Tag Archives: Delacorte Theater

SHAKESPEARE IN THE PARK: TROILUS AND CRESSIDA

Pandarus (John Glover) brings together Troilus (Andrew Burnap) and Cressida (Ismenia Mendes) in new Shakespeare in the Park production (photo by Joan Marcus)

Central Park
Delacorte Theater
Through August 14, free, 8:00
publictheater.org

For the third time in the fifty-six-year history of Shakespeare in the Park, the Public Theater is taking on the seldom-performed, less-than-popular Troilus and Cressida at the Delacorte. One of William Shakespeare’s so-called problem plays, the work has fairly obvious issues, including convoluted story lines, subplots that never get resolved or have bleak conclusions, and a narrative that uneasily shifts between comedy, tragedy, history, and romance. In 1965, Public Theater founder Joseph Papp directed a production starring Richard Jordan as Troilus, Flora Elkins as Cressida, and James Earl Jones as Ajax, and thirty years later Mark Wing-Davey helmed a version with Neal Huff as Troilus, Stephen Spinella as Pandarus and Calchas, Elizabeth Marvel as Cressida, Catherine Kellner as Cassandra, and Tim Blake Nelson as Thersites. Shakespeare director extraordinaire Daniel Sullivan is firmly in charge of this latest adaptation, set in modern times, complete with contemporary military weapons and clothing, pounding music by Dan Moses Schreier, and blazing strobe lights by Robert Wierzel. David Zinn’s stark red set features a movable wall of doors in the back, small caged rooms at either side, and detritus composed of old chairs and other items at front stage left and right. (Zinn also designed the cool costumes.) The great John Glover begins and ends the play as Pandarus, the hobbled uncle of the lovely Cressida (Ismenia Mendes), daughter of Trojan priest Calchas (Miguel Perez), who has defected to the Greeks. Pandarus serves as a kind of matchmaker for his niece, who is coveted by Troilus (Andrew Burnap), son of Priam (Perez), king of Troy. (Yes, the word “pander” came from the character Pandarus.) Troilus and Cressida seal their true love with a night of passion, but the next day she discovers that she is to be sent to the Greeks, and back to her traitorous father, in exchange for a Trojan captive, Antenor (Sanjit De Silva). At the Greek camp she is wooed by Diomedes (Zach Appelman) while trying to remain faithful to her beloved Troilus. Meanwhile, after seven years of the Trojan War, both sides seek one-on-one combat, with first dimwitted warrior Ajax (Alex Breaux) and then hunky fighter Achilles (Louis Cancelmi), who has a thing for the effeminate Patroclus (Tom Pecinka), taking on one of Troilus’s brothers, the brave and true Hector (Bill Heck). Watching over it all are the leaders of the Greeks, general Agamemnon (John Douglas Thompson), elderly mentor Nestor (Edward James Hyland), the cuckolded Menelaus, Agamemenon’s brother (Forrest Malloy), and sly, clever adviser Ulysses (Corey Stoll). Lust, jealousy, pride, and power drive the mishmash story to its violent finale.

Ulysses (Corey Stoll) tries to explain things to the none-too-bright Ajax (Alex Breaux) in TROILUS AND CRESSIDA at the Delacorte (photo by Joan Marcus)

Inspired by Chaucer’s poem “Troilus and Criseyde” and Homer’s The Iliad, Shakespeare’s play, which scholars believe was a late, unpaginated addition to the first folio, is all over the place, unable to find a central focus. But six-time Tony nominee (and one-time winner) Sullivan (The Merchant of Venice, Proof) manages to keep a precarious balance among the kitchen-sink events while also making it relevant to today’s ongoing wars in the Middle East, helped by fine performances by Burnap, who just graduated from the Yale School of Drama; Mendes (The Wayside Motor Inn, Family Furniture), who plays Cressida with a tentative, nuanced charm; Breaux (Red Speedo, Much Ado About Nothing), who brings a humorous doofiness to Ajax; Max Casella (The Lion King, Timon of Athens), who relishes his role as Thersites, the nasty fool, who declares, “The common curse of mankind, folly and ignorance”; Heck (The Merchant of Venice, Night Is a Room) as the honorable warrior Hector; and most especially Delacorte veteran, five-time Emmy nominee, and Tony winner Glover (Much Ado About Nothing, Love! Valour! Compassion!) as Pandarus, who immediately has the audience eating out of the palms of his very able hands. Troilus and Cressida might not be one of Shakespeare’s best works, but Sullivan and his excellent cast have turned it into a very welcome and entertaining production, despite its many flaws.

