Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – 400 hundred years after his death, Shakespeare permeates the New York performing arts season

• By drediman
• March 2, 2016
• No Comments

As April 23, 2016 – the date of the 400^th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death – approaches, New York finds itself in the midst of a whole lotta Shakespeare. In the fall, The Pearl Theatre Company opened its season with a co-production with Bedlam to present a daring, shape-shifting A Midsummer Night’s Dream (RECOMMENDED) helmed by the exciting young director Eric Tucker (whose Hamlet a few seasons back for Bedlam was a revelation in its clarity, inventiveness, and succinctness). St. Ann’s Warehouse also opened its spacious new digs in Brooklyn with some Shakespeare – In this case, Phyllida Lloyd’s visceral, immersive all-female Henry IV (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) (both parts were truncated into a single evening), an import from London’s revered Donmar Warehouse. This Henry IV was a companion piece to Ms. Lloyd’s previous feral production of Julius Caesar, also at St. Ann’s via the Donmar; both were intensely claustrophobic intermission-less affairs set in a women’s penitentiary that starred the fierce Harriet Walter. Filter Theatre’s (in association with the Royal Shakespeare Company) raucous, trimmed-down production of Twelfth Night (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) had its audiences tickled during its brief stop at NYU’s Skirball Center in February. This was irreverent, fourth wall-breaking Shakespeare at its most deliciously giddy. Speaking of irreverent, Drunk Shakespeare (RECOMMENDED) continues its extended Off-Broadway run at the Lounge in Roy Arias Stages with its free-wheeling, in-your-face farcical take on the Scottish Play.

Currently on the boards is Trevor Nunn’s sweeping, good-natured production of the flawed but moving Pericles (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) at Theatre for a New Audience in Brooklyn. Luckily, Mr. Nunn is able cover to much of the play’s built-in deficiencies (the highly improbable plot; a choppy, episodic structure; an overall lack of cohesiveness) by embracing the play’s eagerness to tell a ripping yarn, plain and simple. To accomplish this, he gets some genuinely warm, truthful acting from his wonderfully game company (in the title role, Christian Camargo sculpts an expertly calibrated arc to Pericles’ epic journey) and deploys simple but highly theatrical stage techniques to bring cinematic fluidity to the play. Given its highly episodic structure, Pericles, more than most plays by the Bard, is reliant on music to provide a sort of connective tissue to the proceedings. Luckily, Shaun Davey’s music and songs are some of the strongest I’ve heard in a production of a Shakespeare play, underscoring key moments in the play to maximize emotional impact. The beautifully handcrafted sets and costumes are by veteran Robert Jones and Constance Hoffman, respectively. They’ve created a world that’s at once fantastical yet historically and geographically familiar.

The Public Theater continues its commitment to the Bard through a number of its exciting upcoming programming: Mobile Shakespeare Unit is staging a stripped-down Romeo and Juliet in April; in the summer, Shakespeare in the Park is presenting Phyllida Lloyd’s production of The Taming of the Shrew (Given Ms. Lloyd’s track record, Cush Jumbo and Janet McTeer will unsurprisingly lead an all-female cast!) and stalwart director Daniel Sullivan’s vision for the rarely-seen Troilus and Cressida; and Public Works’ delightful late summer treat this year will be yet another production of Twelfth Night, again to be directed by Lear deBessonet. As in previous years, expect a festive, celebratory atmosphere from this Public Works offering, as well as a cast of hundreds culled from the vast professional and amateur acting pools across New York’s five boroughs. As perhaps the centerpiece event of this Shakespearian wonderland, The Royal Shakespeare Company will present the History Plays under Gregory Doran’s direction – Richard II (featuring David Tenant), Henry IV Part 1 (with Antony Sher as Falstaff), Henry IV Part 2, and Henry V – in repertory under the umbrella title “King and Country” (Druid Theatre accomplished this same feat during last summer’s Lincoln Center Festival in a production that combined all four plays into an exciting single 6-hour marathon event!). As part of this summer’s Lincoln Center Festival, Jonathan Pryce, in a highly anticipated return to the New York stage, will be headlining Shakespeare’s Globe’s production of The Merchant of Venice as Shylock. If you like your Shakespeare done in a picturesque setting, the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival (which is just a short drive or train ride north of the city and presents the classics against the stunning backdrop of the Hudson Valley) is the destination for you. This summer’s festival marks its 30^th anniversary, during which it will be presenting Measure for Measure, As You Like It, and Macbeth. Oddly missing from this season are high profile productions of two of Shakespeare’s most famous, heavy-hitting tragedies, Hamlet and King Lear (in 2014 alone, I saw five Lears – Simon Russell Beale for the National, Michael Pennington for TFANA, John Lithgow for Shakespeare in the Park, John Marcel for Shakespeare’s Globe, and Frank Langella for the Chichester Festival – so I’m not too concerned that the latter play isn’t on the slate this season).

New York will also be seeing a number of operas, ballets, and musicals based on Shakespeare’s works in the upcoming months. This spring, New York City Ballet is dancing Balanchine’s enchanting choreographic adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at its home in the David H. Koch Theater. Christopher Wheeldon will be unveiling his transcendent ballet based on The Winter’s Tale to New York audiences as part of this summer’s Lincoln Center Festival, courtesy of the excellent National Ballet of Canada (I saw the piece a few months ago at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC and was deeply moved by it). Also this spring, the Metropolitan Opera brings back its new production of Verdi’s powerful Otello, directed by Bartlett Sher. Next season, the Met announced that it would mount a new production of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, also directed by the in-demand Mr. Sher. In terms of musical theater, the ever-popular Bernstein and Sondheim collaboration West Side Story, which is based on Romeo and Juliet, is enjoying three (!) rather high profile productions this season. One of these just concluded its acclaimed, sold-out run at the Signature Theatre in Virginia. The other two – a staging co-produced Carnegie Hall in a converted factory in Queens (starring Skylar Astin as Tony) and a summer revival at the venerated Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, NJ – are upcoming and eagerly awaited.

PERICLES
Off-Broadway, Play
Theatre for a New Audience
2 hours, 45 minutes (with one intermission)
Through March 27