THE HANGOVER REPORT – Mike Lew’s TEENAGE DICK is “Mean Girls” meets “Richard III”, and it’s an entertaining summer diversion

Gregg Mozgala, Shannon DeVido and Sasha Diamond in Mike Lew's "Teenage Dick" at the Public Theater, courtesy of Ma-Yi Theater Company.

Gregg Mozgala, Shannon DeVido and Sasha Diamond in Mike Lew’s “Teenage Dick” at the Public Theater, courtesy of Ma-Yi Theater Company.

This week, Teenage Dick, Mike Lew’s very loose updating of Shakespeare’s Richard III, opened at the Public Theater, in a production by Ma-Yi Theater Company. The play re-imagines the Bard’s villainous king through the lens of Mean Girls – that is, it reboots Richard as a high schooler – and the result is a highly entertaining summer diversion that goes down very easily.

What’s most interesting about Mr. Lew’s reworking is the way it interprets the amusingly named title role. Unlike in Shakespeare’s underlying play, Richard here is a conflicted young man; the sins he commits don’t come without moral consequence. Much like Elphaba in Wicked, Mr. Lew has skillfully charted Richard’s descent from decency to pure evil, and it’s a fascinating journey that gives the play its raison d’être.

The production is directed snappily by Moritz von Stuelpnagel. His cast is only too eager to bite into the playwright’s bitchy teenage world. In the titular part, Gregg Mozgala (who was so good in Martyna Majok’s Cost of Living at Manhattan Theater Club last season) hits all the right notes. He’s relatably ambitions, and, for the most part, genuinely likeable. In his hands, you oddly cheer on this Richard. The small supporting cast is also very good, particularly Shannon DeVido, a fellow disabled actor.

The presence of both actors gives the production gravitas. Without them, Mr. Lew’s play would have likely registered more like a cartoonish after school special. But with them, the play strikes an uncannily raw cord that makes Teenage Dick compelling theater.

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TEENAGE DICK
Off-Broadway, Play
The Public Theater, in collaboration with Ma-Yi Theater Company
1 hour, 40 minutes (without an intermission)
Through July 29

Categories: Off-Broadway, Theater

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