SHAKESPEARE IN THE PARK: THE TAMING OF THE SHREW

Katerina (Cush Jumbo) is not about to be tamed by men in all-female production of THE TAMING OF THE SHREW in Central Park (photo by Joan Marcus)

Central Park
Delacorte Theater
Through June 26, free, 8:00
publictheater.org

William Shakespeare, protofeminist? Well, not exactly. But in the hands of Tony-nominated director Phyllida Lloyd, Bard fans are offered a new way to look at Shakespeare’s troubling play about women’s submission at the hands of devious men. Lloyd, who previously helmed all-woman versions of Julius Caesar and Henry IV at St. Ann’s (as well as Mamma Mia! on Broadway), now takes the same route with The Taming of the Shrew, continuing at the Public’s Delacorte Theater in Central Park through June 26. Mark Thompson’s set and costumes create a kind of traveling circus atmosphere as a Donald Trump sound-alike introduces beauty-pageant contestants, instantly demeaning women in multiple ways. The women, who come in all the shapes and sizes that the presumptive Republican nominee for president would clearly not approve of, sing and dance, wearing giant smiles on their faces. But Katherina (Cush Jumbo), whose sister is the beautiful, ditzy blonde Bianca (Gayle Rankin), wants no part of this sideshow, demanding to make her own decisions and refusing to kowtow to any man.

The tough-talking Petruchio (Janet McTeer) is ready for a challenge in THE TAMING OF THE SHREW (photo by Joan Marcus)

Her words are so harsh and brutal that the men in Padua treat her as a kind of laughingstock, wanting nothing to do with her. But when her wealthy father, Baptista (LaTanya Richardson Jackson), declares that until Katherina, his eldest daughter, is wed, his younger daughter, Bianca, an object of sexual desire among all the men, is off limits. So several of Bianca’s suitors, including Gremio (Judy Gold), Lucentio (Rosa Gilmore), and Hortensio (Donna Lynne Champlin), get involved in an elaborate scheme of lies, deception, and mistaken identity to convince Petruchio (Janet McTeer) to wed and bed the untamable Katherina so Bianca becomes fair game. But Kate is not about to fall for their tricks, until she has little choice, resulting in some very difficult scenes as Petruchio essentially starves and tortures Kate to force her to become his obedient sex slave. But Lloyd has a surprise in store that provides a conclusion that might not sit well with either Shakespeare or Trump.

A beauty pageant sets the stage for a unique battle of the sexes at the Delacorte Theater (photo by Joan Marcus)

The cast, which also features Adrienne C. Moore as Tranio, Teresa Avia Lim as Biondello, Stacey Sergeant as Grumio, Candy Buckley as Vincentio, Leenya Rideout as a wealthy widow, and Morgan Everitt, Anne L. Nathan, Pearl Rhein, Jackie Sanders, and Natalie Woolams-Torres, has an absolute ball, seemingly enjoying every second of the show. Jumbo (Josephine and I, The River) stomps and shrieks around with fiery glee as Kate, while Tony-winning, Oscar-nominated British actress McTeer (God of Carnage, Tumbleweeds) channels a dirtbag Crocodile Dundee as Petruchio. Gold (The Judy Show — My Life as a Sitcom, 25 Questions for a Jewish Mother) stands tall as Gremio, replacing what she calls a boring speech with a brief stand-up routine that, the night we attended, referenced a raccoon that was sneaking around backstage. And Moore (Black Cindy on Orange Is the New Black) is delightful as Tranio, firmly entrenched right in the middle of all the shenanigans. Lloyd infuses the festivities — which actually do nearly fall apart during the wedding scenes and when Petruchio is “taming” Kate — with a feminist energy that nearly explodes to songs by Pat Benatar and Joan Jett. Of course, this production of an outdated, sexist play — which inspired the Cole Porter musical Kiss Me, Kate — comes along at an opportune moment in American history, as Hillary Clinton has a legitimate chance to become the first woman U.S. president, violence and discrimination against the LGBTQ community remain prevalent, and even discussions over bathroom usage have resulted in fear and loathing. In the program, Public Theater artistic director Oskar Eustis notes that Shrew “is the only major Shakespeare play which I have never produced or directed. . . . The reason is simple: I have never been able to get behind the central action of the play, which is, well, taming a woman. . . . But then I listened to Phyllida Lloyd.” We are all very glad that he did.

FREE SUMMER THEATER 2016

You can catch New York Classical rehearsing MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM in Central Park

It might be hard to top the naked version of The Tempest that was recently staged in Central Park by the Outdoor Co-ed Topless Pulp Fiction Appreciation Society, but New York Classical Theatre, Smith Street Stage, Hudson Warehouse, the Manhattan Shakespeare Project, Hip to Hip, the Public Theater, River to River, SummerStage, and others will be presenting clothed works in honor of the four hundredth anniversary of the death of the Bard. Don’t miss out on this city tradition or, as Will wrote in Sonnet 65: “O, how shall summer’s honey breath hold out / Against the wreckful siege of batt’ring days, / When rocks impregnable are not so stout, / Nor gates of steel so strong, but Time decays?” (Keep watching this space as more shows are announced.)

