Setting Shakespeare’s lyrics to music is frequently challenging due to how much songwriting has changed since his time.  Our verses are longer, our choruses more repetitive, and our nonsense lyrics are of the “Hay, hay hay” and “Yeah, yeah, yeah” variety rather than “with a hey and ho and a hey nonny no”.  The rhythm of his words leads most naturally and obviously to the sing-song, 6/8 feel of the Renaissance.  But with some intent and focus, you can usually find a new way to set them.

This production of TWELFTH NIGHT taught me that Shakespeare’s lyrics are well suited to the blues.  While the vocabulary is different, modern blues lyrics share the same simple structure and short phrasing.  And the subject matter: love, lost love, being done wrong, dying for want of love, feeling left out in the cold, or (as in this case) aggressive flirting are pure blues.  The song may as well be called “Hey Pretty Baby”.