{"id":2370904,"date":"2026-04-13T10:38:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T10:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2370904"},"modified":"2026-04-13T10:38:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T10:38:17","slug":"lady-disdain-world-premiere-rides-sparkling-into-overture-entertainment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/lady-disdain-world-premiere-rides-sparkling-into-overture-entertainment\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Lady Disdain\u2019 world premiere rides sparkling into Overture | Entertainment"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Some readers like romance novels for \u201cthe spice and the swoon,\u201d the hot-and-heavy, the yearning and growling. Hannah, a hopeful young voice actor in \u201cLady Disdain,\u201d likes knowing how the story will end.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know it\u2019s going to be OK for the characters I love,\u201d she says. \u201cThere\u2019s safety in that, and that\u2019s what I need. \u2026 These books remind me that good guys exist. Or should.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Beatrice (Colleen Madden) and Hannah (Phoebe Gonz\u00e1lez) narrate an audiobook in “Lady Disdain.”\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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In \u201cLady Disdain,\u201d a delightful new adaptation of \u201cMuch Ado About Nothing,\u201d playwright Lauren Gunderson takes the sparring enemies-to-loves of Shakespeare\u2019s comedy and leaves the tropes we no longer have use for. If you\u2019d love\u00a0a modern \u201cMuch Ado<\/a>\u201d where the patriarchy doesn\u2019t always win, plus a lot of bawdy jokes, this is your show.<\/p>\n

Forward Theater<\/a> produces Gunderson\u2019s comedy in the Overture Center Playhouse through April 26. \u201cDisdain\u201d is a rolling world premiere and part of World Premiere Wisconsin<\/a>. It heads next to Asolo Rep in Sarasota, Florida.<\/p>\n

With wits as sharp as their Shakespearean counterparts, modern-day Beatrice and Ben(edick) resume their \u201cmerry war\u201d in an audiobook recording studio. They are surrounded by soothing tones \u2014 Steve Barnes designed the acoustic panels, wooden accents and soft-hued decorative rug, warmly lit by Greg Hofmann.<\/p>\n

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Voice actors Hannah (Phoebe Gonz\u00e1lez) and Beatrice (Colleen Madden) take advice from the romantasy author (Alys Dickerson)\u00a0who wrote the book their narrating in “Lady Disdain.” Steve Barnes designed the set and\u00a0Greg Hofmann designed the lighting.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Audio producer Danny (Matt Daniels) has cashed in on a \u201csmutty gold rush\u201d of romantasy, casting our two acrimonious exes opposite each other to read a dragon witch\/vampire duke series that\u2019s blowing up.<\/p>\n

Bea (Colleen Madden) and Ben (David Daniel) record in separate rooms. But Danny will be, to their dismay, \u201cblending the moans.\u201d Ben already hates the project. \u201cSmut\u201d is not serious enough for him. It\u2019s \u201cbuilt on delusion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was the serious literature guy and now I\u2019m the swoony monster guy?\u201d Ben pouts. \u201cGive me anything but this romance crap.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Beatrice (Colleen Madden) and Ben (David Daniel) try to resist falling for each other again in “Lady Disdain,” based on “Much Ado About Nothing.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

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The scathing rebuttal to this delivered by Beatrice \u2014 a long-ago ex Ben texted after reading one smoldering scene \u2014 is part aria, part dissertation. Madden, pacing the stage as she refuses to give ground, is in her element as Beatrice mops the floor with Ben.<\/p>\n

Women know that love and marriage was and often is, still, life and death, she says. It wasn\u2019t designed for men. And the formula is working, by the millions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSome books get trophies, some get residuals,\u201d she scoffs. This scene by itself is worth the price of admission to \u201cLady Disdain.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Hannah (Phoebe Gonz\u00e1lez) and Claudio (Ronald Rom\u00e1n-Mel\u00e9ndez) fall in love in “Lady Disdain.”\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Alys Dickerson is perfectly cast as nerdy-chic romantasy author Alice, whose \u201cfreaky little stories\u201d are changing her life. Phoebe Gonz\u00e1lez plays our modern day Hero, a smiley sweetheart named Hannah\u00a0\u2014\u00a0another audiobook narrator\u00a0\u2014 who falls quickly for sound engineer Claudio (Ronald Rom\u00e1n-Mel\u00e9ndez).<\/p>\n

They\u2019re awkward and adorable together, until a second act scandal threatens to tank Hannah\u2019s budding film career. (Hofmann\u2019s lighting strobes around Hannah, as if the internet can take physical form inside her home.)<\/p>\n

Madden and Daniel played opposite each other in American Players Theatre\u2019s \u201cMuch Ado\u201d in 2014, and they\u2019re still a compelling, entertaining pair of combatants. Madden has a frank, unyielding stare that could level a courtroom and Daniel is well-practiced as a curmudgeon who\u2019s actually a big softie.<\/p>\n

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Beatrice (Colleen Madden) is swayed by both romantasy and a real-life romance in “Lady Disdain.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Director Jen Uphoff Gray keeps a tight focus on our enemies-to-lovers, pushing them together whether they\u2019re fighting or not. At one point they\u2019re so wrapped up in their argument, Danny has to push himself over the back of the couch to get out of the way.<\/p>\n

Gunderson packs the script with innuendo and silliness, gleefully stealing lines from the original Shakespeare. Some early exposition goes on a bit long (we get it, Ben, you don\u2019t like romance), but overall the play moves like a well-plotted novel.<\/p>\n

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From left, the cast of Forward Theater’s “Lady Disdain” snaps a selfie: Matt Daniel,\u00a0Phoebe Gonz\u00e1lez, Alys Dickerson, Ronald Rom\u00e1n-Mel\u00e9ndez and Colleen Madden.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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I don\u2019t like to talk about the audience, but the amount of \u201cmm-HMM\u201d and \u201caww\u201d and \u201clet\u2019s go!\u201d coming out of the crowd during opening weekend shows that \u201cLady Disdain\u201d hits what it aims for. (I\u2019m not the only one who howled at a line about the resilience of a \u201chigh-achieving eldest daughter theater kid\u201d \u2014 call me out, why don\u2019t you?)<\/p>\n

Toward the middle of the play, the characters in \u201cLady Disdain\u201d sprawl about the stage, each reading from their own, ah, penetrating novel. Beatrice and Ben both want something real, but that doesn\u2019t mean they can\u2019t have fantasy too. There, no matter the obstacle, things are guaranteed to turn out all right.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source captimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some readers like romance novels for \u201cthe spice and the swoon,\u201d the hot-and-heavy, the yearning and growling. Hannah, a hopeful young voice actor in \u201cLady Disdain,\u201d likes knowing how the story will end. \u201cI know it\u2019s going to be OK for the characters I love,\u201d she says. \u201cThere\u2019s safety in that, and that\u2019s what I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2370905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2370904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/\u2018Lady-Disdain-world-premiere-rides-sparkling-into-Overture-Entertainment.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2370904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2370904"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2370904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2370906,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2370904\/revisions\/2370906"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2370905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2370904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2370904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2370904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}