Daily through May 30
New York Classical Theatre: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, open rehearsals, Central Park, 103rd St. & Central Park West, 12 noon – 5:30 pm

Tuesday, May 24
through
Sunday, June 26
Shakespeare in the Park: The Taming of the Shrew, starring JCandy Buckley, Donna Lynne Champlin, Morgan Everitt, Rosa Gilmore, Judy Gold, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Cush Jumbo, Teresa Avia Lim, Janet McTeer, Adrienne C. Moore, Anne L. Nathan, Gayle Rankin, Pearl Rhein, Leenya Rideout, Jackie Sanders, Stacey Sargeant, and Natalie Woolams-Torres, directed by Phyllida Lloyd, Delacorte Theater, Central Park, 8:00

Tuesday, May 31
through
Sunday, June 5
New York Classical Theatre: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Central Park, 103rd St. & Central Park West, 7:00

Thursday, June 2
through
Sunday, June 5
Hudson Warehouse: Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Nicholas Martin-Smith, Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, Riverside Park, 6:30

Tuesday, June 7
through
Sunday, June 12
Manhattan Shakespeare Project: Al’ukhraa: A Study in Othello, directed by Sarah Eismann, Astoria Park, 6:00

Wednesday, June 8
through
Saturday, June 11
Inwood Shakespeare Festival: The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Moose Hall Theatre Company, directed by Ted Minos, Inwood Hill Park Peninsula, 7:30

Wednesday, June 8
through
Sunday, June 12
Shakespeare in Carroll Park: The Tempest, Smith Street Stage, directed by Beth Ann Hopkins, bring your own seating, Carroll Park, 7:30

Thursday, June 9
through
Sunday, June 12
New York Classical Theatre: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Central Park, 103rd St. & Central Park West, 7:00

Thursday, June 9
through
Sunday, June 12
Hudson Warehouse: Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Nicholas Martin-Smith, Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, Riverside Park, 6:30

Wednesday, June 15
through
Saturday, June 18
Inwood Shakespeare Festival: The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Moose Hall Theatre Company, directed by Ted Minos, Inwood Hill Park Peninsula, 7:30

Wednesday, June 15
through
Sunday, June 19
Shakespeare in Carroll Park: The Tempest, Smith Street Stage, directed by Beth Ann Hopkins, bring your own seating, Carroll Park, 7:30

Kaneza Schaal will GO FORTH on Governors Island in June (photo by Maria Baranova)

Thursday, June 16
through
Sunday, June 19
River to River Festival: Go Forth, by Kaneza Schaal, Arts Center, Governors Island, Building 110, advance RSVP required, 2:30 or 4:30

Thursday, June 16
through
Sunday, June 19
New York Classical Theatre: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Central Park, 103rd St. & Central Park West, 7:00

Thursday, June 16
through
Sunday, June 19
Hudson Warehouse: Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Nicholas Martin-Smith, Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, Riverside Park, 6:30

Wednesday, June 22
through
Saturday, June 25
Inwood Shakespeare Festival: The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Moose Hall Theatre Company, directed by Ted Minos, Inwood Hill Park Peninsula, 7:30

Wednesday, June 22
through
Sunday, June 26
Shakespeare in Carroll Park: The Tempest, Smith Street Stage, directed by Beth Ann Hopkins, bring your own seating, Carroll Park, 7:30

Thursday, June 23
through
Friday, June 24
Manhattan Shakespeare Project: Al’ukhraa: A Study in Othello, directed by Sarah Eismann, Summit Rock, Central Park, 6:00

Thursday, June 23
through
Sunday, June 26
Hudson Warehouse: Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Nicholas Martin-Smith, Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, Riverside Park, 6:30

Thursday, June 23
through
Sunday, June 26
New York Classical Theatre: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Central Park, 103rd St. & Central Park West, 7:00

Saturday, June 25
River to River Festival: Open Studios with Kaneza Schaal, Arts Center, Governors Island, Building 110, advance RSVP required, 2:30

Saturday, June 25
and
Sunday, June 26
Manhattan Shakespeare Project: Al’ukhraa: A Study in Othello, directed by Sarah Eismann, Morningside Park, 6:00

Wednesday, June 29
through
Saturday, July 2
New York Classical Theatre: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Nelson A. Rockefeller Park in Battery Park City, 7:00

Wednesday, June 29
through
Sunday, July 17
New York Classical Theatre: The Winter’s Tale, open rehearsals, meet at Castle Clinton, Battery Park, 12 noon – 5:30 pm

