Review: The Bard's the thing in funny 'What You Will.'

Although he spent 22 years with Britain's Royal Shakespeare Company, Roger Rees feels your pain — you know, about Shakespeare.

In fact, he spends the first 10 minutes or so of his one-man show "What You Will" commiserating with you over just how sucky the Bard is.

He quotes Internet blogs and everything, even experts, like Voltaire, who gave Shakespeare the stink-eye big time, and George Bernard Shaw, who asserted that Shakespeare didn't have the chops to hold the Celtic Socialist's veggie platter.

And then, he spends the rest of the hour and 40 minutes making even those who have to be dragged kicking and screaming to a show about Shakespeare fall in love with the Bard of Stratford-on-Avon. In the process, most will also fall a bit in love with Rees, too, or at least his stunning ability as a raconteur and a masterful interpreter of Shakespeare's greatest hits — sonnets and soliloquies most of us are at least passingly familiar with.

Rees, who might be best known here for his roles on TV's "Cheers" and "Grey's Anatomy," begins the show by carrying a near-life-sized bust of the Bard onto the set by Alexander V. Nichols, and placing the bust on a pedestal.

The stage looks like the rumpus room of a Shakespearean veteran — books scattered and stacked all over the place, a crown or two here and there, posters, programs, swords and even a shield, most of which are put to use during Rees' remarkable show.

The

piece is wildly funny as the actor runs through an array of source material, ranging from quotes copped from student essays ("Shakespeare wrote in Islamic pentameter") to James Thurber (a delightfully droll performance of "The Macbeth Murder Mystery") and Charles Dickens (an account of Mr. Wopsle playing Shakespeare in "Great Expectations").

In some ways, the show plays like a charming reminiscence, with Rees in the role of a favorite dinner guest who is recounting his life as an actor over coffee.

The piece meanders down its colorful path, stopping here for an observation or hilarious quote and there for a bit of the Bard, to illustrate a point, or just make it quite clear that Shakespeare was a pretty doggone good writer, no matter who he actually was, or how many of them there really were.

Rees doesn't attempt to solve any mysteries here. "What You Will" is simply a wonderfully entertaining ride led by a man who has a wonderful talent for telling the tale well.

Reach Pat Craig at pcraig@bayareanewsgroup.com.