,” says Ericka Ratcliff, who plays MC Lady B, Funk It Up’s incarnation of Beatrice, “but most of the characters have been translated into these hip-hop figures. Beatrice is a fiery heroine that never wants to get married, just stay eternally single, and it’s the same in my play, except my name is MC Lady B. The love triangles and the storylines are the same, it’s just told completely through rap and rhyme. There’s tons of props thrown to Shakespeare, but also Run-DMC, Tribe Called Quest—old school hip-hop pioneers who, if you’re a hip-hop head, you will definitely pick up on.”

Fun fact: The original production of Funk It Up About Nothin’ debuted at CST in 2008, garnering a Best Ensemble Jeff Award for the cast and a slot in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland, where it received the Dress Circle Award for Best Musical Production. And now the team behind Funk It Up About Nothin’ is headed to Australia for a two-month tour, marking the theater’s Australian première. “It’s going to be a crazy adventure,” says Ratcliff. “We’re going from Melbourne to Sydney in two months’ time, with at least eight stops in between, so we’ll be hitting a lot of little towns and places that I think most people who go to Australia don’t get a chance to see. There’s been some fine-tuning since the original production, and we have a new addition to the cast, Jillian Burfete as Hero, a fantastic new actress in town and a great improviser. She’s my partner in crime, so it’s great to have her on board.”

Writers GQ and JQ serve as directors while also starring as Don John and Benedick, respectively, and having two people in such a powerful position has taken a bit of adjusting. “It’s funny, because we’ll be rehearsing a scene,” says Ratcliff, “and they’ll jump out and make sure it looks good and then jump back in, so the dynamic gets kind of crazy. You have to get used to them wearing so many hats at once. And then everybody in the cast is either an improviser or into rap, so the guys are constantly rapping whenever there’s a break. It is a constant rhymefest in the theater from the moment we walk in first thing in the morning, but I don’t have a problem with it, because I love hip-hop.”

Best reason to try it: Chicago Shakespeare Theater is the best place for the Bard’s plays, and its past success with Funk It Up About Nothin’ should make this remount a hot ticket. Bridging the two very different cultures of Shakespeare and hip-hop, GQ and JQ have found a way to bring a classic romantic comedy into a contemporary urban setting, creating a show that appeals to both scholars and newcomers to Shakespeare’s canon. “You will definitely have a good time,” says Ratcliff. “If you don’t have a good time and you’re mad about it, come down to the pub, and I will buy you a drink and listen to you seriously tell my why you did not move your ass in that seat. It’s so much fun. If you love Shakespeare, you’ll love the show because it’s a new version of his work, and if you love hip-hop, you’ll love the show and learn about Shakespeare. It’s the best of both worlds. And Chicago Shakes has $20 dollar tickets to see the show. You can get tickets to a great night at the theater, and I’m going to buy you a beer if you want to lie and say you didn’t like the show.”