Thursday, June 30
through
Sunday, July 3
Hudson Warehouse: Lysistrata: “Let’s Make America Great Again,” by Aristophanes, adapted and directed by Susane Lee, Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, Riverside Park, 6:30

a study in othello

Wednesday, July 6
through
Sunday, July 10
New York Classical Theatre: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Prospect Park, 7:00

Thursday, July 7
Broadway in Bryant Park (Wicked, Stomp, The Color Purple, Matilda), Bryant Park lawn, 12:30

Thursday, July 7
through
Sunday, July 10
Manhattan Shakespeare Project: Al’ukhraa: A Study in Othello, directed by Sarah Eismann, Summit Rock, Central Park, 6:00

Thursday, July 7
through
Sunday, July 10
Shakespeare in the Parking Lot: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Drilling Company, directed by Cathy Curtiss, Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Educational Center, 114 Norfolk St., 8:00

Thursday, July 7
through
Sunday, July 10
Hudson Warehouse: Lysistrata: “Let’s Make America Great Again,” by Aristophanes, adapted and directed by Susane Lee, Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, Riverside Park, 6:30

Friday, July 8
through
Sunday, July 31 (excluding Mondays)
SummerStage: The Classical Theatre of Harlem presents Macbeth, directed by Carl Cofield and starring Ty Jones, Marcus Garvey Park, 8:00 (Fridays 8:30)

Tuesday, July 12
Thursday, July 14
through
Sunday, July 17
New York Classical Theatre: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Carl Schurz Park, 7:00

Thursday, July 14
Broadway in Bryant Park (Chicago, The Fantastiks, Motown, Finding Neverland), Bryant Park lawn, 12:30

Thursday, July 14
through
Sunday, July 17
Manhattan Shakespeare Project: Al’ukhraa: A Study in Othello, directed by Sarah Eismann, Morningside Park, 6:00

Thursday, July 14
through
Sunday, July 17
Hudson Warehouse: Lysistrata: “Let’s Make America Great Again,” by Aristophanes, adapted and directed by Susane Lee, Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, Riverside Park, 6:30

Thursday, July 14
through
Sunday, July 17
Shakespeare in the Parking Lot: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Drilling Company, directed by Cathy Curtiss, Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Educational Center, 114 Norfolk St., 8:00

Smith Street Stage will present THE TEMPEST in Carroll Park (photo by Chris Montgomery)

Monday, July 18
through
Sunday, August 7 (excluding Thursdays)
New York Classical Theatre: The Winter’s Tale, meet at Castle Clinton, Battery Park, 7:00

Tuesday, July 19
through
Sunday, August 14
Shakespeare in the Park: Troilus and Cressida, directed by Daniel Sullivan, Delacorte Theater, Central Park, 8:00

Thursday, July 21
Broadway in Bryant Park (Fiddler on the Roof, Les Miserables, Fuerza Bruta, The Marvelous Wonderettes, Paramour), Bryant Park lawn, 12:30

Thursday, July 21
through
Sunday, July 24
Shakespeare in the Parking Lot: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Drilling Company, directed by Cathy Curtiss, Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Educational Center, 114 Norfolk St., 8:00

Thursday, July 21
through
Sunday, July 24
Hudson Warehouse: Lysistrata: “Let’s Make America Great Again,” by Aristophanes, adapted and directed by Susane Lee, Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, Riverside Park, 6:30

Wednesday, July 27
through
Sunday, August 28
Hip to Hip Theatre Company: As You Like It and Julius Caesar, performed in repertory in parks across the city, including Agawam Park, Crocheron Park, Cunningham Park, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Fort Greene Park, Gantry Plaza State Park, Harlem Meer, Socrates Sculpture Park, Sunnyside Gardens Park, and Van Cortlandt Park, preceded by Kids & the Classics, Wednesday – Sunday at different times

Thursday, July 28
Broadway in Bryant Park (Waitress, Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, Kinky Boots, Fun Home, Himself & Nora), Bryant Park lawn, 12:30

Thursday, July 28
through
Sunday, July 31
Hudson Warehouse: Othello, directed by Nicholas Martin-Smith, Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, Riverside Park, 6:30

Thursday, July 28
through
Sunday, July 31
Shakespeare in the Parking Lot: The Merchant of Venice, the Drilling Company, Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Educational Center, 114 Norfolk St., 8:00

Thursday, August 4
Broadway in Bryant Park (Beautiful, An American in Paris, Avenue Q, Holiday Inn), Bryant Park lawn, 12:30

Thursday, August 4
through
Sunday, August 7
Hudson Warehouse: Othello, directed by Nicholas Martin-Smith, Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, Riverside Park, 6:30

Thursday, August 4
through
Sunday, August 7
Shakespeare in the Parking Lot: The Merchant of Venice, the Drilling Company, Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Educational Center, 114 Norfolk St., 8:00

