The plays of Shakespeare are springboards for endless experiment. For instance, the recent West End show & Juliet brims with pop music, while a film like 1999’s 10 Things I Hate About You (based on The Taming of the Shrew) isn’t a play at all. And yet, the Bard’s English is still perceived by many as too wordy and hard to follow. This was even an issue for Hayley Atwell, who hesitated about the potentially “Hey Nonny Nonny” tone of Much Ado About Nothing when the director Jamie Lloyd approached her to play Beatrice. To her delight, Lloyd shared an inspiration playlist filled with music that was anything but Elizabethan. His modern-day adaptation, which also features Tom Hiddleston as Benedick, is vibrant and playful, placing a strong emphasis on dance. In rehearsals, Atwell says, “we were dancing like nobody was watching … but everyone is watching!” —Jeanne Malle