Beatrice and Benedick may not be William Shakespeare\u2019s most famous romantic pair, but in waging their \u201cmerry war\u201d of wits and words and insults in \u201cMuch Ado About Nothing,\u201d they may be the Bard\u2019s most fun duo.<\/p>\n
Old Globe Artistic Director Barry Edelstein believes the much-loved comedy \u201cgenerates an almost super-human amount of joy. It\u2019s engineered to produce delight and fun and romance.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Barry](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/sut-l-stage-edelstein-festival.jpg\")
Barry Edelstein, artistic director of The Old Globe, photographed at the San Diego theater\u2019s outdoor Lowell Davies Festival Theatre in 2023. He is directing Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cMuch Ado About Nothing\u201d there this month. (Eduardo Contreras \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
Edelstein is directing \u201cMuch Ado,\u201d which winds up the Globe\u2019s Summer Shakespeare season outdoors in the open-air Lowell Davies Festival Theatre. \u201cWe know that there are in the business what we call the \u2018Golden 10,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cThe 10 Shakespeare plays that are very, very popular. We find that we\u2019re coming back around to these plays about every decade.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Globe last staged \u201cMuch Ado About Nothing\u201d in 2018 and before that in 2003.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have found working on it this time a new explanation\u201d for its popularity, Edelstein said. \u201cIt has a really unique capacity to create giddiness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Giddiness and wit, as when Benedick says to Beatrice \u201cThou and I are too wise to woo peaceably.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s this clear attempt by Shakespeare in this turn-of-the-century moment (the play was written between 1598 and 1599) to really delve into the question of wit and what makes language witty onstage,\u201d said Edelstein. \u201cYou feel he\u2019s writing what appears to be a generic love story between these two people (the young couple Hero and Claudio), but then Beatrice and Benedick come into the play. They\u2019re the subplot but they completely dominate because he so enjoys writing their remarkably idiosyncratic ways of speaking.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also characteristic of \u201cMuch Ado About Nothing\u201d are the musical cues Shakespeare employed in his storytelling \u2014 metaphorically, to propel forward narrative points and to provide atmosphere. Best known is \u201cSigh No More, My Ladies\u201d sung by Balthasar, a musician who attends to Don Pedro, Prince of Aragon.<\/p>\n
\u201cMusical theater and the Shakespearean theater have a lot in common,\u201d said Edelstein, \u201cwhich has to do with the musicality of Shakespeare\u2019s language and with the emotionality of the plays.\u201d<\/p>\n
For this production of \u201cMuch Ado About Nothing,\u201d he said, \u201cI knew I needed musical theater artists.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Tally](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/sut-l-stage-muchado.jpg\")
Tally Sessions, left, and Eden Espinosa co-star as the headstrong Benedick and Beatrice in The Old Globe\u2019s summer production of \u201cMuch Ado About Nothing.\u201d (Rich Soublet II)<\/p>\n
Enter Eden Espinosa and Tally Sessions as Edelstein\u2019s love-me\/love-me-not Beatrice and Benedick.<\/p>\n
\u201cEden was telling me she was looking for something really challenging,\u201d Edelstein recalled. \u201cShe and Tally have worked together at the Globe twice (\u2018Rain\u2019 in 2016, \u2018The Gardens of Anuncia\u2019 in 2021). They came because of an instinct I had to liberate the musical comedy energies in Shakespeare\u2019s play.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s nothing more fun than working with your good friends,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Espinosa was most recently onstage locally in the title role of La Jolla Playhouse\u2019s musical \u201cLempicka\u201d in 2024 (a role for which she later earned a Tony Award nomination after the show moved to Broadway). She\u2019s worked with Sessions four times and has been friends with her fellow actor for over a decade.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat makes it easier to be really vulnerable,\u201d Espinosa said. \u201cIt\u2019s the greatest gift of working with someone you trust.\u201d<\/p>\n
The friendship also is an asset in bringing to life their characters in \u201cMuch Ado.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe dynamic, that electric back and forth, that electric intellect, the battle of wits is very accessible because that\u2019s how we (she and Sessions) are as friends,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are completely safe in each other\u2019s sandbox, and that\u2019s rarer than you think it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sessions cites an \u201cemotional shorthand\u201d onstage with Espinosa.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m getting to work with my friend who I\u2019ve had four incredible artistic experiences with,\u201d he said. \u201cShe\u2019s such an extraordinarily gifted actor that you have to respond.