Monday, August 8
through
Sunday, August 14 (excluding Thursdays)
New York Classical Theatre: The Winter’s Tale, meet at Bargemusic on Pier 1, Brooklyn Bridge Park, 7:00

Thursday, August 11
Broadway in Bryant Park (Phantom of the Opera, Something Rotten!, Cagney, Ruthless!), Bryant Park lawn, 12:30

Thursday, August 11
through
Sunday, August 14
Hudson Warehouse: Othello, directed by Nicholas Martin-Smith, Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, Riverside Park, 6:30

Thursday, August 11
through
Sunday, August 14
Shakespeare in the Parking Lot: The Merchant of Venice, the Drilling Company, Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Educational Center, 114 Norfolk St., 8:00

Thursday, August 18
through
Sunday, August 21
Hudson Warehouse: Othello, directed by Nicholas Martin-Smith, Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, Riverside Park, 6:30

Wednesday, August 31
SummerStage: Chicago the Musical: 20th Anniversary Concert, Rumsey Playfield, Central Park, 8:0

SHAKESPEARE IN THE PARK: CYMBELINE

Posthumus (Hamish Linklater) and Iachimo (Raúl Esparza) make a dangerous bet as Philario (Patrick Page) looks on (photo by Carol Rosegg)

Central Park
Delacorte Theater
Through August 23, free, 8:30
shakespeareinthepark.org

Cymbeline, one of Shakespeare’s later, lesser-known plays, is not easy to bring to the stage. It’s a sort of greatest-hits mash-up of previous Bard themes and plot devices, lacking in memorable lines and named after a relatively minor character. So Tony-winning Shakespeare in the Park veteran Daniel Sullivan has added a large dose of whimsy to what turns out to be a rather charming and modern romantic comedy. In fact, whereas the first folio identifies it as “The Tragedy of Cymbeline,” a framed backdrop that is visible throughout nearly all of the Public Theater presentation calls it “The Story of Cymbeline,” as tragedy becomes farce. With war threatening between Britain and Rome in ancient times, King Cymbeline (Patrick Page) has banished Posthumus Leonatus (Hamish Linklater), a commoner who is married to, and very much in love with, his daughter, Imogen (Lily Rabe), so she can instead wed the queen’s not-too-swift progeny, Cloten (Linklater). Meanwhile, in a 1950s-era Vegas-y Rome, Posthumus boasts about his wife’s virtue, leading the Italian playboy Iachimo (Raúl Esparza), after performing a glitzy Sinatra-like number, to lay a wager that he can bed Imogen and despoil her honor. The bet is overseen by Philario (Page), a sharp-dressed gangster who is Posthumus’s host. As the queen conspires to poison Imogen, both Iacomo and Cloten attempt to woo the princess, who soon sets out for Wales disguised as a boy to set things straight with her one true love. But on the way she gets lost in the woods and is taken in by an oddball anarchist family consisting of a bent-over father (Kate Burton) and his two would-be sons (David Furr and Jacob Ming-Trent). It all leads to a dizzying finale with more than two dozen revelations coming fast and furious.

The cloddish Cloten (Hamish Linklater) makes his case to marry Imogen (Lily Rabe) (photo by Carol Rosegg)

Sullivan (Proof, Twelfth Night) has a ball revealing the artifice behind the production while also taking the story to some surprising extremes. Riccardo Hernandez’s set features a pair of large gold frames and boxes and props from other Shakespeare productions (Hamlet, King Lear), reminding everyone of the machinations behind it all. There are several rows of audience members on either side of the stage who do indeed get involved in the action, while some of the actors sit at the back of the stage between their scenes. Rabe and Linklater, who are partners in real life and have previously appeared together in Seminar on Broadway and in The Merchant of Venice and Much Ado About Nothing at the Delacorte, are at their best in Cymbeline, she as the strong-willed and sexy Imogen, he going back and forth between the noble-to-a-fault Posthumus and the dumb-and-dumber Cloten (complete with Jim Carrey–like wig), pausing in his line readings for maximum double-entendre effect. Page (Casa Valentina, Cyrano de Bergerac) is gallant as the king and Philario, balancing power with a conscience; Burton is nicely wicked as the queen and almost unrecognizable as Belarius; four-time Tony nominee Esparza (Company, Taboo) is appropriately smarmy as Iachimo, who spans two eras; Teagle F. Bougere (A Raisin in the Sun, Macbeth) is solid as Roman ambassador Lucius and court doctor Cornelius, particularly in the grand finale; Steven Skybell (Pal Joey, A Midsummer Night’s Dream) is engaging as Pisanio, Posthumus’s loyal servant who dedicates himself to Imogen; and Furr (As You Like It, The Importance of Being Earnest) and Ming-Trent (Hands on a Hardbody, Shrek the Musical) bring a sweet nature to their portrayals of the mountain brothers as well as the play’s narrators. Yes, it’s lesser Shakespeare, and at nearly three hours it runs too long (even with the excision of the Jupiter dream sequence), but Sullivan’s fanciful production is a whole lot more fun than Cymbeline usually is. (Don’t forget that in addition to waiting on line at the Delacorte to get free tickets, you can also enter the daily virtual ticketing lottery online here.)

