Don Juan in the Park

Central Park has its fair share of free outdoor theatre, but so does Prospect Park in Brooklyn, which is now offering an exciting production of Molière's Don Juan.

The heart of the play is not so much the great lover Don Juan himself, but his servant Sganarelle, a part Molière himself originally performed, and in this production is portrayed by Kaliswa Brewster.

Most scholars think La Grange, one of the main actors in Molière's company, probably played Don Juan, a libertine who mocks religion and has no fear of hell. The Brooklyn production has the charismatic Keeshav Moodliar in this role.

Wanting revenge on Don Juan is his spurned ex-lover Elvire, likely played by Mademoiselle Du Parc in the comedy's 1665 premiere. Du Parc was mostly known for playing tragic roles, but Elvire is a tragic figure, particularly as portrayed in Prospect Park by Michelle Veintimilla, who made her Broadway debut playing the younger version of Chita Rivera's character in The Visit.

This is a Molière play, however, so there's still plenty of comedy, such as when Don Juan goes back and forth between two lovely peasant girls named Charlotte and Mathurine (one of whom might originally have been played by Molière's own wife). Also enamored of Charlotte is Pierrot, a character right out of commedia dell'arte, and played wonderfully in the park by theatrical veteran Daniel Pearce. Pearce not only shared the stage with Glenn Close in Mother of the Maid, but has also done numerous Shakespearean roles for The Public Theater.

Naomi Lorrain succeeds performing a variety of parts in the show, but one of the most exciting performers is offstage most of the time. That is cellist Johnathan Moore, who also composed music that keeps the production rolling along. Lucie Tiberghien directs the production, which uses Stephen Wadsworth's translation.

If you're in the neighborhood, Don Juan is running until September 27th. Check it out, just don't accept any dinner invitations from strange statues.

Henry VI

The Atlas Shakespeare Company recently performed William Shakespeare's Henry VI trilogy in two parts, combining the first two plays, and then performing the third as a stand-alone production.

When the Public Theater announced they would be hosting NAATCO performing Henry VI: A Trilogy in Two Parts, I knew I'd have to check it out, if for no other reason than to compare how the companies divided up the material differently.

The current production reduces The First Part of Henry VI into a single act. Joan of Arc, who is clearly a witch and a sorceress in Shakespeare's text (since there's no way the French could possibly beat the English without cheating), is cleaned up considerably when played by Myka Cue. One could almost mistake the play for being historically accurate.

In the second act, the production further develops the characters of Henry VI (Jon Norman Schneider) and Queen Margaret (Teresa Avia Lim). It is Margaret who ultimately takes over the kingdom, as well as the play, and Lim is more than up to the task. She was recently featured in Gingold Theatrical Group's Pygmalion, but has appeared in a slew of other classical works as well.

The same can be said of Rajesh Bose, who previously shared the stage with Lim in Caesar and Cleopatra and now plays the ambitious Duke of York. Possessing a better claim to the throne than the current king but reluctant to openly defy him (yet), the Duke of York is forced to seek out allies, chief among them the Earl of Warwick, who came to be known as the Kingmaker. Anna Ishida plays Warwick wonderfully, as the Earl attempts to navigate the changing political landscape and also keep his head.

York's dark monologue in which he plots the uprising of Jack Cade both ends the first part of the current production and begins the second part. Did Cade's popular revolt in 1450 have anything to do with York? Probably not, but Shakespeare was never one to allow history to get in the way of a good story. Cade did use the name of John Mortimer, an earlier claimant to the throne, and this production cleverly has Orville Mendoza play both the real Mortimer in the first part and later the fake one.

The second act of part two of this production ties up the later scenes of The Third Part of Henry VI, which display a parade of slaughter. After the Duke of York it given a paper crown and had his head lopped off, the war is continued by his son Edward, played by David Shih. In NAATCO's co-production of Bus Stop at Classic Stage Company, Shih played the somewhat comic character of the bus driver, but while Edward is not above cracking jokes, he can also be terrifying, as when he and his brothers murder the young prince (Tommy Bo).

Shakespeare also gives ample space to the Clifford Family, whose power base was in the north of England, but who owed their allegiance to the Lancastrian King Henry VI. James Yaegashi, who plays the villainous Bishop of Winchester in the first part, returns terrifyingly as Old Clifford in the second part. He is succeeded by a son just as bloody, Young Clifford, played by David Lee Huynh (whom the audience previously saw as the Dauphin of France).

For the most part, Henry VI is like a well-written soap opera: good, escapist fun. However, this tale of incompetent leadership, broken promises, and disastrous foreign wars can't help but resonate with contemporary America. Though the adaptation by director Stephen Brown-Fried cuts a great deal to trim a trilogy down to two evenings, it doesn't needlessly alter Shakespeare's words. Perhaps that's why the audience appeared shocked when Warwick delivered this speech written centuries ago:

    Alas! how should you govern any kingdom,

    That know not how to use ambassadors,

    Nor how to be contented with one wife,

    Nor how to use your brothers brotherly,

    Nor how to study for the people's welfare,

    Nor how to shroud yourself from enemies?

Once again, Shakespeare proves to be our contemporary.

Suffs

Last night I saw Suffs, the emotionally moving and often infuriating new musical by Shaina Taub about the struggle to pass the 19th amendment.

Taub is one of New York City's most talented songwriters, and has long been supported by The Public Theater, which produced her musical adaptations of Twelfth Night and As You Like It in Central Park.

The Public Theater staged Suffs Off-Broadway prior to its transfer to the Music Box on 45th Street. The same company originated Hamilton, and comparisons between Suffs and that show are inevitable. Both musicals opted to feature their creators onstage as the play's protagonist and both utilized history in order to talk about contemporary politics.

While Hamilton was born out of the multi-cultural optimism of the Obama years, Suffs speaks to the anger, impatience, and exhaustion of our present moment. Taub stars as Alice Paul, the Quaker activist who both drove and divided the women's suffrage movement, engaging in militant protests and hunger strikes to try to embarrass the very politicians her movement needed to pass a constitutional amendment.

Suffs shows Paul first idolizing then clashing with Carrie Chapman Catt, played brilliantly by Jenn Colella. A mentee of the great Susan B. Anthony, Catt patiently built a movement that gathered support state by state, making slow and steady progress toward needed reform. In the show's opening number, "Let Mother Vote," she engages in folksy, non-threatening rhetoric aimed at winning over the American mainstream.

Though Catt welcomes the firebrand Paul into the feminist fold, it doesn't take long for Paul to George Clooney her mentor in the back. Paul forms her own National Woman's Party, funded by the multi-millionaire socialite Alva Belmont, played by Emily Skinner. Belmont happily bankrolls a team of professional activists, including Polish-American socialist Ruza Wenclawska, played by Kim Blanck. Historically, by the way, Wenclawska later appeared on Broadway in Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms.

