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PUBLIC WORKS: AS YOU LIKE IT

A diverse cast of amateurs and pros comes together in As You Like It at the Delacorte (photo by Joan Marcus)

AS YOU LIKE IT
Central Park, Delacorte Theater
Tuesday – Sunday through September 11, free, 8:00
publictheater.org

In celebration of the sixtieth anniversary of the Delacorte Theater and the tenth anniversary of the Public Theater’s Public Works program, which brings together professional artists and community members in short-run, large-scale productions, Shakespeare in the Park has brought back Public Theater artist-in-residence Shaina Taub and Public Works director Laurie Woolery’s 2017 adaptation of the Bard’s pastoral comedy favorite, As You Like It. Continuing in Central Park through September 11, the musical is a delightful take on the story of hidden identity, family dysfunction, and true love, set in and around the forest of Arden and given a decidedly twenty-first-century twist while often referencing the show.

“All the world’s a stage / and everybody’s in the show / Nobody’s a pro / All the world’s a stage / and every day, we play our part / acting out our heart / Year by year, we grow / learning as we go / trying to tell a story we can feel / How do you make the magic real?” Taub, as the melancholy Jaques, sings as a form of introduction, words that relate to the musical, to Public Works, and life itself.

Later, Duke Senior (usually portrayed by Darius de Haas but I saw Amar Atkins), who has been exiled by his younger brother, Duke Frederick (Eric Pierre), and leads a poor but tight-knit community in Arden, declares, “I will not be free / until we are all free / Under the greenwood tree / you shall see no enemy / Do not fear / All / All are welcome here,” letting everyone onstage and in the audience know that this is an inclusive experience. The cast of 127 features performers from ages 7 to 82, mostly amateurs, from partner organizations across the five boroughs: Brownsville Recreation Center, Casita Maria Center for Arts and Education, Center for Family Life in Sunset Park, Children’s Aid, DreamYard, Domestic Workers United, the Fortune Society, and Military Resilience Foundation. Each participant is listed in the program and gets to make a personal statement.

Taub, who wrote the music and lyrics, and Woolery, who directs, have created a multiethnic spectacle with key gender swaps, which deliver added depth to the narrative. Tired of being persecuted by his older brother Oliver (Renrick Palmer), orphaned gentleman Orlando (Ato Blankson-Wood, Trevor McGhie) believes he can prove his worth by winning a wrestling tournament. The bouts are hilariously choreographed in a ring that rises from below the stage; the competitors range from the masked and massive Bronco to Frankie Flow and a wiry and vicious caveman (actual lucha libre wrestlers from the Bronx Wrestling Federation).

Rosalind (Rebecca Naomi Jones) is banished by her uncle, Duke Frederick (Eric Pierre), in Shakespeare adaptation (photo by Joan Marcus)

After pulling out a surprise victory, Orlando falls instantly in love with Rosalind (Rebecca Naomi Jones), the daughter of Duke Senior, and is subsequently banished by her uncle. Rosalind, accompanied by her best friend, Celia (Idania Quezada), Duke Frederick’s daughter, disguise themselves as Ganymede and Aliena, respectively, and head out into the forest joined by their loyal fool, Touchstone (Christopher M. Ramirez). Orlando flees the court and goes to Arden as well, seeking out his sweetheart.

Soon Orlando, not recognizing that Ganymede is in fact Rosalind, is befriended by his disguised love, who teaches him the art of wooing. Celia develops a liking for Oliver. Touchstone becomes desperate to hook up with farmhand Andy (Jonathan Jordan), who might have a thing for farmer William (Damion Allen). And shepherdess Silvia (Brianna Cabrera; Claudia Yanez) is mad for shepherdess Phoebe (Bianca Edwards), who wants nothing to do with her and instead develops a taste for Ganymede.

Distressed by Phoebe’s spurning, Silvia sings, “You Phoebe me / Why you gotta Phoebe me?” Phoebe cruelly retorts, “You say my glance is lethal / but girl, I know you’re lying / cause I’m giving you a death stare / and I don’t see you dying!” To “Phoebe” someone becomes a joke throughout the rest of the play.

Meanwhile, whenever Orlando bursts out into a solo, he is joined by a riotous backup group dressed in gleaming all-white, De Boys band dancers (Tristan André, Pierre Harmony Graves, Bobby Moody, Edwin Rivera), who groove with him seamlessly to the immense delight of the audience.

