Guthrie Theater's 'Tempest' finds the party in Shakespeare's classic

If you didn't come to party, don't bother knocking on "The Tempest's" door.

The Guthrie Theater's production of Shakespeare's classic is built for fun, wringing every bit of comedy out of it and finding opportunities for laughs that Will never dreamed of. For instance, Prospera's "Sit, then, and talk with her" does not read like a joke but Regina Marie Williams makes it hilarious. There's even a climactic mega-mix featuring Beach Boys and Whitney Houston songs that topped the charts in the 17th century.

If that means this "Tempest," directed by Joe Dowling, misses some of the gravity of the play, which has to do with righting vicious wrongs, it's a defensible choice in a time of uncertainty and war. That Minneapolis bard who wrote the line paraphrased in the first sentence of this review doesn't actually pop up but the show falls in line with another sentiment from Prince's "1999": "War is all around us/ My mind says prepare to fight/ So if I gotta die/ Gonna listen to my body tonight."

That means your toes may tap during the musical breaks in "Tempest." But you won't want to miss a word that the magnificent Williams says, which is tricky during the opening, when thunder drowns her out. Her Prospera is witty, ferocious and open to admitting she's wrong.

Williams brings ironic humor to the first half, in which her exiled Duke of Milan directs sidekick Ariel (Tyler Michaels King) to create a storm that will bring a ship of Milan's current rulers to the island where she and daughter Miranda are marooned. The plan is to punish them for double-crossing her and retake her title. It falters because, on the verge of enacting revenge, Prospera realizes her foes are humans who make mistakes just like the one she is about to make.

All of that lands in a gorgeous scene when Prospera confronts her own conscience. Williams, who has the most expressive hands this side of a Bob Fosse routine, reveals that her character's entire body is wrestling with what vengeance will cost. This fun-loving "Tempest" relies on its Prospera to supply gravity, and Williams delivers.

Elsewhere, the fun continues. Robert Dorfman is side-splitting in a scene where he tries to maintain a royal servant's elegant bearing despite being nine sheets to the wind. Designer Ann Hould-Ward and the Guthrie's wig department have Ariel in the racy costume of a Vegas showgirl with the enormous wig of a Stray Cat. And the other garments swing between two poles: The bad guys appear to have stepped out of a 1930s screwball comedy where everything goes to hell at a fancy dinner but other characters seem to moonlight as glam rockers.

Throughout, the play reminds us that all may not end as well as it seems. Dowling opens the show with a roaring storm, then lets Ariel reveal the stage tricks that made it happen, inviting us to question whether to believe what we see. That same question is there in the text, when Miranda remarks of a handsome suitor, "Nothing ill can dwell in such a temple."

That's not true, of course. Appearances can deceive, as Shakespeare keeps telling us in "The Tempest." So, even as it's partying like it's 1999, the Guthrie's upbeat production reminds us we can hide from a storm for a while, but not forever.

'The Tempest'

Who: By William Shakespeare. Directed by Joe Dowling.

When: 7:30 p.m. Tue.-Sat., 1 and 7 p.m. Sun. Ends April 16.

Where: Guthrie Theater, 818 S. 2nd St., Mpls.

Protocol: Vaccinations and masks that securely cover nose and mouth required.

Tickets: $26-$80, 612-377-2224 or guthrietheater.org.