It's understandable why, for her inaugural show as artistic director of the American Repertory Theatre, Diane Paulus would choose to revive The Donkey Show, the popular disco pastiche -- sketchily based on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream -- that was conceived by her husband and co-director Randy Weiner a decade ago.

The show is phenomenally easy to mount, for one thing: Take a club-like space (ART's Zero Arrow black box lends itself easily), hoist a disco ball, lay out the velvet rope, and you're ready to roll. Casting ought to be a breeze as well, since the handful of actors are scarcely required to speak. And the end result is fairly cute and just engaging enough to fill an hou[...]