A combination of left-wing extremism, elite monied interests, and showbiz glamor isn't attractive to everyone. Paul and her mostly white organization fails to win over Ida B. Wells, the legendary African-American journalist played powerfully by Nikki M. James. Though Wells is absolutely right about basically everything, her my-way-or-the-highway attitude mirrors that of the racist white Southerners she opposes and makes compromise impossible. A different (and perhaps more productive) course is charted by Mary Church Terrell, played by the wonderful Anastacia McCleskey.

Terrell, a graduate of Oberlin College, when told that because of her race she can't march with her state delegation at a national event, instead marches with a contingent of collegiate groups. This creative solution allows her to maintain her dignity (and get in a not-so-subtle dig against the racists) while neither engaging in nor provoking a pointless boycott. It's the type of political pragmatism that seems all-too-lacking in contemporary America.

In the play, Terrell notes that she assisted in the founding of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority at Howard University, which her daughter Phyllis (played by Laila Erica Drew) attended. When McCleskey said this onstage, a cheer erupted from a part of the audience, presumably Delta Sigma Theta sisters.

Suffs boldly presents the bitter infighting that characterized much of the American suffrage movement. It also gives voice to those who callously dismiss its achievements as limited and thus, to many, meaningless. Still, that cheer from Delta Sigma Theta filled me with hope.

Top Plays of 2023

Once again, I'm compiling a list of the top ten plays I saw in New York City that opened in 2023.

Last year, the musical Paradise Square topped my list, though critics were mixed in their reviews of the show, and it ended up closing at a financial loss.

Alas, I can't claim that this is the year theatre came back in New York, but a number of good shows did open in 2023, a couple of which are still running, so see them while you can!

10. The Smuggler - Irish Rep had an ambitious season this year, but the best thing I saw there was a very small show, Ronán Noone's one-man verse drama about a Massachusetts bar tender who ends up getting involved in human trafficking.

9. The School for Scandal - Hudson Classical Theatre Company continued its tradition this year of bringing solid productions of classical plays to the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument in Riverside Park. This year's staging of Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The School for Scandal brought together delightful acting with a creative costume design.

8. The Mind Mangler - This year the team that brought us The Play That Goes Wrong opened a new show in their franchise featuring Henry Lewis as an inept mentalist. The show is funny, which I expected, but also successfully pulls off a couple of brilliant magic tricks, which I wasn't expecting. Best of all, though, it has a tremendous heart that is no illusion at all. (Still playing!)

7. Crumbs from the Table of Joy - Keen Company's revival of Lynn Nottage's break-out play from 1995 was another unexpected delight, in part due to the performance of Shanel Bailey as Ernestine, a young woman in 1950s New York struggling to deal with changes both in the world and in her own family. Bailey definitely had a good year in 2023, as she appeared in another great revival on my list as well.

6. The Knight of the Burning Pestle - I directed this Jacobean classic when I was in college, so I knew I'd have to see a co-production by Red Bull and Fiasco Theater. Paco Tolson led the cast as a grocer's apprentice who becomes the titular Knight of the Burning Pestle. What made the piece a sheer joy, however, was the interaction of the ensemble, including Ben Steinfeld, Royer Bokus, and Teresa Avia Lim.

5. Here We Are - Stephen Sondheim's collaboration with David Ives finally made it to the stage this year. Even with flawed direction, the piece soars with a cast that includes Jeremy Shamos, Amber Gray, Bobby Cannavale, Rachel Bay Jones, Steven Pasquale, Micaela Diamond, and David Hyde Pierce. Whether or not you've seen any of the surrealist films of Luis Buñuel that inspired the piece, you should be able to appreciate the play's existential musings on modern life. Hurry to see the show before it closes on January 21st.

4. Arms and the Man - Shanel Bailey came back to Theatre Row this fall to appear as Raina in Gingold Theatrical Group's magnificent production of Shaw's anti-war classic Arms and the Man. Director David Staller brought together a wonderful cast that also included Keshav Moodliar, Ben Davis, Delphi Borich, Thomas Jay Ryan, Evan Zes, and Karen Ziemba. As someone who is a fan of toy theatres, I also loved the set designed by Lindsay G. Fuori to resemble a paper stage from the Victorian era. I'm looking forward to seeing what GTG does next in 2024!

3. Hamlet - The Public Theater chose Kenny Leon to direct the last production of Shakespeare in the Park before the Delacorte Theatre is shut down for renovations. Beowulf Boritt's set playfully echoed the one he previously designed for Leon's Much Ado About Nothing. The biggest joy, though, was seeing famed Shakespearean actor John Douglas Thompson play the most engrossing Claudius I've ever seen. Ato Blankson-Wood was able to hold his own as young Prince Hamlet, and the cast also included Lorraine Toussaint as Gertrude, Daniel Pearce as Polonius, and Solea Pfeiffer as Ophelia.

2. The Great Gatsby - The immersive production of The Great Gatsby was criminally underrated. The piece contained a couple of more traditional scenes, such as the tea Jay Gatsby prepared for Daisy, where the entire audience was assembled in one place. What was most interesting, though, was the way we were all divided into small groups to wander through side scenes, having interactions with various characters, sometimes with other audience members, and sometimes one-on-one. The live music was an added bonus. Sadly, the show closed in New York, but there's a chance it might come back, if not here, in another city.

1. Becomes a Woman - My top choice this year is likely to surprise a lot of people, but the Mint Theater Company performed an immense service in bringing Betty Smith's long forgotten play to the stage at last. Before Smith penned her 1943 novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, she wrote Becomes a Woman, but this was 1931, and no theatre wanted to touch a play with a feminist bent so far ahead of its time. In the Mint's long overdue production, Emma Pfitzer Price starred as Francie Nolan, a character whose name Smith later used as the heroine of her classic novel. Other strong performances were delivered by Jeb Brown, Peterson Townsend, Gina Daniels, Jason O'Connell, and Duane Boutté.

So that's my list! I'm looking forward to more great theatre in 2024.

Advent of the Carol

Yesterday was the first Sunday of Advent, which means the season of A Christmas Carol is upon us yet again.

For the past couple of years, Passage Theatre Company in Trenton has performed my adaptation of the classic Charles Dickens story. This year, they are instead having a holiday singalong, but if you want to get your Carol on, you can see a costumed reading this Wednesday at the Penn Club.

The Friends of Dickens New York is sponsoring the reading, which features Warren Wyss as Scrooge. Warren previously acted with Phylicia Rashad in The Public Theater's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Other readers include Lynn Manuell, Kitty Loving, and myself. Yes, I adapted the script, and will also be performing.

