This production of Much Ado About Nothing is incredibly good
I saw this recommended on Bluesky and watched it in fits and starts between my various responsibilities this week. I can't oversell it... it's just really really good.
Everyone in this Free Shakespeare in the Park production from NYC is acting as hard as possible. They're performing the script in a way that makes it super legible and enjoyable. Furthermore, this production's Beatrice, played by Danielle Brooks, has incredibly powerful "real girl energy." She is both smart and extremely foolish. Much Ado About Nothing is about a bunch of idiots, frankly, and everyone in this production has that energy. Playing up everyone's dumbass behavior is absolutely the wisest and best way to tell this story.
I have seen a couple productions of this play that make everyone way too clever and sly, and they don't work anywhere near as well. The plot of this play makes no sense, everyone is silly, and it's supposed to be laugh-out-loud funny. So it works best when everyone is being as foolish as possible, and using their performances to play up what fools they are in love. This production has so much high-quality clowning in it, it's impossible to not enjoy.
If you want to watch some of the best-acted Shakespeare I've seen in a long time, I recommend checking this out via the archive.org link above.