IF you like your theater classic and delivered with no gimmicks, Shakespeare ‘70 Inc., is the company to keep. It claims to be the only area theater that presents Shakespeare on a regular basis, although their range is from Elizabethan to modern. This week the production is Candida (1894), one of George Bernard Shaw’s most popular plays from his series of Plays Pleasant, published in 1898 — as opposed to the Plays Unpleasant, which include Mrs. Warren’s Profession (1893).

   It’s instructive to consider these two plays together. Whereas Mrs. Warren is a brash businesswoman who scandalizes her daughter, the clergyman’s wife Candida Morrell is all sweetness and light. You might say the Morrell household is an early model for what would become TV situation comedies. It’s a sort of “Honeymooners” Light.

   The Rev. James Morell (played by Steve Lobis) is a Church of England Christian socialist whose lecture appointments crowd his weekdays. His conversation sounds like one of his earnest talks — or at least a sermon. His wife, Candida (played by Janet Quartarone), has brought home from central London an earnest young poet who amuses her, Eugene Marchbanks (Patrick Albanesius). For his part, the young man has a full-blown romantic crush on this older woman, whom he wants to save from her oppressively dull home life.

   Rounding out the cast are three others: the Rev. Lexy Mill (Frederick Halperin), a devoted young assistant who slavishly apes his mentor’s very gestures and expressions; Prossy (Gina Yanuzzi), a no-nonsense young secretary to the Rev. Morell; and Candida’s father, Mr. Burgess (Rupert Hinton), an industrialist who crosses ethical swords with his son-in-law over labor issues.

   Shaw’s social commentary is certainly present in this play, where it fuels much of the humor. But this is a softer, gentler approach, and the characters are all about getting past the facades we wear. They push each other to drop the posing and say what they really feel and think. The climax is Marchbanks’s challenge to Candida: She must choose between him and her husband.

   The cast brings off this domestic comedy with flair. Lobis gives us a Rev. Morell who is self-important and complacent, but a teddy bear at heart. Hinton, the only Brit in the cast, is broadly comic as a rough-around-the-edges capitalist. Halperin and Yanuzzi give gemlike performances in small but very funny roles. The undisputed star is Quartarone. You can understand exactly why the heart-on-a-sleeve poet, played to wimpy perfection by Albanesius, would fall head over heels. And why her husband can’t seem to live without this woman, who, along with the Almighty, keeps the firmament in place with a velvet touch.

   On the other end of the theater spectrum is Bristol Riverside Theatre, founded with the purpose of finding and developing new plays. What You Will, inspired by an idea of BRT Artistic Director Keith Baker and co-directed by Donald Byrd with music by Justin Ellington, is a full-blown dancing, singing, playing, disc jockeying hip-hop treatment of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. BRT Founding Director Susan Atkinson prepares the audience before curtain. She herself knew nothing about hip-hop before, she says, and so we should treat this as getting to know a different culture, but within the medium of a familiar play. Hopefully, the synergy will open new ways of appreciating both.

   And, apropos her warning about staying clear of the aisles, the entire 400-seat venue is the “stage” for this very lively show. It opens with a show-stopping dance routine to get you in the mood. The first reaction is amazement, followed by “What does this have to do with Shakespeare?” Baker explained in an interview with WRTI Radio, “‘Twelfth Night’ is about music and it has many musical possibilities. We wanted something that would be absolutely delightful and utterly entertaining.”

   I was afraid the Bard’s text would be hip-hop-edited along with the movements; blessedly they are not. It’s Shakespeare, all right, but with a musical backbeat. The poetry of the text knocks you over the head in this context. Filtering it through hip-hop is like putting 3-D glasses on and seeing beyond the surface. It’s flavor-enhanced.

   Of course, this comedy is about playing with the meanings of words and slipping in and out of disguises. Mistaken identities are key. Nothing is nailed down. So why not have stupendous break-dancer Gabriel “Kwikstep” Dionisio on the floor?

   No doubt Shakespeare’s contemporaries went to the theater to have a great time at this play and forget their troubles. So you have scenes that are like very physical vaudeville comedy bits. The cast, all very polished, are having a great time. As a kind of musical Greek chorus, a very fine violinist, Claudia Pellegrini, wanders at the periphery of the scenes, enhancing the action.

   From time to time, characters mount a staircase to a DJ table and start the music that will back up a song, or serve as the foundation for choreography. There are so many exceptional players in the production, it’s a shame to leave anyone out. But I must mention especially John-Patrick Driscoll as Sir Andrew Aquecheek, Trever Vaughn as Feste the Fool, Carl Wallnau as Malvolio, and Christin Sawyer Davis as Viola. Everyone is fabulous.

   Enjoyable as this can be in its own right, one has to ask — does it help Shakespeare in any way? It depends on how much of a purist you are. Shakespeare has been subjected to more than his share of experimental staging in the name of contemporizing him. And the plays have always bounced back.

Candida continues at the Don Evans Black Box Theatre, Kendall Hall, on the campus of The College of New Jersey, Ewing, Feb. 19-21. Performances: Thurs.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors (62 and up), and $6 for students; (609) 882-5979; reservations@shakespeare70.org

What You Will continues at the Bristol Riverside Theatre, 120 Radcliffe Street, Bristol, Pa., Feb. 18-22, 25-28, and March 1. Performances: Wed. 3 p.m., Thurs.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 3 p.m. Tickets cost $34 and $37, and $15 for students; (215) 785-0100; www.brtstage.org