You could do much worse in concocting a 21^st-century romantic comedy than turn to Shakespeare’s prototype rom-com, Much Ado About Nothing, for inspiration. Throw in readers’ current—and perhaps lasting—predilection for the book genre dubbed “romantasy,” and you’ve got plenty to mine from for laughter, as playwright Lauren M. Gunderson does in the rolling world premiere of Lady Disdain, now onstage at Asolo Rep.

Here those warring lovers, Beatrice and Benedick, are still Beatrice and Ben (Veronika Duerr and Casey Murphy); they just happen to both be involved in recording audiobooks for the stories of vampires/witches, etc. that romantasy thrives on. They don’t know at first that they’re even in the same studio; producer Pedro (Michael Flood) has been keeping them apart, knowing full well their volatile on again/off again history.

But we know for sure there’s still a spark burning bright there, and it doesn’t take long for the flames to ignite, with the pair launching into some PG-13-rated sex. In the meantime, another voice actress enters the scene: Hannah (Sophia Alawi), who’s also up for a role in the same universe of a popular TV show Ben starred in about a decade earlier. She hits it off with sound engineer Claudio (Ben Clark), and everybody hits it off with the book’s author, Alice (Brett Ashley Robinson), when she arrives, too.

But Much Ado fans will remember there’s a dark side to this comedy, and Gunderson develops that (sort of abruptly) when Hannah’s vengeful ex shames her on social media sharing images meant to stay private, threatening to ruin her big chance. How can everything end happily for our heroes and heroines?

Gunderson and the Asolo cast, under the direction of Sean Daniels, certainly hit the ground running with this production, getting steamy from the first scenes as we hear Bea and Ben delivering their racy audiobook lines. “Running” is the word here; sometimes the pace in Act I is so fast you might miss some of the admittedly clever dialogue being hurled about (along with some judicious use of Shakespeare’s original lines). At the very least, the speed makes it harder to learn or understand the characters very well. It makes one wonder why it’s all being played at such a fever pitch; couldn’t we slow down a bit and still enjoy it?

But the old “enemies to lovers” trope still plays as well as it did in the 16th century, and there is amusement in watching Ben and Bea’s friends pushing them together, and in a couple of innuendo-laced scenes between the two. There’s also some compelling argument from Bea about how and why the female audience especially turns to stories of romance, given their history of having little or no agency in their real lives for centuries. The romantasy brand presents strong female characters for readers to model on.

Given that this is such a recent play from the prolific Gunderson, perhaps she might make time to tweak it for more impact as it begins its rounds of other productions. As far as this one goes, why not take it down a notch?

Lady Disdain continues through June 27. For tickets, call (941) 351-8000 or go to asolorep.org.