AS YOU LIKE IT, Goodman Theatre. In Shakespeare’s comedy a forest is the neutral playground for the romantic encounters that eventually bind exiled lovers Rosalind and Orlando. In this shelter for simplicity and innocence, artificial privilege defers to natural merit.
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Michael Maggio’s bumpy Goodman Theatre revival transplants the corrupt ducal court to our citified east coast circa 1880; the Forest of Arden becomes the rugged foothills of Missouri. The musical backdrop is a mellow-to-rambunctious folk score–the show’s brightest facet–by Miriam Sturm and sound designer Michael Bodeen. This clean concept buoys an already merry play with clap-happy square dances and lifts Shakespeare’s lyrics into full-blooded country ballads. If set designer John Culbert’s sliding Japanese panels never quite convey the Gilded Age, his pastoral cyclorama feels like–well, a month in the country.