Celebrations commence at a 6:00 reception. Around 6:15, we'll begin caroling, and the reading itself will be at 6:30. The event is for Penn Club members and their guests, but Su Quinn, who is a member of the club as well as a Friend of Dickens, says anyone interested can contact her at: suyapaquinn@me.com

Tickets for non-members are $25 and include complimentary drinks. If you're interested, please come!

Hamlet in the Park

Last night, I had the good fortune of seeing the Public Theater's production of Hamlet at the Delacorte in Central Park.

It's directed by Kenny Leon, whose production of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing in 2019 was such a hit. That production re-imagined the comedy in a near-future United States where a struggle for basic rights is ongoing. (As... well... as it just so happens... it is....)

When I walked into the Delacorte, it became clear that this production would be a sequel of sorts to Leon's last play in the park. The set--designed by Beowulf Boritt, who also designed Much Ado--looks like the estate we had seen previously in a comedy wrecked by some unknown cataclysm. The large brick house from Much Ado appears to be partially sunken into the ground. The flagpole that proudly waved Old Glory in the last production is tilted at an angle. While Much Ado featured an SUV rolling onto the stage, Hamlet shows an SUV mired in the earth.

Center stage at the beginning of the play is a flag-draped coffin, presumably of the dead King Hamlet, whose portrait also dominates the set. A quartet of vocalists comes out to sing, which fortunately also allows latecomers to be seated without disturbing the play too much. Then the play begins in earnest with the funeral of the dead king, and we get to meet the cast, led by Ato Blankson-Wood. As young Prince Hamlet, Blankson-Wood communicates the play's famous monologues in a straight-forward manner, clearly getting across the complex verse in a way that is relatable and easy to understand for the audience.

When it comes time for Hamlet to confront the ghost of his father, the production has a few tricks up its sleeve, which is why it's good Leon cut the opening scene of the script where some minor characters meet the ghost. Seeing this up front would have ruined the surprise later on in the play. Plus, Hamlet as we know it today is pieced together from three different texts, so it has to be cut if the audience is going to experience anything close to how the original play would have been performed. Overall, the production does a good job trimming the play, though some of the piece's most famous lines have to be altered to eliminate any references to it taking place in Denmark. (The production is whole-heartedly American.)

One of the joys of seeing Shakespeare in the Park is getting to watch a variety of tremendous actors in supporting roles, and this production is no different. The incomparable John Douglas Thompson (who recently won praise for his performance in Irish Rep's production of Endgame) plays Claudius, and he's easily the best Claudius I've ever seen. As the usurping king tries to pray for forgiveness, we see he is truly overcome by remorse, even as he is unable to take the next step and actually repent. His interactions with Lorraine Toussaint are sexy and filled with warmth, making us see immediately why she chose to marry him. Both of them have some comic interactions with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, played perfectly by Mitchell Winter and Brandon Gill.

Additional comedy is provided by not just Greg Hildreth as the gravedigger, but by Daniel Pearce as Polonius. I previously saw Pearce as Macduff in a production the Public did of Shakespeare's Macbeth, and then later in another Public production, Jane Anderson's Mother of the Maid. As Polonius, Pearce milks the long-winded advisor for all he's worth. Fine performances are also delivered by Solea Pfeiffer who plays his daughter Ophelia and Nick Rehberger who plays his son Laertes.

This production also adds in some hip hop with Warner Miller's Horatio and with the players, led by Colby Lewis, reminding us that even gods cry. This summer will also be your last chance to see Shakespeare in the Park at the old Delacorte before it gets completely redone, so make sure you don't miss this wonderful production! 

As She Likes It

Last night, I saw Shaina Taub and Laurie Woolery's musical adaptation of William Shakespeare's As You Like It performed in the Delacorte Theater in Central Park.

First of all, I have to give a shout out to the understudies. Amar Atkins stepped in to perform the normally thankless role of Duke Senior, but provided such warm charisma that he was the center of attention whenever he was on stage.

Another understudy, Trevor McGhie, played the male lead of Orlando, who usually takes a back seat to his love interest, Rosalind. At one point, a character in this adaptation refers to Orlando as "Romeo's understudy," which seems about right. McGhie was wonderful, though, and he even managed to make Orlando's unlikely win in a wrestling match believable.

The shepherd Silvius got gender-swapped to Silvia, played last night by understudy Claudia Yanez. I was initially unsure of how the reversal in gender would work, but the adaptation pulled it off just fine, and Yanez was delightful. Honestly, these three understudies might have been my favorite performers in the whole cast. Whatever events brought them to the stage, the audience benefited.

Taub, who previously wrote the songs for a similar production by The Public Theater of Twelfth Night, played a role as well, just as she took on the motley of Feste in Twelfth Night back in 2018. She didn't play the fool Touchstone, though. (That role was filled hilariously by Christopher M. Ramirez.) Instead, Taub appeared as the melancholy Jacques, who has some of the best speeches in the original play.

Some of those speeches are musicalized by Taub, often quite wonderfully. On the whole, I enjoyed her adaptation of Twelfth Night much more, but I've always considered it a better play than As You Like It, which can get downright silly at times. This adaptation leans into the absurdity of the play though, and the songs help with that. I would love for a cast recording of the show to be released, as it has some of the best music by Taub that I've heard yet.

Director Laurie Woolery took a heavy hand in reducing the script to a lightening-quick 90 minutes without an intermission. She previously directed a 90-minute version of The Tempest I saw pre-pandemic (which I rather enjoyed). The Tempest is a much shorter play, though, and with the addition of extensive song-and-dance numbers, this adaptation leaves very little of Shakespeare's poetry intact. (We probably get more of Shaina and Laurie in this adaptation than we get of Bill.) With the joyful spirit of the outdoor production, however, you won't mind one bit.

Cymbeline, By Jove

Last night I saw New York Classical Theatre perform Cymbeline in Central Park. Last summer, the company performed Nahum Tate's adaptation of King Lear, but now they are back to sticking (more or less) to Shakespeare's original text.

The plot of Cymbeline is intentionally complicated, blending together legendary history with one of the folk tales that appears in The Decameron. This production has the potential to add to the confusion by having a small cast double in multiple roles.

Fortunately, the doubling adds to the production rather than taking away from it. In some productions, the actor who plays Posthumous doubles as the villain Cloten. That was how the Public Theater did it in 2015 when Hamish Linklater played both roles. In this case, however, Brandon Burk plays both Posthumous, Imogine's husband, and Guiderius, her long-lost brother. The delightfully comic Evan Moore-Coll instead plays Cloten, as well as assorted other roles.