SHAKESPEARE IN THE PARK: THE TEMPEST

Miranda (Francesca Carpanini) and her father, Prospero (Sam Waterston), make magic in Central Park (photo by Joan Marcus)

Central Park
Delacorte Theater
Through July 5, free, 8:00
publictheater.org/tempest

In the brief synopsis of The Tempest in the program for the Public Theater’s latest Shakespeare in the Park presentation, which opened at the Delacorte on June 16, it says in bold caps, “The play opens with a storm. . . . The storm isn’t natural.” But the night I saw it, real blasts of thunder accompanied the beginning, a striking depiction of the sudden squall that deposits a group of noblemen on a remote island. The elements are always part of the fun in these Public Theater productions, so the darkening clouds and threatening rain — which never came — added to the drama, which at times needed a little help. The island is occupied by the gray-bearded, professorly magician Prospero (Sam Waterston), his fifteen-year-old daughter, Miranda (Francesca Carpanini), and his two slaves, the playful sprite Ariel (Chris Perfetti) and the brooding, deformed Caliban (Louis Cancelmi). Formerly the duke of Milan, Prospero was exiled twelve years earlier when his brother, Antonio (Cotter Smith), usurped his title, and Prospero has been planning his revenge ever since; it is no coincidence that the shipwrecked boat was carrying Antonio, along with Alonso, the king of Milan (Charles Parnell), his brother, Sebastian (Frank Harts), and Ferdinand, the son of the king of Naples (Rodney Richardson), along with several others, including the honest councilor Gonzalo (Bernard White), Alonso’s jester, Trinculo (Jesse Tyler Ferguson), and the drunken butler Stephano (Danny Mastrogiorgio). Promising him freedom, Prospero sends out Ariel to do his dirty work, turning the men against one another so he can regain his title, while also playing matchmaker to Miranda and Ferdinand, who take an instant liking to each other.

Prospero (Sam Waterston) orchestrates strange doings on a remote island in THE TEMPEST (photo by Joan Marcus)

“Your tale, sir, would cure deafness,” Miranda says to her father when he is filling her in about their past, but unfortunately, Waterston (Law & Order, Grace and Frankie), wearing what appears to be a kind of tallit (Jewish prayer shawl), is marble-mouthed as Prospero, hesitant and uneasy in his line readings, particularly in the first act, making it hard to understand him as he strains to find a rhythm. This is his tenth Shakespeare in the Park appearance, an illustrious resume that dates back to his starring role in Hamlet back in 1975, so his performance is somewhat confounding, although he does settle down significantly in the second act. Perfetti’s (Sons of the Prophet) Ariel, clad in a mildly S&M body harness, is also questionable and ill-defined. But the rest of the cast is strong and engaging; current Juilliard student Carpanini and Richardson (Pulse) have infectious chemistry as the potential lovers, Ferguson (Modern Family, The Comedy of Errors) and Mastrogiorgio (Lucky Guy, Golden Boy) provide necessary comic relief, and Cancelmi (Father Comes Home from the Wars, The Hallway Trilogy) is excellent as the native “monster,” a character who evokes colonialism, bigotry, and fear of the other. Through it all, Arthur Solari’s percussion, played from his own booth at the corner of the stage, is filled with emotion itself as it goes from anger and ire to passion and love. Director Michael Greif (Next to Normal, Our Lady of Kibeho,), who helmed the well-received 2007 Shakespeare in the Park production of Romeo and Juliet with Lauren Ambrose and Oscar Isaac, never quite finds his own rhythm, the three story lines bumpy until all coming together in the end on Riccardo Hernandez’s scaffold-based set. And speaking of the end, when Waterston stood alone onstage to deliver the epilogue, asking for applause to help him return to Milan, a goose flew overhead as if on cue, honking like a warped metronome, the outdoor elements once again becoming part of the show. This brave goose might not have laid a golden egg, but it did recall Mercutio telling Romeo, “Nay, if thy wits run the wild-goose chase, I have done, for thou hast more of the wild-goose in one of thy wits than, I am sure, I have in my whole five: was I with you there for the goose?”

