For this staging of Shakespeare's comedy, Nino Rota composed the incidental music and several songs. The production benefited from the participation of an exceptional cast: all renowned actors members of the "National Theatre Company", founded in 1963 by Laurence Olivier, who directed it for a decade. Performed in rotation with various other plays, as was customary for the Company, the comedy achieved such success that it was fully recorded for a discographic edition. It was subsequently revived — with a partially modified cast — in later seasons and, exceptionally, was adapted for television in 1967.
As had already happened with the successful English stage production of "Romeo and Juliet", which was later also presented to Italian audiences, Zeffirelli planned an Italian version of "Much Ado About Nothing", with Monica Vitti and Walter Chiari the lead actors. However, the project was never realized; the Archive preserves some costume designs by Zeffirelli and Danilo Donati for the production.