One of the highlights of the show is when Aziza Gharib, who plays Imogine, appears in Posthumous's dream as (according to the stage directions) "Jupiter descends in thunder and lightning, sitting upon an eagle." Unlike the Jacobean stage, Central Park is not equipped with machinery to lower giant eagles from the Heavens. Instead, Gharib appears with huge wind-swept pieces of fabric, while two other cast members hold them out and provide other-worldly sound effects.

The supporting cast is in fact quite good. Jenny Strassburg plays the evil queen, a delicious role, though the character disappears toward the end of the play. Perhaps to compensate for that, she also plays Belarius, who fosters the king's lost sons. (The second son is played by Christian Ryan, who doubles as the deceitful Iachimo.) Terrell Wheeler (who also appeared in The Assembly's wonderful production of That Poor Dream) plays the important supporting roles of Pisanio and Caius, while the king himself is played by Nick Salamone.

If you want to see the production, it will be in Central Park until June 26th, after which it will move to Carl Schurz Park, and then Brooklyn Commons Park at MetroTech.

Best Productions of 2021

New York City theatre isn't completely back yet, especially with omicron scares cancelling shows right and left, but at least things are better than last year, when I had to write a list of the top 10 shows I did NOT get to see.

So now I'm back to my annual tradition of coming up with a list of the top shows I saw that opened this year in New York City. Obviously, my own adaptation of A Christmas Carol doesn't count, since it was in Trenton, and neither do virtual performances, though some of them were quite fun.

Here are my picks, in reverse order:

10. The Alcestiad - Magis Theatre Company lived up to its name with this magical outdoor production on Roosevelt Island this summer. Thornton Wilder's take on a Greek myth involving death and plague came alive with the ruins of a smallpox hospital providing the backdrop. It was a joy to behold.

9. King Lear - New York Classical Theatre decided to do William Shakespeare's most depressing tragedy this year, but with the happy ending rewritten by Nahum Tate. Once again, the outdoor setting added to the experience, though it also meant that my first two attempts to see the show were cancelled due to rain. The third time was a charm, and this show was nothing if not charming.

8. The Book of Moron - Robert Dubac's one-man show was closer to a stand-up comedy routine than your typical Off-Broadway fare, but it rose beyond simple jokes to become an engaging and thought-provoking piece of theatre. This was in part due to flawless direction by comedy legend Garry Shandling and a surprisingly innovative set designed by Melissa Burkhardt Moore. I'm glad I saw it.

7. Trouble in Mind - Alice Childress at last made it (posthumously) to Broadway with Roundabout's production of her most famous play, a backstage drama about actors rehearsing a dreadful script by a conveniently absent playwright. During intermission, I overheard one audience member say, "Chuck Cooper makes everything he's in even better." How true! Cooper's performance in the play is not to be missed, so if you haven't seen it yet, get your tickets. It's still playing, but only through January 9th!

6. Merry Wives - Jocelyn Bioh's adaptation of The Merry Wives of Windsor was the Public Theater's sole offering at the Delacorte this summer, but it was worth seeing, if for no reason other than Jacob Ming-Trent, who played the larger-than-life character of Falstaff. Bioh appropriately adjusted the text to make Shakespeare's comedy of rural life in England work when reset among African immigrants in contemporary Harlem. The sight of Ming-Trent as an overgrown man-child playing video games was not only a witty sight gag--it was amazingly appropriate for the character of Sir John Falstaff.

5. Flying Over Sunset - When James Lapine has a new play, it's usually worth seeing, and when it's got music by Tom Kitt and lyrics by Michael Korie, you definitely want to be there. This imagined meeting of Aldous Huxley, Clare Boothe Luce, and Carey Grant at a rented Malibu beach house where they go on LSD trips together delivers both soaring melodies and beautiful stage pictures. It also features innovative choreography by tap master Michelle Dorrance. Harry Hadden-Paton, Carmen Cusack, and Tony Yazbeck all provide stellar performances that go beyond mere impressions of celebrities. This show is still playing at Lincoln Center, so get your tickets while you can!

4. Mrs. Warren's Profession - Gingold Theatrical Group scored again with their production of Bernard Shaw's devastating comedy about capitalism and prostitution, which turn out to be pretty much the same thing in this play. Karen Ziemba was able to shine in the title role, even when sharing the stage with other acting stalwarts like Raphael Nash Thompson and Robert Cuccioli. The more challenging roles in the play, however, go to the younger performers playing Vivie and Frank. Nicole King made her Off-Broadway debut as Vivie Warren, a "New Woman" whose enigmatic intelligence Shaw explored but thankfully never tried to solve. She was complimented by David Lee Huynh as Vivie's caddish love interest, Frank. Director David Staller made certain this production was just as charming as GTG's 2019 offering, Caesar and Cleopatra.

3. The Disciple - Thirdwing is a relative newcomer to NYC theatre. Their productions--which are sometimes live, sometimes virtual, and sometimes both--can be hit or miss. The Female Genius, a series of filmed shorts by Rachel Carey, provided the basis for this full-length play about author and philosopher Ayn Rand and her devoted much younger lover, Nathaniel Branden. Unlike some other plays about sexual exploitation by the famous and powerful, The Disciple finds nuance, in part by flipping traditional gender politics on their head, and showing a woman who is willing to be just as selfish and brutal as any man. Maja Wampuszyc is perfect as Rand, and Cameron Darwin Bossert plays Branden with both humanity and humor. Alas, the in-person show came and went without much fanfare, but fortunately, you can still see a filmed scene from it streamed through Thirdwing's website.

2. The Alchemist - The funniest new play of 2021 was Ben Jonson's old Jacobean comedy The Alchemist, made new again in a brilliant adaptation by contemporary dramatist Jeffrey Hatcher. Red Bull Theater Company, which has been remarkably active online during the pandemic, thankfully returned to the live stage with this side-splitting production directed by Jesse Berger. The cast featured Jacob Ming-Trent--who was so hilarious as Falstaff in this summer's Merry Wives--as well as Manoel Feliciano, Reg Rogers, Teresa Avia Lim, Nathan Christopher, Carson Elrod, Allen Tedder, Louis Mustillo, and Jennifer Sanchez (who literally shimmered in a costume designed by Tilly Grimes). Jonson's play is hysterical, but its cast of 12 (plus assorted extras) makes it difficult to produce for a professional company. Hatcher did a great job getting to the core of the humor while also reducing the cast size and making the play feel topical for those of us living through the plague of the 21st century.