FREE SUMMER THEATER 2015

New York Classical Theatre holds its first read-through of THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, which they will bring to multiple parks this summer (photo courtesy of New York Classical Theatre)

What can compare to free open-air Shakespeare in a New York park on a midsummer night? The annual season celebrating the Bard all around the city has just begun, with presentations from such companies and organizations as New York Classical Theatre, Smith Street Stage, Boomerang, the all-female Manhattan Shakespeare Project, Hudson Warehouse, Hip to Hip, the Public Theater, and SummerStage. All of the below events are free, but, as always, Shakespeare in the Park at the Delacorte requires same-day ticketing. Don’t miss out on this city tradition; otherwise, as Will wrote in Sonnet 65: “O, how shall summer’s honey breath hold out / Against the wreckful siege of batt’ring days, / When rocks impregnable are not so stout, / Nor gates of steel so strong, but Time decays?”

Friday, May 15
through
Saturday, May 31
Shakespeare in the Parking Lot: Two Gentlemen of Verona, by the Drilling Company, directed by Hamilton Clancy, Bryant Park, Fridays & Saturdays at 6:30, Sundays at 2:00

Tuesday, May 26
Wednesday, May 27
Thursday, May 28
through
Sunday, June 28
New York Classical Theatre: The Taming of the Shrew, Central Park, 103rd St. & Central Park West, Thursday – Sunday at 7:00

Wednesday, May 27
through
Sunday, July 5
Shakespeare in the Park: The Tempest, starring Jordan Barrow, Louis Cancelmi, Francesca Carpanini, Nicholas Christopher, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Chloe Fox, Rosharra Francis, Thomas Gibbons, Frank Harts, Sunny Hitt, Brandon Kalm, Olga Karmansky, Tamika Sonja Lawrence, Rico Lebron, Danny Mastrogiorgio, Tim Nicolai, Matthew Oaks, Charles Parnell, Chris Perfetti, Rodney Richardson, Laura Shoop, Cotter Smith, Sam Waterston, and Bernard White, directed by Michael Greif, Delacorte Theater, Central Park, 8:00

Wednesday, June 3
through
Saturday, June 20
Inwood Shakespeare Festival: Hamlet, by the Moose Hall Theatre Company, Inwood Hill Park Peninsula, 7:30

Wednesday, June 3
through
Sunday, July 26
Manhattan Shakespeare Project: The Taming of the Shrew, directed by Kate Holland, Central Park Summit Rock (June 3, 11, 25, 26, 28), Astoria Park (TBA), St. Nicholas Park (June 18, 20), Sunset Park (June 19, 21, 27), Morningside Park (July 9, 10, 11, 12, 23, 24, 25, 26), 6:00

Thursday, June 4
through
Sunday, June 28
Hudson Warehouse: Henry IV Part I, with Steve Guttenberg, directed by Nicholas Martin-Smith, Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, Riverside Park, Thursday – Sunday at 6:30

Friday, June 5
SummerStage: Lemon Anderson ToasT, plus #LoveHustle with DJ Reborn and J. Keys, Red Hook Park, 7:00

The Nuyorican Poets Cafe will feature Elaine Del Valle’s BROWNSVILLE BRED in Betsy Head Park on June 13 (photo by Ron Marotta)

Saturday, June 13
SummerStage: Nuyorican Poets Cafe featuring Elaine Del Valle’s Brownsville Bred, Betsy Head Park, 7:00

Saturday, June 20
through
Sunday, July 19
Boomerang Theatre Company: Cymbeline, Central Park (69th St. & Central Park West), Saturdays & Sundays at 2:00

Tuesday, June 23, 30
Wednesday, June 24 & July 1
New York Classical Theatre: The Taming of the Shrew, Prospect Park, enter at Grand Army Plaza, 7:00

Thursday, June 25, 4:00 (open dress rehearsal)
Friday, June 26, 4:00
Saturday, June 27, 2:00
Sunday, June 28, 2:00
River to River: Love of a Poet, by John Kelly, Arts Center, Governors Island, advance RSVP required

Tuesday, June 30
through
Sunday, July 19
Shakespeare in Carroll Park: Henry IV (Parts 1 & 2) by Smith Street Stage, directed by Joby Earle, bring your own seating, Carroll Park, 6:30 or 8:00

Thursday, July 2
through
Sunday, July 26
Hudson Warehouse: She Stoops to Conquer, directed by Ian Harkins, Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, Riverside Park, Thursday – Sunday at 6:30

Thursday, July 2
through
Friday, August 7
Theatreworks USA: Skippyjon Jones Snow What (& the 7 Chihuahuas), Lucille Lortel Theatre, Sunday – Friday, times vary

Sunday, July 5
through
Sunday, July 26
SummerStage: The Tempest by Classical Theatre of Harlem, directed by Carl Cofield, Marcus Garvey Park, Tuesday – Sunday at 7:00

Wednesday, July 8
Friday, July 10
through
Sunday, July 12
New York Classical Theatre: The Taming of the Shrew, Teardrop Park, 7:00

Thursday, July 9
through
Saturday, July 26
Shakespeare in the Parking Lot: As You Like It, by the Drilling Company, directed by Hamilton Clancy, Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Educational Center, 114 Norfolk St., 8:00

