![\"James](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/sut-l-James_Vasquez.jpg\")
James V\u00e1squez directs “The Comedy of Errors” at the Old Globe. (The Old Globe)<\/p>\nIt required three days of ruminating in his back yard for director James V\u00e1squez to hit on his vision for the Old Globe\u2019s new production of Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cThe Comedy of Errors.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the third day,\u201d he recalled, \u201cI put on a \u201990s radio station on Apple Music. Feeling the nostalgia of those songs and the melodrama of those songs and the ridiculousness of some of those songs, I found myself as I was reading the play starting to sing lyrics in place of some of Shakespeare\u2019s verse. I discovered how that music lent itself so much to the actual storytelling of \u2018The Comedy of Errors.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
So for this Globe staging outdoors in the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre, \u201cWe\u2019ve set it in the 1990s, riffing a little bit on that Pacific Northwest vs. Southern California. \u2018The Comedy of Errors\u2019 starts out in a bit of a heavy place, but through the storytelling and the music of it, the color and the brightness explodes throughout. That became my way in \u2014 inspired by the grunge vs. \u2018Beverly Hills 90210\u2019 world of the 1990s.\u201d<\/p>\n
James V\u00e1squez directs “The Comedy of Errors” at the Old Globe. (The Old Globe)<\/p>\n
As a director, V\u00e1squez is an experienced time traveler, having set the Globe\u2019s 2023 production of Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cThe Merry Wives of Windsor\u201d in the 1950s and, just recently, he helmed playwright Sandy Rustin\u2019s 1980s jukebox musical \u201cAlways Something There \u2026\u201d at Chicago\u2019s Marriott Theatre.<\/p>\n
The \u201890s setting for \u201cThe Comedy of Errors\u201d won\u2019t be so audacious as integrating \u201cSmells Like Teen Spirit,\u201d but, V\u00e1squez said, \u201cThere\u2019s some occasional fun with the language and updating some of the words to make it the 1990s. Since we\u2019re setting it in a more contemporary world that allows some freedom in the musicality and rhythm of the language, it allows more people in.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Comedy of Errors\u201d was last produced at the Globe 10 years ago. A \u201cGlobe for All Tour\u201d of the play directed by Em Weinstein was produced in 2023 at various communities across San Diego. The play about two sets of twins is popular for its mistaken-identity mix-ups, slapstick and physicality.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/sut-l-stage-errors2_231256370.jpg\")
The Old Globe\u2019s \u201cThe Comedy of Errors\u201d features, from left, Daniel Petzold (Dromio of Ephesus), left, Brandon Micheal Hall (Antipholus of Syracuse),\u00a0 Joshua Echebiri (Antipholus of Ephesus) and Will Blum (Dromo of Syracuse). (Jim Cox)<\/p>\n
At the Globe, Brandon Micheal Hall and Joshua Echebiri (the Globe\u2019s \u201cKing James\u201d) are the Antipholus twins of Syracuse and Ephesus respectively. The twin Dromio servants who are their sidekicks are Will Blum and Daniel Petzold (the Globe\u2019s \u201cAppropriate\u201d earlier this year). Sarah Stiles (also from \u201cAppropriate\u201d and twice a Tony Award nominee) is Adriana, wife of Antipholus of Ephesus.<\/p>\n
For Blum, \u201cThe Comedy of Errors\u201d marks his first Shakespeare acting performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think I even did one in college,\u201d he said. \u201cI studied it and did scene work. As a director and coach, I love it. It\u2019s like Sondheim \u2014 just a big puzzle and you have to figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n
When last seen in San Diego, Blum was starring in a production of the Stephen Sondheim\/James Lapine musical \u201cSunday in the Park with George\u201d with CCAE Theatricals in Escondido. His background is in musical theater with a resume that includes \u201cBeetlejuice,\u201d \u201cThe Book of Mormon\u201d and \u201cSchool of Rock\u201d on Broadway.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a challenge,\u201d he said, of his playing Dromio of Syracuse at the Globe, \u201cbut this Shakespeare in particular would be different if I were doing \u2018Henry V.\u2019 Because it\u2019s \u2018The Comedy of Errors,\u201d what\u2019s more important is the performance aspect of it and making things funny, which is usually my bread and butter. I don\u2019t feel intimidated by it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Director V\u00e1squez pointed out that some of his cast members \u201care wildly versed and trained in Shakespeare\u201d while others, such as Blum, are having their first go at the Bard.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the beautiful things about \u2018The Comedy of Errors,\u2019\u201d V\u00e1squez said, \u201cis we have a lot of musical theater performers in the show. \u2018The Comedy of Errors\u2019 has such a musical theater vibe and energy to it that I find there\u2019s a similar sensibility. These actors that are new to it are bringing something so fresh while understanding the language beautifully.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Will](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/sut-l-stage-errors1jpg.jpg\")
Will Blum (as Dromio of Syracuse), left, and Daniel Petzold (Dromio of Ephesus) in the Old Globe\u2019s \u201cThe Comedy of Errors.\u201d (Jim Cox)<\/p>\n
Blum finds his Dromio character a kindred spirit.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot to undermine my own work, but I\u2019ve played so many characters like him that I have manila folders ready to go,\u201d he said. \u201cAt the same time because I\u2019m so comfortable with a character like this and James is so open to \u2018capital-S-Stupid\u2019 ideas I\u2019ve gotten to play in a way that I haven\u2019t gotten to play in a while in essentially creating a role like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
That playfulness hasn\u2019t been lost on V\u00e1squez.<\/p>\n
\u201cWill\u2019s a little bit of an instigator, in the most beautiful way,\u201d he said. \u201cSomebody drops an idea and he\u2019ll go \u2018Yeah! I\u2019ll do that,\u2019 and then the next thing you know he\u2019s got everybody climbing up the walls.\u201d<\/p>\n
V\u00e1squez has been working with his cast in rehearsals on the breathless physicality often called for in the play.<\/p>\n
\u201cI come in always with very clear, specific road maps of what I would like the overall picture to look like and the movement surrounding it,\u201d he explained. \u201cI rehearse it at home in my \u2018one-man kitchen show\u2019 first. I find that about 70 percent of what I create naturally fits somebody else.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blum\u2019s come prepared.<\/p>\n
\u201cLuckily,\u201d he said, I\u2019ve been on a fitness journey for the past year. I honestly do Jane Fonda (program) every morning. It\u2019s an amazing workout.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Comedy of Errors\u201d is not only Blum\u2019s debut in Shakespeare but his debut at the Old Globe. \u201cI feel very taken care of,\u201d he said of his experience. \u201cIt feels like Broadway summer camp.\u201d<\/p>\n
The outdoor Lowell Davies stage is special to V\u00e1squez, who remembered seeing his first Shakespeare plays, \u201cA Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream\u201d and \u201cRichard III,\u201d there during the summer of 1985. He\u2019s since acted and directed in all three Old Globe venues in Balboa Park. He doesn\u2019t have a favorite, but says: \u201cThere\u2019s something magical outdoors about no back wall, and occasionally hearing a rhinoceros.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018The Comedy of Errors\u2019<\/p>\n
When:<\/strong> Previews, July 27 through Aug. 1. Opens Aug. 2 and runs through Aug. 24. 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays<\/p>\n