How did Shakespeare’s personal life influence his writing? It is a question that still baffles theatergoers, and this new one-man musical daringly attempts to answer it. Playing fast and loose with the chronology of Shakespeare’s works, author-composer Jan-Erik Sääf and translator Owen Robertson present a young, lusty William as he gleefully hops between the beds of his muse, the Dark Lady, and his lover, the Earl of Southampton. But William is so inept, and so stuffed with plot twists worthy of the cheesiest telenovela, that its seemingly serious look at the Bard plays instead as a strange, inadvertent mockery of him. Performer Jonas Nerbe, with his earnest mien and thick Swedish accent, is hard to watch in the title role, and it's even harder when the script makes him hold up both ends of a conversation or pretend to navigate a crowded room of admirers. As this poor player struts and frets his 90 minutes upon the stage, it winds up signifying zilch.—Chris Corbo
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