(Photo: Courtesy of the Sundance Channel)

If you missed Paul Gross as the Royal Canadian Mountie in Due South, forced to fight crime and feed his wolf in urban-blight Chicago, you will be less amazed than some of us at his transformation from Dudley Do-Right to artistic director of the New Burbage Theatre Festival in this very funny Canadian series. With or without the help of Martha Burns as his leading lady and ex-girlfriend, or Stephen Ouimette as the ghost of the previous artistic director, or newly minted movie star Rachel McAdams, or kid in the hall Mark McKinney, Gross must bring Shakespeare to the masses. Last season was mostly Hamlet, this one Macbeth, during which at least the company won’t have to worry about Ophelia’s playing the drowning scene with an “I don’t want to ruin my dress” subtext. When we aren’t onstage, we are in a pub with a piano, where the sentimental songs amount to a Greek chorus. Think Shakespeare in Love meets Topsy-Turvy.

Season premiere February 19, 8 P.M., Sundance Channel

Related:

• Articles by John Leonard
• Table of Contents: Feb 20, 2006 issue of New York | Subscribe!