1. The Streets of New York - Of all the New York companies that took their work to the virtual world to keep theatre alive during the pandemic, none were more prolific and innovative than Irish Repertory Theatre, which experimented boldly with the online format, and frequently with great success. I intensely looked forward to their return to the live stage, though, and was greatly pleased when they announced that they would be performing Dion Boucicault's The Streets of New York, especially after they had done such a magnificent revival of the same author's comedy London Assurance. What I was not expecting was for the show to be a musical! Director Charlotte Moore provided a number of delightful songs to transform Boucicault's classic melodrama into a holiday treat. She couldn't have done it, however, without a delightful cast that includes Ben Jacoby, David Hess, Justin Keyes, Jordan Tyson, Ryan Vona, Delaney Westfall, and (most winningly) Amanda Jane Cooper. It's still playing until January 30th, so be sure to grab tickets.

That's my list! Honorable mentions go to Blackbird, Radium Girls, and The Overcoat. Let's hope the virus recedes soon, and we can have a more robust season in 2022!

Merry Wives of Harlem

Theatre in New York never completely went away. Even in 2020 while the virus was raging in the city, Blessed Unrest put on an outdoor production of Battle of Angels, and this summer, I've had a chance to see King Lear and Twelfth Night in parks in Manhattan, as well as The Alcestiad on Roosevelt Island and an indoor production of The Disciple.

That's why it seemed a bit presumptuous for the Public Theater to introduce this summer's production of The Merry Wives of Windsor as the return of theatre to New York. Still, after last summer's cancelations, this year's show was more than welcome. The Delacorte Theater in Central Park still isn't operating at full capacity, as there are special social-distancing sections, but the audience who did get in for the production I saw last night thoroughly enjoyed the play.

While The Merry Wives of Windsor isn't Shakespeare's greatest play (in fact, a good case can be made that it's his worst), adaptations of it have sometimes proved successful. Verdi's opera Falstaff, for instance, has some great music that papers over the weak plot. Generally, productions of Shakespeare succeed when the hew closely to their source material, but this play is an exception. That's why I welcomed news that the text had been adapted by contemporary playwright Jocelyn Bioh.

Reset in a community of African immigrants in contemporary Harlem, Bioh's adaptation cleverly finds ways to utilize the source text to comment on a very different time and place than Shakespeare's England. Doctor Caius is a French physician in the original, but by making him from Francophone Africa, Bioh is able to keep his ridiculous speech peppered with French words and phrases. The Welsh parson Sir Hugh Evans becomes Pastor Evans, who is fortunately not Welsh. (How does one even make Welsh jokes in New York?)

The center of the show, however, is Falstaff, played in this production by the wonderful Jacob Ming-Trent. The moment he appears on stage, we know exactly who he is--not so much a player as a player-wanna-be who somehow still manages to win us over with his charm.

This production is still running until September 20th, so sign up for the digital lottery and get your tickets soon!

Cataracts and Hurricanoes!

Tuesday, I was supposed to see New York Classical Theatre Company's production of King Lear in Central Park. I was particularly excited because rather than doing the classic version by William Shakespeare, they promised they would be performing the happy ending by Nahum Tate!

Well, unfortunately, they called off the show due to weather. I had already walked down to the park, so I ended up getting drenched on the way home. Fortunately, the company offered to reschedule my reservation for a different date. I asked them to rebook me for Saturday, tonight.

Well, they got through quite a bit of the play this time, bur as Lear was calling out "You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout / Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks!" the audience was feeling drops of rain start to come down on us. It wasn't too much, so the actors soldiered on. Gloucester got his eyes gouged out, and then the director made an announcement: The show was canceled. As I walked home, I got drenched yet again.

Is the third time a charm? Well, Lear didn't have much luck with his first two daughters, and then along came Cordelia... so... maybe?

I've made a reservation to see the show when it will be playing in Castle Clinton later this month. Come to think of it, the last time I saw New York Classical perform King Lear, it was also at Castle Clinton, but that was with the original ending. I want the happy ending, dang it!

New York Classical isn't the only company performing free Shakespeare in the parks this summer. Classical Theatre of Harlem is doing an adaptation of Richard III by Will Power called Seize the King, Greenhouse Ensemble is doing a production of Twelfth Night, and the Public Theater is doing Jocelyn Bioh's adaptation of The Merry Wives of Windsor. In addition, Shakespeare in the Parking Lot is doing Shakespeare's collaboration with John Fletcher, The Two Noble Kinsmen.

Outdoor theatre is always a challenge, but I'm hoping the rains let up so I can see at least some of these upcoming shows!

Top Shows (that I missed) in 2020

In past Decembers, I have come up with a list of the best shows I saw that opened in New York City that year. Well, for 2020, that list would have to be pretty short.

Sure, I could talk about Blessed Unrest's Battle of Angels, and Irish Rep's Lady G, and end with Roundabout's standout production of A Soldier's Play, but for the most part, 2020 was a total loss when it came to live theatre.

Instead, I'm going to write about ten shows I missed, plays I was looking forward to seeing live, but couldn't experience because massive government incompetence turned a completely predictable (and predicted) outbreak into the worst health crisis since the influenza of 1918-1920.

This year was supposed to be one of world travel for me, rather than confinement to mostly just four small rooms. That's why my list is not restricted to just New York City this year. Here are ten shows I should have seen, would have seen, and likely would have loved, had it not been for the dumpster fire of 2020:

10. A Touch of the Poet. Okay, this one is partially my fault, since Irish Rep went ahead and produced this Eugene O'Neill play digitally. I was looking forward to seeing it live, though, and Zoom fatigue combined with the added work of trying to teach classes online meant that I missed the virtual performance. I still blame 2020.

9. Hangmen. Was Martin McDonough's latest play going to be a masterpiece? Maybe. Maybe not. But New York never got to find out, because it was still in previews when COVID-19 shut down theatres. Some shows vowed to reopen once the crisis passed, but as it became clear that the shutdown would last for weeks and then months, producers had to pull the plug on this one.

8. Man of La Mancha. The Astoria Performing Arts Center had planned a revival of this classic musical, to be directed by Dev Bondarin, whose work I've always loved. Fortunately, APAC is still going, though other theatre companies have been forced to fold. Theatre in Queens took a big hit when the Secret Theatre announced its closure this year. The one bright spot is that APAC will be taking over the space they've vacated.

7. As You Like It. The Public Theater has experienced tremendous success with its Public Works productions in Central Park, bringing together professional artists and amateurs in a celebration of all that's great about New York City. Shaina Taub did an excellent job composing music for 2019's production of Twelfth Night, and I was looking forward to hearing her score for As You Like It. It looks like I'll have to wait a bit longer now.

6. Richard II. The Shakespeare in the Park production I was really looking forward to seeing this year, though, was Richard II. Though I've seen multiple filmed versions of the play this is the only one in the Shakespeare canon I've never experienced live. After the shutdown, director Saheem Ali organized a radio version of the piece that aired on WNYC. You can listen to each of the four episodes, which are available as podcasts, though it's certainly not the same thing.

