MUCH TO-DO OVER 'ADO'.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Critic

Ah, what a decent-size budget and some careful attention to detail can accomplish.

The folks who put together South Coast Repertory's wonderful production of Shakespeare's ``Much Ado About Nothing'' have obviously done their creative homework and then some. The program credits archery instructor Gary Holstein, brought in to enhance a scene where three men are metaphorically playing Cupid to help a crony fall in love. And the man enlisted to stage the magical waltzes that brighten and punctuate the performance is none other than Art Manke - co-artistic director of Glendale's classical troupe A Noise Within.

Toss the accomplished Douglas Sills (of ``The Scarlet Pimpernel'' fame) into the mix; pair him with the equally adept Nike Doukas, and surround them with a first rate ensemble, technical and visual splendor designed to re-create, say, a Fred Astaire/ Ginger Rogers flick, and the result is more than worth a trip to Costa Mesa. SCR's ``Much Ado'' makes L.A.'s most recent big Bard offering - the Ahmanson's ``Romeo and Juliet'' - look like your grandfather's Shakespeare.

Admittedly, it's not really a fair comparison. Peter Hall's solid but distinctly by-the-numbers staging of ``R&J'' is light-years from the dish served up by director - and SCR associate artist - Mark Rucker. A veteran of Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Rucker has delivered edgy Shakespeare productions before (he brought 1950s Rat Pack Italiano to ``The Taming of the Shrew'' at SCR five years ago. His ``Much Ado'' is in no way dangerous or risky, but - let's face it - neither is the play. This production is an expertly rendered frolic, and it's damned near irresistible.

You can, the production demonstrates, get frisky even when villains like Don John (played by Joshua Fardon) are scheming to break up the impending marriage of Claudio (Andrew Heffernan) and Hero (Julia Coffey) by falsely accusing Hero of wanton faithlessness. White hats and black hats alike exit the stage with a hitch or a clickety-clack dance step. And when the plot shifts toward making long-time verbal enemies Beatrice and Benedick fall in love with each other, well, ain't they got fun indeed.

The backdrop is 1930s Hollywood screwball comedies in which couples like Grant and Hepburn, Gable and Colbert, and Powell and Loy sparred, encountered mayhem and still found a way to end up together. Less madcap than stylized, Rucker turns the warring Beatrice and Benedick (played by Doukas and Sills) into a Nick and Nora Charles-esque pair (sans the booze) who also have a few Fred and Ginger steps to work out.

An attractive couple, the two actors wear costumer Walter Hicklin's tuxes and ball gowns with great flair. Playing slightly against type this time (his Benedick is, among other things, tone deaf), Sills taps into the character's hamminess without making him a blowhard. Doukas' Beatrice is slightly more rueful, but she seems to enjoy the game of being in and out of love as much as Benedick.

There's not a weak link among the supporting players either, from Robert Dorfman's Kramer-esque constable Dogberry to Todd Murray's Balthasar, who grabs the microphone and sings a ballad in the style of - who else? - Bing Crosby.

All this is played out in scenes of great visual creativity. Consider the aforementioned archery scene in which Claudio, Leonato (Tony Pasqualini) and the Prince (Preston Maybank) deliberately gossip about Beatrice's unrequited love for Benedick so that Benedick will overhear them. At one point, the three men simultaneously fire arrows into the target behind which Benedick is hiding.

Like I said: detail, wit and a spirit of good-hearted amusement have produced a ``Much Ado'' richly worth making much ado about.

``MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING''

Where: South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa.

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 2:30 and 8 p.m Saturday, 7:30 p.m. Sunday; through April 1.

Tickets: $28 to $49. Call [phone].

Our rating: Four stars

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Benedick (Douglas Sills) tests the interests of Beatrice (Nike Doukas) in the South Coast Repertory production of ``Much Ado About Nothing.''