The 1983/84 Royal Shakespeare Company season provided Derek Jacobi with
one of the greatest showcases ever given an actor with the massive roles of
Peer Gynt, Prospero in The Tempest, Cyrano de Bergerac, and Benedick
in Much Ado About Nothing. He won an Evening Standard Award for his work
over the entire season and the Laurence Oliver Award for his Cyrano, but when
he took Cyrano and Much Ado on a North American tour, it was his
masterful Benedick (beautifully matched by the glorious Beatrice of Sinead Cusack
and a hilarious - and sadly underrated - Christopher Benjamin as Dogberry) that
received the most attention, winning Jacobi the Tony Award as Best Actor in
a Play (the first actor in a Shakespearean role to win the award in that category).
Frank Rich of the New York Times wrote "It's hilarious to watch Mr. Jacobi,
who has piously mocked Claudio's romantic ardor 10 minutes earlier, rack his
brain to find any convenient excuse for his sudden change of heart. By the time
he grabs at his final rationalization - 'The world must be peopled' - he has
about-faced so many times he's spinning. When he emerges later in full romantic
plumage - a red cape matched by the rose he daintily carries in his hand - the
deadpan understatement 'I am not as I have been' becomes a tumultuous punchline."