Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy by William Shakespeare thought to have been written in 1598 and 1599.[1] The play was included in the First Folio, published in 1623.
The play is set in Messina and revolves around two romantic pairings that emerge when a group of soldiers arrive in the town. The first, between Claudio and Hero, is nearly scuppered by the accusations of the villain, Don John. The second, between Claudio's friend Benedick and Hero's cousin Beatrice, takes centre stage as the play continues, with both characters' wit and banter providing much of the humour.
Through "noting" (sounding like "nothing" and meaning gossip, rumour, overhearing),[2][3] Benedick and Beatrice are tricked into confessing their love for each other, and Claudio is tricked into believing that Hero is not a maiden (virgin). The title's play on words references the secrets and trickery that form the backbone of the play's comedy, intrigue, and action.
Shakespeare's immediate source may have been one of Matteo Bandello of Mantua's Novelle ("Tales"), possibly the translation into French by François de Belleforest,[6] which dealt with the tribulations of Sir Timbreo and his betrothed Fenicia Lionata, in Messina, after Peter III of Aragon's defeat of Charles of Anjou.[7][8] Another version, featuring lovers Ariodante and Ginevra, with the servant Dalinda impersonating Ginevra on the balcony, appears in Book V Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso (published in an English translation in 1591).[9] The character of Benedick has a counterpart in a commentary on marriage in Orlando Furioso.[10] But the witty wooing of Beatrice and Benedick is apparently original and very unusual in style and syncopation.[6]Edmund Spenser tells one version of the Claudio–Hero plot in The Faerie Queene (Book II, Canto iv).[11]
According to the earliest printed text, Much Ado About Nothing was "sundry times publicly acted" before 1600. The play likely debuted in the autumn or winter of 1598–99.[1] The earliest recorded performances are two at Court in the winter of 1612–13, during festivities preceding the Wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Frederick V of the Palatinate (14 February 1613).[12] In 1600, the stationers Andrew Wise and William Aspley published the play in quarto.[13] This was the only edition prior to the First Folio in 1623.[14]
Much Ado About Nothing is set in Messina, a port city on the island of Sicily, when Sicily is ruled by Aragon.[17] Its action takes place mainly at the home and grounds of Leonato's Estate.
c. 1598: In the original production by the , William Kempe played Dogberry and Richard Cowley played Verges.
The title track of the 2009 Mumford & Sons album Sigh No More uses quotes from this play in the song. The title of the album is also a quotation from the play.
Opera McGill commissioned an operatic adaptation of the play with music by James Garner and libretto adapted by Patrick Hansen, to premiere in Montréal in the 2023/24 season.[44][45]
In 2012 a filmed version of the live 2011 performance at The Globe was released to cinemas and on DVD. The same year, a filmed version of the 2011 performance at Wyndham's Theatre was made available for download or streaming on the Digital Theatre website.
In 2015, Owen Drake created a modern movie version of the play, Messina High, starring Faye Reagan.[49]
The 2023 romantic comedy Anyone But You directed by Will Gluck and co-written by Ilana Wolpert,[50][51] and starring Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell as analogues of Beatrice and Benedick, is a loose adaptation principally set in contemporary Australia.
There have been several screen adaptations of Much Ado About Nothing, almost all of them made for television. An adaptation is the 1973 New York Shakespeare Festival production by Joseph Papp, shot on videotape and released on VHS and DVD, that includes more of the text than Branagh's version. It is directed by A. J. Antoon. The Papp production stars Sam Waterston, Kathleen Widdoes, and Barnard Hughes.
In 2019, PBS recorded a live production of the Public Theater's 2019 Shakespeare in the Park production at the Delacorte Theater in New York City’s Central Park for Great Performances. The all-Black cast features Danielle Brooks and Grantham Coleman as Beatrice and Benedick, directed by Kenny Leon, with choreography by Camille A. Brown.[55] The cast also includes Jamar Brathwaite (Ensemble), Chuck Cooper (Leonato), Javen K. Crosby (Ensemble), Denzel DeAngelo Fields (Ensemble), Jeremie Harris (Claudio), Tayler Harris (Ensemble), Erik Laray Harvey (Antonio/Verges), Kai Heath (Messenger), Daniel Croix Henderson (Balthasar), Tyrone Mitchell Henderson (Friar Francis/Sexton), Tiffany Denise Hobbs (Ursula), Lateefah Holder (Dogberry), LaWanda Hopkins (Dancer), Billy Eugene Jones (Don Pedro), Margaret Odette (Hero), Hubert Point-Du Jour (Don John), William Roberson (Ensemble), Jaime Lincoln Smith (Borachio), Jazmine Stewart (Ensemble), Khiry Walker (Conrade/Ensemble), Olivia Washington (Margaret) and Latra A. Wilson (Dancer).
In 2016, Lily Anderson released the young adult novel The Only Thing Worse Than Me Is You, a modern adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing whose main characters, Trixie Watson and Ben West, attend a "school for geniuses".[56]
In 2017, Mckelle George released a YA adaptation, Speak Easy, Speak Love, in which the play's events take place in the 1920s, focused around a failing speakeasy.[57]
In 2018, Molly Booth released a summer YA novel adaptation, Nothing Happened, in which Claudio and Hero are a queer couple, Claudia and Hana.[58]
In 2019, Laura Wood released Under a Dancing Star, a YA modernized version set in Florence.[59]
In 2022, Chloe Liese released Two Wrongs Make a Right, a contemporary romance reimagining of the tale.[60]
a moon of Uranus, named after the character from Much Ado About Nothing