5. The Prince of Egypt. After attending a Shaw conference in Spain this May, I was supposed to spend some time with my sister in London. She had already gotten us tickets to see the stage adaptation of Stephen Schwartz's The Prince of Egypt at the Dominion Theatre. The movie was delightful, and the score does seem to lend itself to a stage transfer, so I was looking forward to seeing how it works on stage, as well as spending some time with my sister. Instead, I've only been able to see her virtually this year.

4. Leopoldstadt. Even more exciting than The Prince of Egypt was the other show my sister had gotten us tickets to see. Tom Stoppard's new play Leopoldstadt opened this January in a production directed by Patrick Marber, who had done such a brilliant job directing Stoppard's Travesties. Of all the shows playing in London this year, this was the one I really, really wanted to see. It tells the stories of members of the Jewish community in Vienna during the first half of the 20th century. We had tickets, but now I don't know if I'll ever have a chance to see it.

3. The Devil's Disciple. Though the Shaw conference in Spain was cancelled due to COVID-19, I briefly entertained hopes of attending another Shaw conference in Niagara-on-the-Lake in Canada. Instead, that conference went virtual, and the Shaw Festival decided to postpone its summer season for the summer of 2021. That means I might still get a chance to see the Shaw play they were supposed to do this year, The Devil's Disciple. Incidentally, Gingold Theatrical Group had planned to produce the same play this autumn. Will it be possible in 2021? We're still not sure.

2. Great Expectations. This play isn't an adaptation of the work by Charles Dickens, though I would have been excited about that, too. No, this Great Expectations is a reworking of my own short play The Rainbow, but for two older actors. A friend of mine, Ellen DiStasi, approached me earlier this year about doing The Rainbow with Theater of Light, which brings live drama to communities of older folks here in New York. Ellen asked if I could update the script to be performed by more mature actors, so a woman who had recently had a break-up became a widow, and there were a few other changes as well. The biggest thing, though, was that Ellen wasn't sure that a long monologue about a D.H. Lawrence novel would work for her target audience, so I changed it to a monologue about Great Expectations instead, which naturally changed the title of the play as well. I'd love to be able to do this show in 2021, but a play performed by members of a vulnerable community for other members of a vulnerable community....

1. The Love Songs of Brooklynites. I've been working on a full-length version of my one-act play that was workshopped in 2019 at the Theatre of Western Springs. Meanwhile, the one-act version was accepted for the theatre trail at the Arundel Festival of the Arts in the United Kingdom. The Drip Action Theatre Company in Arundel says they want to do the show this upcoming year. That would be wonderful. Though I've had my work performed in Canada, Australia, and even Japan, I've never had a production in the U.K., and Arundel looks like an amazing place to visit. Perhaps I'll be able to go this August and see it. Whether that happens or not, I'm still holding out hope for the full-length version of The Love Songs of Brooklynites to have a New York production once the theatres reopen. That means we're all going to have to wear masks, limit unnecessary travel, and get vaccinated. It also means that the government needs to get its act together and actually distribute and administer the vaccines being produced. Only then are we going to be able to have great theatre back.

Budget Priorities

The COVID crisis has had profound effects on New York City, the state, and the nation. There is plenty the federal government could do to protect arts organizations, but with NYC looking into its budget for the coming year, it's time to talk about budget priorities for the city.

As an adjunct professor at City College, I have had to struggle to help my students adjust to online learning. The City University of New York is chronically underfunded, and New York City primary and secondary schools are in dire shape as well. Now, this virus has put additional strains on our educational institutions and our students.

Perhaps nothing is a better investment in our nation's future than spending on education. We need to be spending more money on education, not less, and every dollar cut from education probably leads to huge amounts of money we'll have to spend later on down the line. Already, employers are complaining about having to train graduates on things they should have learned in school, and I don't think there's any serious doubt that our current mass incarceration problem is fueled in part by inadequate educational opportunities.

Closely related to education are our public libraries. In the past, I have been a frequent user of multiple branches of the New York Public Library, including the Epiphany Branch, which (when it was open) provided a meeting space for a the Friends of Dickens New York. In addition to providing books, DVDs, and other resources, libraries provide lifelong learning opportunities and community events that are vital to public life. Yet the public has been cut off from our libraries during this current health crisis. In order to come back and provide these essential services in the future, libraries are going to need more funding, not less.

In spite of our current COVID intermission, the arts are what make New York City a vibrant place to live. Whether it's the free outdoor performances by the Public Theater and Classical Theatre of Harlem, or the many other programs offered throughout the city, the arts are why people come here, and they contribute to the social and economic vitality of New York. Sometimes, politicians see the arts as "extra" and "discretionary" while continuing to fund deadbeat cops who contribute nothing to our community and frequently abuse and harass us in our own neighborhoods. It is time for that to stop.

The New York Police Department currently has a budget of $6 billion, which is far more than it needs. In spite of the outrageous actions by certain police officers, I know that there are many good, honest cops out there who really do have our community's best interests at heart. However, we cannot turn a blind eye to the huge amount of waste, corruption, and abuse in the NYPD. Once upon a time, we had a few bad apples. We refused to get rid of them, and now the whole bunch is spoiled. Our refusal to reform the NYPD has left us with an agency that today serves nobody but itself.

Members of the city council have found $1 billion in the NYPD's budget that could be cut and reallocated to other programs. Honestly, while $1 billion sounds like a good start, I think that if they kept digging, they could find plenty more to cut, and not compromise the safety of New Yorkers one bit. As a matter of fact, we would probably be making New York safer, since many of the criminals who rob, beat, and murder us in this city often wear badges.

Unfortunately, the mayor has continued to support a bloated and corrupt NYPD that attacks peaceful protestors while allowing crimes committed by those within its own ranks to go completely unchecked. It's time to cut back the wasteful spending on policing and save the programs that actually make a positive difference in the lives of New Yorkers.

A Call to Action

The arts are one of the most important drivers of the nations's economy. According to the U.S. government, they contribute more than $760 billion a year. That's more than warehousing, more than transportation, more than agriculture.

At least that was true prior to the national shutdown due to COVID-19. America's farmers have enjoyed massive subsidies for years, and an outright bailout by the Trump Administration after our trade war made it impossible for them to make money. As for transportation, both the airlines and the automobile industry receive subsidies and bailouts. But (with the exception of a few NEA dollars Republicans are still trying to take away) not the arts.

Today, all arts organizations are in trouble, and through no fault of their own. Even organizations that built up sizable cushions couldn't be expected to go months having their doors shut by government mandates... especially when the government is refusing to pick up the tab for the mess it created itself through a ridiculously inept response to a pandemic... a pandemic so foreseeable that health experts have been issuing warnings for years.

