Live Theatre Review - The Bard in Bars

Art Prevails Project staged its spectacular show The Bard in Bars at the Amaturo Stage at Broward Center from July 25, 2025 – July 26, 2025.

Knowing nothing of this show, you can probably guess it’s about Shakespeare – but what of the “bars?” Is it like Drunk Shakespeare? Or "bars" – is it like when Shakespeare is performed by prisoners, bringing beauty and art to their desperation? Good guesses, but no – the “bars” in this case are the ones you spit. Consider this show The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) meets & Juliet, but set to hip-hop.

I'm only half the target audience for the show. I'm enchanted by Shakespeare, but my knowledge of hip-hop was limited to what B-94 was playing and what Casey Kasem's Top 40 would spin every Sunday. My hip-hop did not have parental guidance stickers on it. My hip- hop was on Yo! MTV Raps or whatever snuck onto VH-1 in the early 90s (hint: it had a nose big like a pickle and will probably get stuck in your head now). So maybe I'm 5/8 the target audience, because when I finally did cop on (took me about 4 songs) that the songs being sung were adaptations of existing hip-hop songs, the rest of the vision clicked, and if I wasn’t fully invested before, I definitely was now.

This masterpiece sprung forth from the mind of Darius V. Daughtry - The Bard in Bars. Even the title is a thing of beauty; it rolls around on the tongue and the assonance is almost a song itself. But say it too quickly and it will trip you up - it requires a slow touch, careful consideration – a bit like Shakespeare.

I venture to say that what & Juliet did for Shakespeare and pop music, The Bard in Bars has done for hip-hop. It takes a thing you already know and already love and combines it with a thing you already know and already love to make a third thing that you can't help but love. He serves up some of the greatest hits but throws in some deep cuts, and I'm just talking about the Shakespeare.

During the songs, which are partially rewritten for the show, the characters explain the plot, explain their own motivations alternately using their own translation and using Shakespeare's original words, seamlessly code switching from one method to the next. If you are very familiar with Shakespeare, you can recognize the modal shifts, but even if you've never heard or read a word of the Bard, it's easy and pleasing to follow the flow to see where it takes you.

Iago gets a Disney-villain type song that brings new focus to his motives (and to Shakespeare’s motives in writing him).

When it comes to the treatment of Hamlet – I don’t want to give away too much: go and see the show! – it’s nothing less than perfection. I harken back to & Juliet, in that the way that the songs are incorporated makes it feel like they were written FOR the play rather than the other way around, the way they perfectly fit with the action. (If you haven’t seen & Juliet yet, next season at Broward Center!) The song choice here – hooray! one that I actually know! – fits so well that one wonders if the song’s composer was thinking of Hamlet when he wrote it. I had to come home and listen to it again, but this time focusing on Shakespeare’s play, and then marveling at how Mr. Daughtry’s mind works.

There were several moments in the show where I broke out in goosebumps and several where I broke out in tears. I laughed, I cheered, I cursed my feeble mind for not having written this script.

Making Shakespeare accessible is always a challenge and making Shakespeare fun a bigger one. This production does both, and I would further venture to say that it makes Shakespeare desirable.

Everything in this show is a joy – the set design (subtle or elaborate, the show illustrates that Shakespeare doesn’t need to be expensive to be performed, which makes it more accessible); the costumes (by AGuy Style) (Rosalind’s beautiful skirt, Puck’s fun fairy look, Willy Shakes’s steampunk military garb, the orchestra members in crowns, and Hamlet’s magnificent coat, to name a few); the beautiful orchestral arrangements of (what I now recognize to be) classic hip-hop numbers (arranged by Waldron Dunkley and performed by New Canon Chamber Collective); the dynamic choreography (by Shanna Woods) for all the musical numbers (and some of the non-musical ones). How lovely and fortuitous that real-life twins (Isadelle Mercedes and Yamille Mercedes) are playing Viola and Sebastian in this production! Willy Shakes himself (David H. Hepburn) is outstandingly complex in his portrayal of the (sometimes controverted) author of the works.

The beauty of this play and its casting is that it brings Shakespeare to a possibly underserved community – people of color. Shakespeare’s works don’t tend to highlight people of color, and when they do, things don’t necessarily work in their favor (think Othello and Merchant), so it’s beautiful that this show brings Black artists and Black music together with a Black cast and crew to prove that Shakespeare can - and should! - be for everyone. (Side note, I love that shows like this and Fat Ham are starting to emerge and run with this theme. Not to keep bringing up & Juliet, but & Juliet.)

I could pick this show apart for hours, describing how I love love love it (let me count the ways), but instead, I urge you to GO see this show if you get a chance. And if you don’t get one, MAKE one. FIND THIS SHOW AND SEE IT. It will open your mind, and if your mind is already open, it may blow your mind, like it did mine.

Buy tickets for July 26, 2025