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMuch Ado About Nothing\u201d marks Sessions\u2019 return to the Old Globe two years after playing two roles in the ambitious \u201cHenry 6,\u201d a two-part\u00a0 adaptation of Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cHenry VI\u201d plays by Edelstein, who also directed. Sessions portrayed the general Lord Talbot in Part One (\u201cFlowers and France\u201d) and rebel Jack Cade in Part Two (\u201cRiot and Reckoning\u201d).<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like a student again in the best way,\u201d said Sessions, who\u2019s performed on Broadway in musicals including \u201cCompany,\u201d \u201cA Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical\u201d and \u201cFalsettos.\u201d \u201cI\u2019d studied in school but had not done Shakespeare in a couple of decades when I did \u2018Henry 6.\u2019 Barry explained even then that his opinion is that actors who have musical capability understand the \u2018music\u2019 of Shakespeare.\u201d<\/p>\n
Espinosa is making her Shakespearean debut in this Globe production of \u201cMuch Ado About Nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the hardest thing I\u2019ve ever done mentally,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I said that about my last one. I feel like I\u2019m always saying that about the project I\u2019m working on. This is a completely different beast because you\u2019re speaking what feels like a foreign language. If you\u2019ve never swum in those waters before it\u2019s daunting.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut this is an amazing group of creatives and I feel so supportive and safe,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The play\u2019s creative team includes choreographer Patrick McCollum, voice and text coach Jesse Perez and production stage manager Jess Slocum, who both Espinosa and Talley credit for support.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t want to be an inexperienced Shakespearean actor and just be reciting the text,\u201d said Espinosa. \u201cI want to embody it and bring it to life in a way that only I can.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me because I\u2019ve also never seen (\u2018Much Ado About Nothing\u2019) I don\u2019t know these characters as so many people do, so I don\u2019t know how Beatrice is supposed to be,\u201d she said. \u201cThat is helpful at times, but then there are other times when we\u2019re talking about a scene and I don\u2019t know that part yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Espinosa credits her director with showing her the way.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s awesome about Barry\u2019s vision about putting Beatrice and Benedick in their 40s is there\u2019s so much stigma of like \u2018You\u2019re still single?\u2019 It\u2019s a thing with both men and women. \u2018What\u2019s wrong with you? Why haven\u2019t you found anyone?\u2019 There is that dance of independence but also grief that \u2018It\u2019s happening for everybody who\u2019s younger than I am, but I\u2019m not going to lower my standards.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Also with the help of Edelstein and through working with Espinosa, Sessions said he is discovering the essence of the Beatrice\/Benedick dynamic.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are people who have lived a life, they gave it a go and it didn\u2019t end well,\u201d Sessions said. \u201cBut there is something magnetic. As much as this person pisses you off, she charges you intellectually. There\u2019s an almost inarticulable connection. You\u2019re just drawn to one another.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sessions recalled Edelstein describing Benedick to him as \u201ca sexy goober.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe deep core of him,\u201d Sessions said of the character, \u201cis \u2018I just don\u2019t want to get hurt again.\u2019 That\u2019s where all the witticisms at her expense come from. Loving someone is giving them permission to hurt you. That\u2019s what he\u2019s afraid of, and at the same time it\u2019s like \u2018I can\u2019t be with anyone but you.\u2019 Benedick has to learn \u2018Hey, dummy. See what\u2019s actually going on here. Get out of your own way. See what this woman is enduring right now and try to be there for her.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
To Espinosa the appeal and the relatability of the Beatrice\/Benedick relationship resides in its \u201chumanity.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLove comes in so many forms,\u201d she said. \u201cThe human heart and what people are capable of, good and bad, is very multifaceted. Walking around with walls around your heart can inform everything that comes along in your life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sessions says \u201cMuch Ado About Nothing\u201d asserts that \u201crelationships don\u2019t necessarily have an end. The possibility exists to find that person who lights you up. Don\u2019t give up on love. Keep yourself open and learn to love in a more mature way.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Much Ado About Nothing\u2019<\/p>\n
When: Previews, tonight through Friday. Opens Saturday and runs through Aug. 30. 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays<\/p>\n
Where: Lowell Davies Festival Theatre, The Old Globe, 1363 Old Globe Way, Balboa Park, San Diego<\/p>\n
Tickets: $38 and up<\/p>\n
Phone: 619-234-5623<\/p>\n