Yet while the federal government is borrowing huge sums of money to bail out for-profit businesses so they can maintain profits and continue to pay their executives, there has been very little done to aid arts organizations. Perhaps the arts, like libraries and churches, are non-essential. (But not nail salons and tattoo parlors. Those are essential, apparently.) Either that, or it's because businesses can provide bribes--I mean campaign contributions--to politicians, while theaters, libraries, and churches tend to be restricted in their ability to do so.

Some theaters will weather the storm. The Metropolitan Opera, which has laid off employees but continues to provide streaming services to its patrons to keep engaging audiences, will probably get through this mess intact. So will the Public Theater, in spite of their cancelling the free Shakespeare in the Park that has been offered for decades. (That was a loss-leader for them, anyway.) Other theaters, however, have already shut their doors. The Secret Theatre, which operated on a shoe-string budget in Long Island City, couldn't afford to keep paying rent on a space they were forbidden to use. I guess that means there's more space to build luxury condos in LIC.

The question is, will anyone want those luxury condos after we systematically murder off everything that was good about Long Island City, and indeed, New York? Epidemics never stopped people from flocking here in the past. Washington Square Park is built on a mass grave of about 20,000 corpses, the majority of them victims of Yellow Fever. (We thought that the 21st century would be the first century in the history of civilization not to have to dig mass graves. Guess what? We were wrong, as Hart Island can bear witness.) In the past, the museums and theaters in New York always stayed open, even during the Great Influenza that began in 1918.

Though previous (and far more deadly) epidemics ate into the profits of Broadway shows and reduced the number of visitors to museums and galleries, they never shuttered them. Now, the government has ordered these places closed, and it seems to have no real plan to help them get through this mess and reopen again. If political leaders don't take action, we will be a much poorer city (and nation) for having squandered the most important assets our society possesses, while letting bankers and business executives once again walk away with ridiculous amounts of taxpayer funds. But it isn't bankers and hedge fund managers that make New York great. Disease never kept people from the city before, but what drew them here, even at the risk of their lives, is being destroyed.

If we really wanted to, there are many things we could do to save arts organizations, rather than throwing them under the COVID bus while rescuing Wall Street yet again. For one, we could provide loan forgiveness for all nonprofits through the Main Street Lending Program and the Economic Stabilization Fund. All for-profit businesses are eligible for loan forgiveness (essentially free money) if they have up to 10,000 employees or $2.5 billion in revenue. As we've seen, a lot of major corporations have taken advantage of the program to avoid "laying off" top executives, even as they have slashed payrolls of the people who actually do the work. Nonprofits, however, are ineligible unless they have at least 500 employees.

Wait a minute, didn't I say that big organizations like the Met and the Public were the ones most likely to make it through this thing anyway? Yup, but they're the ONLY ones eligible for money right now. Very few theaters have 500 people on their payroll. (And I'm pretty sure NONE have more than 10,000, so the upper limit is irrelevant to performing arts.) Why the 500-employee minimum? Well, like I said, the small fry can't bribe--I mean, make campaign contributions to--politicians. Writing out virtually every theater in America while making sure that small "businesses" including hedge funds are eligible for free taxpayer subsidies is absurd, but exactly what one would expect from the present Administration. That's why Congress has got to act not just to expand the existing programs, but to create special safeguards for the arts.

At a time in which we are providing massive amounts of money to for-profit corporations, it is unconscionable that we are continuing to ignore the needs of the non-profits that provide the lifeblood of our city and our nation. Remember, this is an industry that's 4.2 percent of the GDP, which means it's FOUR TIMES bigger than agriculture! If farmers deserve bailouts for the self-inflicted wounds caused by the trade war, why do we expect a much larger industry to go it alone during the self-inflicted chaos caused by the government's ineptitude in handling a virus?

Perhaps it's because farmers are good, honest people, while artists are a bunch of godless heathens who don't deserve to live. Given the coldness with which this country has treated the more than 100,000 Americans who have died of the virus, many of them in the New York City area, that appears to be precisely the attitude our government has adopted.

Well, I've got news for you, Washington. The artists aren't the ones who are godless.

Top Plays of 2019

I've come up with this year's list of the top plays I saw that opened in New York in 2019.

Of course some plays didn't qualify, like What the Constitution Means to Me, which opened last year Off-Broadway, or Timon of Athens, which I actually saw in England.

Last year, Travesties and Twelfth Night topped the list, and this year included pieces produced by Roundabout and The Public Theater as well. Here's this year's top ten, in reverse order:

10. Antony and Cleopatra - Hudson Warehouse provides a mixed bag of free classical theater in Riverside Park, but this year's modernized production of one of the great tragic love stories of all time was definitely worth seeing.

9. The Importance of Being Earnest - Another great free outdoor production this year was New York Classical Theatre's clever take on Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. This year they performed the play in both traditional and gender-swapped versions.

8. Midsummer: A Banquet - Food for Love Productions turned Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream into a tasty treat with this immersive production directed and choreographed by Zach Morris. The Art Nouveau aesthetic worked brilliantly, but it was the remarkable acting that sold the show.

7. Cyrano - Yes, this musical adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac by the New Group was all over the place, but it still managed to make me cry... a lot. If they end up releasing a cast album, definitely buy it. And yes, Peter Dinklage can sing. (We already knew Jasmine Cephas Jones and Grace McLean could.)

6. King Lear - Glenda Jackson gave a performance of a lifetime in this Broadway production of Shakespeare's bleakest tragedy. Sam Gold's direction was problematic at times, but a supporting cast including Jayne Houdyshell and Ruth Wilson made up for it, and the production was thoroughly enjoyable, if rather long.

5. Caesar and Cleopatra - Gingold Theatrical Group scored a hit again this year with their Off-Broadway revival of an epic historical comedy by George Bernard Shaw. Director David Staller's imaginative staging featured seven amazing actors and one hysterical puppet. I'm looking forward to seeing what GTG does next year!

4. Hillary and Clinton - Lucas Hnath's play about the 2008 presidential primary had already been making the rounds before landing on Broadway this year. His writing is always clever, but Broadway audiences had the added benefit of seeing Laurie Metcalf and John Lithgow in the title roles.  The play succeeded by eschewing historical accuracy in favor of a more metaphorical truth.

3. Much Ado About Nothing - The stand-out Shakespeare production of the year was undoubtedly The Public Theater's production of Much Ado About Nothing in Central Park. Director Kenny Leon assembled an incredible cast, and fortunately their performance was recorded and aired on PBS to be shared with the entire nation. If you missed it in the park, make sure you see the recorded version.