But trouble awaits when Duke Frederick decides to invade the forest and put an end to all the romantic shenanigans.

The large cast rehearses indoors for As You Like It (photo by Joan Marcus)

Taub, who previously adapted Twelfth Night for Public Works, serves as a kind of narrator as Jaques, appearing now and then to offer such warnings as “We shall make the same mistakes and never learn!,” “The worst fault you have is to be in love,” and “Give me leave to speak my mind and I will through and through cleanse the infected world, if they will patiently receive my medicine!” Of course, the medicine she and Woolery (Manahatta, Eureka) deliver is more than just a panacea but at the very least a temporary cure for whatever ails you.

The songs run the gamut from pop to R&B to rap and romantic ballads, with wonderful orchestrations by Mike Brun and original choreography by Sonya Tayeh, playfully restaged with additions by Billy Griffin. Duke Frederick’s entrances and exits are particularly memorable, accompanied by a royal guard that proclaims, “All hail Duke Frederick” to a melody that recalls the evil Imperial March theme from Star Wars, while the De Boys boy band brings down the house each time they put on the moves.

The set, anchored by a rear bridge and three trees on a revolving center, is by Myung Hee Cho, with lavish costumes by Emilio Sosa, lighting by Isabella Byrd, and sound by Sun Hee Kil. The animal puppets are by James Ortiz, the designer behind the remarkable puppets in The Skin of Our Teeth and Into the Woods.

The cast is a delight, from the leads to the bit players; in the program, the actors are listed alphabetically and each gets the same amount of space, three or four lines, whether it’s Taub, Jones, Blankson-Wood, or Ramirez or Vivian Jett Brown as Miss Amiens, Tommy Williams or Jason Asher as the referee, or Monica Patricia Davis or Alfreda Small as Ada.

The show was written in response to the 2016 presidential election and how it has torn apart the nation. It returns at a time when we all need healing and a way to come together despite our differences. In As You Like It, Jaques calls it “a miserable world,” but it’s significantly better with musicals like this in it.

SHAKESPEARE IN THE PARK: TWELFTH NIGHT

(photo by Joan Marcus)

Sir Toby Belch (Shuler Hensley) and Feste (Shaina Taub) argue over who is the worst in Twelfth Night at the Delacorte (photo by Joan Marcus)

Central Park
Delacorte Theater
Tuesday-Sunday through August 19, free, 8:00
shakespeareinthepark.org

“Shall we set about some revels?” Sir Toby Belch asks in Twelfth Night. “I do delight in masques and revels, sometimes altogether,” responds Sir Andrew Aguecheek. There is much to revel in at the Public Works presentation of William Shakespeare’s 1601-2 comic romance, continuing at the Public Theater’s Delacorte through August 19. Since 2013, the annual Shakespeare in the Park summer festival has concluded with a musical version of a classic tale, performed over Labor Day weekend following the two main productions. Adapted by either Todd Almond (The Tempest, The Odyssey) or Shaina Taub (The Winter’s Tale, As You Like It with Laurie Woolery) and under the leadership of Public Works founder and director Lear deBessonet, the shows feature top-tier actors (Laura Benanti, Christopher Fitzgerald, Lindsay Mendez, Brandon Victor Dixon, Norm Lewis) joined by some two hundred men, women, and children from community organizations across all five boroughs. In 2016, Taub staged Twelfth Night, which is now back for an ecstatic full run in Central Park, spreading Joe Papp’s belief that theater is for all people. This production is totally committed to that vision; before the show starts, the entire audience is encouraged to hang out onstage and interact with members of the enormous cast and crew, playing checkers and other games, sitting for caricature sketches, eating free popcorn, singing with a small band, and posing for pictures in front of the set. (Yes, that man handing out glow sticks is Shuler Hensley, the Tony-winning star of Young Frankenstein, Les Misérables, and Oklahoma!)
 