Thursday, July 9
through
Thursday, August 13
Broadway in Bryant Park, Bryant Park Lawn, Thursdays at 12:30

Tuesday, July 14
through
Sunday, August 9
New York Classical Theatre: Measure for Measure, Battery Park by Castle Clinton, 7:00

Wednesday, July 15
through
Saturday, August 1
Inwood Shakespeare Festival: Henry IV, by the Moose Hall Theatre Company, Inwood Hill Park Peninsula, 7:30

Friday, July 17
through
Sunday, August 2
Shakespeare in the Parking Lot: Romeo and Juliet, by the Drilling Company, directed by Dave Marantz, Bryant Park, Fridays & Saturdays at 6:30, Sundays at 2:00

Wednesday, July 22
through
Saturday, August 15
Hip to Hip Theatre Company: The Merry Wives of Windsor and The Merchant of Venice, performed in repertory in parks across the city, including Agawam Park, Crocheron Park, Cunningham Park, Forest Park, Gantry Plaza State Park, Socrates Sculpture Park, Sunnyside Gardens Park, and Van Cortlandt Park, preceded by Kids & the Classics, Wednesday – Sunday at different times

Thursday, July 23
through
Sunday, August 23
Shakespeare in the Park: Cymbeline, starring Hamish Linklater, Lily Rabe, Teagle F. Bougere, Kate Burton, Raúl Esparza, David Furr, Jacob Ming-Trent, Patrick Page, and Steven Skybell, directed by Daniel Sullivan, Delacorte Theater, Central Park, 8:00

Thursday, July 30
through
Sunday, August 23
Hudson Warehouse: Titus Andronicus, directed by Nicholas Martin-Smith, Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, Riverside Park, Thursday – Sunday at 6:30

Friday, July 31
SummerStage: Mr. Joy by Daniel Beaty featuring Tangela Large, Clove Lakes Park, 7:00

Tuesday, August 11
Wednesday, August 12
Thursday, August 14
through
Sunday, August 16
New York Classical Theatre: Measure for Measure, Brooklyn Bridge Park, 7:00

Wednesday, August 12
SummerStage: The Wiz: A Celebration in Dance and Music, Rumsey Playfield, Central Park, 7:00

Thursday, August 13
and
Friday, August 14
SummerStage: The Wiz: A Celebration in Dance and Music, preceded by a Master Class led by Darrin Henson, Marcus Garvey Park, 7:00

Friday, September 4
through
Sunday, September 20
Shakespeare in the Parking Lot: The Taming of the Shrew, by the Drilling Company, directed by Alessandro Colla, Bryant Park, Fridays & Saturdays at 6:30, Sundays at 2:00

PUBLIC WORKS: THE WINTER’S TALE

Central Park
Delacorte Theater
September 5-7, free, 8:00
www.publictheater.org

The Public Theater’s high-profile outdoor summer season might have come to a close when King Lear starring John Lithgow and Annette Bening ended its run on August 17 (following on the heels of Hamish Linklater and Lily Rabe in Much Ado About Nothing), but there’s more free Shakespeare to be had this weekend when the Public Works community initiative program brings The Winter’s Tale to the Delacorte. Last year, the project was initiated with a musical version of The Tempest, directed by Lear deBessonet, choreographed by Chase Brock, and with music and lyrics by Todd Almond; that same trio is back with the Bard’s mysterious romance, featuring a wide-ranging cast that combines professional actors with members of community organizations from all five boroughs. “We believe that theater has a specific role to play; it always has,” Public Theater artistic director Oskar Eustis says in the above promotional video. “It’s a democratizing impulse, it’s an empowering impulse, it’s a participatory impulse, and what we’re trying to do is spread the glory of that so that everybody in the city has the chance to have that experience.” The musical, which will have some two hundred people onstage in total, stars Almond (Girlfriend, Melancholy Play) as Antigonus, Christopher Fitzgerald (Wicked, Young Frankenstein) as Autolycus, Isaiah Johnson (Peter and the Starcatcher, The Merchant of Venice) as Leontes, Lindsay Mendez (Wicked, Dogfight) as Hermione, and David Turner (Arcadia, Sunday in the Park with George) as the Clown, along with men, women, and children from the Children’s Aid Society, the DreamYard Project, the Fortune Society, the Brownsville Recreation Center, and Domestic Workers United. In addition, there will be group cameos by Sesame Street, the New York Theatre Ballet, DanceBrazil, Rosie’s Theater Kids, the Shinbone Alley Stilt Band, the Staten Island Lions, and AATMA Performing Arts. The show runs September 5-7, and free tickets are available the same day in Central Park and through the Public’s online virtual ticketing lottery or by advance donation of $75.