Central Park
Delacorte Theater
July 11 – August 13, free, 8:00
shakespeareinthepark.org
The Public Theater follows up its controversial staging of Julius Caesar, in which the title character was modeled directly on President Donald Trump, with its fourth presentation of the Bard’s enchanting fairy tale, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. James Lapine directed the 1982 edition, starring Christine Baranski, Ricky Jay, Deborah Rush, Kevin Conroy, and William Hurt; Cacá Rosset played Bottom and helmed the carnivalesque 1991 version from Brazil’s Teatro do Ornitorrinco; and in 2006, Daniel Sullivan directed Martha Plimpton, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Mireille Enos, Keith David, Tim Blake Nelson, George Morfogen, and Jay O. Sanders. Now Obie winner Lear deBessonet (Venus, Good Person of Szechwan), who directed the Public Works adaptations of The Winter’s Tale in 2014 and The Odyssey in 2015 at the Delacorte, has assembled a stellar cast for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, running from July 11 to August 13. The roster includes Tony winner Annaleigh Ashford as Helena, six-time Tony nominee Danny Burstein as Nick Bottom, Tony winner Phylicia Rashad as Titania, Kyle Beltran as Lysander, De’Adre Aziza as Hippolyta, Bhavesh Patel as Theseus, Shalita Grant as Hermia, Robert Joy as Peter Quince, Patrena Murray as Snout, Richard Poe as Oberon, and two-time Obie winner and Tony nominee Kristine Nielsen as Puck. The scenic design is by Tony winner David Rockwell, with costumes by Tony winner Clint Ramos, choreography by Chase Brock, and original music by Justin Levine. There are several ways to get the much-coveted free tickets: going to Central Park and waiting on line at the Delacorte for distribution at 12 noon; signing up for the lottery at the Public Theater at 11:00 am; picking up a voucher at a specific daily location in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island for a noon distribution; or trying the email and digital TodayTix lotteries. Good luck — as Lysander tells Hermia, “The course of true love never did run smooth.”