As producers of teen sex comedies and FOX network sitcoms know, nothing’s more entertaining than a guy who can’t keep it in his pants. William Shakespeare, just as much a crowd-friendly entertainer as a brilliant wordsmith, realized this and created several plays around the predicament, two of which are being performed at UH’s 33rd annual Houston Shakespeare Festival. The ever-popular Romeo and Juliet is, of course, the story of a kid who enflamed an age-old family feud in order to get a girl. Love’s Labour’s Lost portrays a king and three companions who swear to forsake the flesh and take up a life of study but find themselves slipping when a quartet of lovesick ladies camp out near the kingdom. (This had to be every Elizabethan lad’s fantasy.)

This article appears in Jul 26 – Aug 1, 2007.