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Much Ado About Nothing
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Award-nominated keyboardist Jeff McMahon again took the theatre stage as the conniving and underhanded Borachio in the Circle Players’ critically-lauded production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center.
“This was my first time to actually perform Shakespeare,” said McMahon. “I love the language, his ability to say so much with such grace . . . the musicality of it.” Having spent little time with the bard in school, he came to study it much later. “Yeah, I read a lot of his work on my own. Our fan club president Rene thinks it’s hilarious! She told me once: ‘You are so JEFF if you have both leather work gloves and William Shakespeare in your truck at the same time!’”
Director Melissa Williams stood the show on its head as she embraced the comic charm and bandied wit in this story of two different sets of lovers and the varied obstacles that confront them. Choosing to set the story in Italy in 1936, she stepped far from convention and made the show her own. Evans Donnell, theatre critic for The Tennessean, embraced the creative nature of her production, writing “the screwball comedy air she wraps around the Bard’s play fits like an evening glove” (The Tennessean. “Circle Players Stir Up Right Mix of Mirth Over Matter in ‘Ado’” 16 January 2003).
While both McMahon and Williams had each worked with a variety of other productions in the past, this was their first collaboration. Williams had this to say about working with Jeff for the first time:
A few years ago I went to see a play at Circle Players and first saw Jeff McMahon while he portrayed a rather sleazy Bill Sikes in the musical Oliver.” The next time I saw Jeff, he was playing a more likeable character in Rags.” But, fortunately for me as a director, Jeff was willing to return to the portrayal of a less-than-lovable individual.
When Jeff auditioned for Much Ado About Nothing, I only knew he could sing and seemed to be growing as an actor each time I saw him. I knew I wanted to cast him after his Shakespearean monologue as he had an understanding and comfort with Elizabethan English. Once he read the part of Borachio, I knew I had found the devious sidekick for Don John.
Only after casting Jeff did I finally discover the real identity of Jeff McMahon, keyboardist with the Dancehall Doctors. Of all the many things Ive learned about Jeff in the year that I have had the pleasure of knowing him, his unpretentious manner in a career noted for flash and ostentation have impressed me the most.
Jeff is a talented and growing actor as well as a well-respected and loved musician. His talents, a gift from God, his friendliness, genuine interest in others and love for his family, Jeff has developed on his own. I am just glad I have had the opportunity to consider him a friend and peer.
Rewarded by audiences and critics alike, Much Ado About Nothing was recognized at the annual awards ceremony with six awards for both performance and technical excellence. Director Melissa Williams was awarded as one of two in a tie for Best Director.
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