San Diego’s Old Globe is pairing two Broadway veterans as Shakespeare’s most gloriously combative would-be lovers. Eden Espinosa and Tally Sessions take on Beatrice and Benedick in a new outdoor production of Much Ado About Nothing, bringing a little musical-theater voltage to the Bard’s battle of wits. Previews begin Sunday in Balboa Park, with the official opening set for Saturday.
Beatrice And Benedick Get A Broadway-Caliber Reunion
Espinosa plays Beatrice, the sharp-tongued skeptic of romance, while Sessions plays Benedick, her equally committed bachelor nemesis. According to the Old Globe announcement, the production is directed by artistic director Barry Edelstein and runs through Aug. 30 at the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre.
The casting comes with a built-in history: Espinosa and Sessions have been friends for more than a decade and have worked together multiple times. As reported by the San Diego Union-Tribune, Edelstein sees Beatrice and Benedick as people in their 40s, with enough life experience to make their resistance to love feel less like teenage posturing and more like emotional self-defense.
Edelstein also specifically wanted musical-theater performers for the central roles, a choice that should give the verbal sparring extra rhythm and snap. In Shakespeare’s setup, friends scheme to push the two combatants together while a separate romance between the younger Hero and Claudio gets tangled in deception, jealousy and mistaken identity.
Espinosa arrives with one of Broadway’s biggest vocal résumés, including a 2024 Tony nomination for leading actress in a musical for Lempicka, according to the Tony Awards. Her history also includes major runs as Elphaba in Wicked and Maureen in Rent, making her turn toward Shakespeare a notable change of register.
Sessions, meanwhile, has appeared on Broadway in Company, Falsettos and A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical, among other productions, according to his BroadwayWorld bio. The Old Globe has also featured him in its epic Henry 6 cycle, making this return less a one-off guest appearance than another chapter in an ongoing San Diego theater relationship.
Outdoor Shakespeare Runs Through August
The Globe’s production promises music, choreography and a fast-moving comic style rather than a solemn literary exercise. The Old Globe production page lists performances Tuesday through Sunday, with regular tickets starting at $38; the theater is staging the show at 1363 Old Globe Way in Balboa Park.