2. Scotland, PA - A lot of people have been crowing about Hadestown, which I saw both Off-Broadway and in London, though I have not yet seen in its new Broadway incarnation. The best new musical that I saw this year was Adam Gwon's Scotland, PA, a brilliant adaptation of the 2001 film, which was itself based on a certain Scottish Play. Alas, Roundabout has closed this production, but it deserves to have a longer life elsewhere.

1. Juno and the Paycock - Though I'm not a huge fan of Sean O'Casey, this spring Irish Repertory Theatre presented his three Dublin plays in rep, which is an opportunity not to be missed. Of the three, Juno and the Paycock is O'Casey's best play, and this production was masterfully directed by Neil Pepe to navigate the layers of comedy and tragedy for maximum effect. Irish Rep has a great line-up of shows for the coming year, including Dion Boucicault's classic farce London Assurance, which is running now.

I'm looking forward to that and lots of other great shows in 2020!

Cyrano

Eclecticism can be a great thing in the theatre. When the Public last staged William Shakespeare's Cymbeline in Central Park, the set was covered with reproductions of Western art from nearly every period, and when each scene felt like it took place in a new milieu, that felt about right, given that Shakespeare seems to mix vastly different settings and periods in a single play.

When Edmond Rostand wrote Cyrano de Bergerac, however, he set the play squarely in France of the 17th century. The play creates a singular vision of the world, not as it actually was in the 1600s, but as Rostand dreamed it could have been. Not every production of Cyrano de Bergerac needs to be set in 17th-century France, and a production placed in the time of Rostand's own fin de siècle Third Republic might work out charmingly, but the play does imply a single, unified setting.

That's what makes the eclecticism of Erica Schmidt's new musical adaptation, dubbed simply Cyrano, so oddly intriguing. Where are we? Or more precisely, when are we? The costumes designed by Tom Broecker range from the era of Louis XIV to the U.S. Civil War to contemporary. The music composed by Aaron and Bryce Dessner of The National has an indy-rock feel, yet the vocal stylings of Jasmine Cephas Jones as Roxanne have a deep R&B resonance. Throw into the mix The Great Comet's Grace McLean as a quirky and comedic Marie, and what do you get?

The answer seems to be a puzzle where each piece is brilliant, but the audience has trouble putting it all together. Fortunately, unifying this whole sprawling epic is the character of Cyrano himself, played here by Peter Dinklage. I greatly admired his work in Schmidt's production of A Month in the Country at Classic Stage Company, though apparently he also did some T.V. show about dragons.

Oddly, though, Schmidt's adaptation cuts out some of Cyrano's most famous scenes. We don't get his duel while composing a poem, nor his long list of self-deprecating jokes about his nose. For that matter, his nose is not enlarged at all for the part, and the cast hints that by "nose" they might be referring to another element of his appearance.

Rostand's creation of Cyrano de Bergerac is legendary, and the saga of its first production provided the plot for this year's cinematic gem Cyrano, My Love. This production of Cyrano by the New Group, playing now at the Daryl Roth Theatre, might not prove quite as memorable, but it's still worth seeing, and definitely worth hearing. The songs in the battle scene are particularly evocative, and I would like to see the Dessner brothers write more work for the theatre, especially if they can bring along their lyricists, Matt Berninger and Carin Besser.

If you do see it, bring tissues. The story's finale is appropriately moving, though not necessarily in the same way as the original. The final word of Rostand's play--"panache"--is notoriously difficult to translate, because it refers to both the literal white plume in a soldier's helmet and the intangible qualities of bravery, gallantry, and style Cyrano so prizes. By changing the word simply to "pride" Schmidt has transformed the play from the heroic comedy Rostand intended into a tragedy. Whether that is a good thing or not is a matter of taste.

Currently, Cyrano is only playing until December 22nd, so see it now before it disappears!

Kenny Leon's Much Ado

Yes, theatre in the parks can be a challenge, as the weather doesn't always want to cooperate, but after much ado, I finally saw Much Ado About Nothing in Central Park last night.

The Public Theater gives out tickets to Shakespeare in the Park to those who show up early and wait in line. However, you can also try your luck with the online lottery run by TodayTix.

That's what I did. Thunderstorms were predicted, which might have meant not as many people were trying the lottery that day. In any case, I lucked out and got tickets. The opening of the show was delayed due to rain, and they had to pause the performance once during the play for some of the heavier showers to pass over us. Fortunately, I was dressed appropriately in a slick, rain-proof jacket. (Hint: You might want to do the same.)

These days, you have to announce whether or not the audience can take pictures. The Public told us we could take photos before the show, but not after the play started, so before any ado began, I snapped this picture of the set, designed by Beowulf Boritt. As you can see, this production sets the play in an imagined near future, when democracy is in danger during a hypothetical future election. The banner on Leonato's house proclaims "Stacey Abrams 2020" in spite of (or perhaps because of) the fact Stacey Abrams seems to be one of the few Democrats not running for President in 2020.

In my opinion, the show's politics seemed to be layered on top of the play rather than being integral to the piece. Director Kenny Leon said in a program note that Much Ado About Nothing is "a play in which love wins, and in our world today if love is winning, it doesn't matter how much hate is around us: we're still going to laugh and we're still going to love." This came through in the production, particularly during a quite moving closing sequence. Still, for most of the play, the emphasis was on the laughter and the love.

For that, chief credit belongs to the play's Beatrice and Benedick. Television star Danielle Brooks is a sassy, spirited Beatrice, but she plays her character with enough variety to prevent her broad style of humor from ever becoming just shtick. This Beatrice shows off her wit for her friends, but also harbors powerful feelings beneath the facade she's constructed for herself. Grantham Coleman, who plays Benedick, isn't nearly as well known to audiences, but hopefully this role will change that. His comic acting is a jewel and deserves to be on Broadway.

Leading the supporting cast is Chuck Cooper, a veteran actor I remember fondly for his performance in the short-lived musical Amazing Grace, but who won his Tony Award in Cy Coleman's The Life. Cooper plays Leonato, the pater familias in the show. He grounds the world of the play, providing its moral center, which is why it is downright frightening when that moral center turns violently on his own daughter, Hero (played here by Margaret Odette). Leonato's reconciliation with his daughter is often glossed over in performance, but in this production it became a moment of transcendental forgiveness. It was beautiful.

Much Ado About Nothing contains a number of songs, and these were very freely adapted and arranged by composer Jason Michael Webb, who also did the arrangements for Choir Boy on Broadway. You won't hear Shakespeare's "Sigh No More, Ladies" but instead a new, modern song that matches its tone and mood almost completely.

Unfortunately, the show closes Sunday night, so if you haven't seen it yet, make sure you do soon!