(photo by Joan Marcus)

Viola (Nikki M. James) and Duke Orsino (Ato Blankson-Wood) are desperate for love in musical adaptation of Shakespeare play (photo by Joan Marcus)

The ninety-minute show is a pure delight. After a shipwreck in which she believes her twin brother, Sebastian (Troy Anthony), must have been killed, Viola (Tony winner Nikki M. James) winds up in Illyria, where the grief-stricken Countess Olivia (Nanya-Akuki Goodrich) is mourning the loss of her own brother. Disguising herself as a man named Cesario, Viola gets a job working for the lovesick Duke Orsino (Ato Blankson-Wood), who has the hots for Olivia, but she wants no part of him. In fact, Olivia is attracted to Cesario, while Viola has fallen for Orsino. The absurdly proper steward Malvolio (Andrew Kober) is also in love with his ladyship, Olivia. Through it all, Olivia’s uncle, the drunken wastrel Sir Toby Belch (Hensley), and his bestie, Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Daniel Hall), flit about Illyria, getting drunk, making jokes, and causing trouble, including teaming up with Olivia’s gentlewoman, Maria (Lori Brown-Niang), to pull off a rather mean-spirited prank. As Sebastian and his friend, Antonio (Jonathan Jordan), enter Illyria, the mistaken identity, screwball love triangles, and general mayhem ratchet way up.

(photo by Joan Marcus)

Malvolio (Andrew Kober) brings down the house with some vaudevillian shtick in Public Works presentation in Central Park (photo by Joan Marcus)

In addition to writing the music and lyrics for the show, which she conceived with Kwame Kwei-Armah (the new artistic director of the Young Vic), the Vermont-raised, New York City–based Taub (Old Hats; Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812) introduces it, portrays Feste the fool, and leads the band at her piano. She’s sort of like a sprite, prancing about with her accordion; even when she accidentally tripped, she declared her instrument fine and continued the scene in excellent form, wearing a huge smile. The songs not only propel the plot and deepen character development but also relate wonderfully to Shakespeare’s language; the opening number is “Play On” (“If music be the food of love, play on!”), and Kober has a blast chewing up the showstoppers “Count Malvolio” (“I could be Count Malvolio! / Lord of the estate / Dressed in all the finest silk and master of my fate / I’d summon all my minions in a most majestic tone / Then once they all arrived / I’d tell them, ‘Leave me alone!’”) and “Greatness” (“If some are born great / And some achieve greatness / And some have greatness thrust upon them / Then I can’t help that I was born great! / I didn’t ask to be the best / Things would be much easier being average like the rest”). Feste kicks off “You’re the Worst,” in which Fabian (Patrick J. O’Hare), Sir Andrew, Sir Toby, and Feste roast one another (“You try too sincerely to please every crowd / You play the accordion, for crying out loud! / So let me tell you first / That you are the worst!”) before ganging up on poor Malvolio. The score also features “If You Were My Beloved,” “Is This Not Love?” and “Word on the Street,” as Taub and her band go from New Orleans jazz and pop to R&B and hip-hop.

The audience is encouraged to (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

The audience is encouraged to mingle with cast and crew and play onstage before show (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

For Twelfth Night, the Public has partnered with Brownsville Recreation Center, Casita Maria Center for Arts and Education, Center for Family Life in Sunset Park, DreamYard Project, Fortune Society, Military Resilience Project, Children’s Aid Society, and Domestic Workers United, with cameos from people from COBU, Jambalaya Brass Band, the Love Show, New York Deaf Theatre, Ziranmen Kungfu Wushu Training Center, and even the US Post Office. Every participant, regardless of theatrical experience, is given equal billing both on the official poster and in the Playbill. Public Theater artistic director Oskar Eustis has taken the helm from Kwei-Armah, directing the rather large cast on Rachel Hauck’s welcoming, carnivalesque set, which is backed by the facade of Olivia and Orsino’s homes. Eustis and choreographer Lorin Latarro do a superb job, avoiding having everyone just run into each other everywhere, keeping the narrative flowing as more and more folks enter and leave. Andrea Hood has a field day with the costumes, ranging from Elizabethan dress to modern-day summer wear; at one early point the night I went, when Sebastian and Antonio approach the edge of the stage, nearly in the audience, a man and woman in blue nurse’s clothes slowly got up right in front of them and started pushing a man on an extended gurney-like contraption to the right. I closely watched their path, expecting them to go up the ramp and onto the stage, but it turned out that it must have been a real emergency as they headed out of the Delacorte with their patient. It was an unexpected turn of events, but it also proved how unpredictable this production is, where anything can happen. As Fabian says, “If this were played upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction.”