SHAKESPEARE IN THE PARK LINE - Page 2

[Synecdoche2]

Posted: 7/4/22 at 12:13pm

Much like Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, people seem obsessed these days with finding ways to make Richard III a misunderstood or mistreated character that Shakespeare secretly sympathizes with. Of course, if you actually read the play, you'll realize that there's absolutely zero textual evidence for this.

Shakespeare writes Richard as a monster, and the reason he's a monster is because he's crippled. That's not a very modern or palatable perspective, but it's what the play says. Attempting to make Richard a victim of oppression is like making Shylock a victim of oppression: absolute nonsense and genuinely offensive to whoever you cast in those villainous roles.

Updated On: 7/4/22 at 12:13 PM

[JBroadway]

Posted: 7/4/22 at 12:56pm

There’s quite a lot of textual evidence to suggest a certain sympathy for Shylock, and even if there wasn’t, it’s not so difficult to spin the text in that direction. But I agree it’s much harder with Richard.

But my issue isn’t so much that O’Hara tried, it’s more that he didn’t seem to try very hard?

And I’m not sure that the of use ability-conscious casting in this production was even an improvement on the play’s disability “representation.” In this version, Richard is an able-bodied person who spends the whole play murdering, abusing, and manipulating disabled characters who have very little agency or power, dramaturgically speaking (even if they do have high social standing within the world of the play). I guess having Henry VII played by a disabled actor is supposed to be the big “win” in the end, but it’s still like: what are you actually trying to do or say here? Where does this version of Richard fit into this thematic examination of the play?

Oh, I meant to say in my last post, regarding the use of un-interpreted ASL in some scenes: as for whether it’s disrespectful to deaf people to leave their dialogue uninterpreted, I’m not sure. I could see arguments both ways, and it’s ultimately not my place to decide which argument “wins out.” But I disagree that it disrupts the storytelling. They’re always careful to include spoken lines that allow hearing audiences to deduce the gist of what’s being said, either from the context, or from the interspersed lines that ARE interpreted. And none of it is super important to the plot. If anyone read those comments above and worry about that disrupting your ability to follow the show, I’d say don’t be concerned.

[Scribbler3]

Posted: 7/5/22 at 5:40pm

At what point are directors going to realize that ideologically pure directorial flourishes are just self-admiring box ticking that brings none of the kind of authenticity that makes art great? 

It's all becoming a kind of anxious mess where people's identities are used as consumerist kitsch.

Updated On: 7/5/22 at 05:40 PM

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 7/5/22 at 6:01pm

Scribbler3 said: "At what point are directors going to realize that ideologically pure directorial flourishes are just self-admiring box ticking that brings none of the kind of authenticity that makes art great? It's all becoming a kind of anxious mess where people's identities are used as consumerist kitsch."

This has been a staple of Shakespeare adaptations for decades, and especially in the Park which sets out to present the most populist versions of Shakespeare plays for audiences who wouldn't otherwise be seeing Shakespeare.

I have a bigger problem with the complete incoherence of something like Sam Gold's LEAR or HAMLET (or, from what I hear, MACBETH) than whatever is going on at the Delacorte right now.

Updated On: 7/5/22 at 06:01 PM

[JBroadway]

Posted: 7/5/22 at 11:24pm

Scribbler3 said: "At what point are directors going to realize that ideologically pure directorial flourishes are just self-admiring box ticking that brings none of the kind of authenticity that makes art great?

It's all becoming a kind of anxious mess where people's identities are used as consumerist kitsch."

 

I think there's truth to this in some scenarios, but it really depends on how it's handled. I think there are ways to approach it from 2 opposite directions, both of which work fine: I figure a director can either (a) put together a diverse cast just for the sake of it, making it clear that it isn't tied to the storytelling, you're just trying to cast the right people for the roles, while also being conscious to give employment to people of marginalized groups (honestly, this is what Sam Gold does), or a director can (b) employ identity-conscious casting as a deliberate storytelling tool, and embrace all the nuanced implications that come with it, incorporating that as part of the take on the text.

I think both of those approaches work fine - the problem is when you have cases like this, where the casting is clearly and unavoidably loaded with context (because the play deals with the topic of ablism, even if Shakespeare wouldn't have called it that), but without taking care to mold those loaded implications into a cohesive storytelling angle.

 

[Kimbo]

Posted: 7/11/22 at 12:13pm

Any updates on the line? (Or even from people going tonight??) Reviews have been all over the map, but are just interesting enough- and generally more favorable than chat buzz online, including favorable reviews from Variety, Theatermania and New York Stage Review - that I’m curious to see it if I can do so easily.)

Just wondering whether anyone was having luck, not even with the lottery, but with the standby line or just walking up and getting tickets close to showtime as has often been the case with some of their heavier plays at the Delacorte.

 

[billybilly2]

Posted: 7/11/22 at 12:55pm

On 7/8/22 (nice weather) at 1:30 pm the Public tweeted “We still have tickets available for tonight’s performance. Stop by the Delacorte Box Office to pick one (or two) up and enjoy your Summer Friday with us.”

 

[VotePeron]

Posted: 7/11/22 at 1:46pm

Kimbo said: "Just wondering whether anyone was having luck, not even with the lottery, but with the standby line or just walking up and getting tickets close to showtime as has often been the case with some of their heavier plays at the Delacorte."

Even if the show is a hit, there will always be tickets available for the standby line. And they are serious about the 7:30 ticket pickup deadline, and will release those tickets to people in line as well. I've only done standby and always get excellent seats. No reason to line up in the morning. For a popular show, I'd say get in the standby line at 5:30pm and expect to have a ticket by or at 7:45 (up until 8:05), but for quieter shows like Richard III, there is no line and you can just walk up anytime.

[raddersons]

Posted: 8/9/22 at 2:31pm

Shaina Taub’s As You Like It begins performances tomorrow. Quite excited, I adored her Twelfth Night in 2019. Gotta say the scheduling seems tight given she JUST wrapped up making changes for Devil Wears Prada, but they’ve done the show before so I bet she just snaps back into it. 

Will report tomorrow on the line. 

[sorano916]

Posted: 8/9/22 at 3:09pm

raddersons said: "Shaina Taub’s As You Like It begins performances tomorrow. Quite excited, I adored her Twelfth Night in 2019. Gotta say the scheduling seems tight given she JUST wrapped up making changes for Devil Wears Prada, but they’ve done the show before so I bet she just snaps back into it.

Will report tomorrow on the line."

Shaina isn't doing the first few performances. They mentioned her standby going on through Sunday's show on the website. https://publictheater.org/productions/season/2122/sitp/as-you-like-it/

All understandable and probably put in place because of Devil's scheduling.

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 8/10/22 at 6:03pm

Tonight’s first preview apparently sold out very early. 

[willep]

Posted: 8/10/22 at 8:25pm

sorano916 said: "raddersons said: "Shaina isn't doing the first few performances. They mentioned her standby going on through Sunday's show on the website.https://publictheater.org/productions/season/2122/sitp/as-you-like-it/

All understandable and probably put in place because of Devil's scheduling."

Totally understandable, but I must be blind because I don’t see it mentioned on that page.

[Soozie]

Posted: 8/10/22 at 8:35pm

willep said: "sorano916 said: "raddersons said: "Shaina isn't doing the first few performances. They mentioned her standby going on through Sunday's show on the website.https://publictheater.org/productions/season/2122/sitp/as-you-like-it/

All understandable and probably put in place because of Devil's scheduling."

Totally understandable, but I must be blind because I don’t see it mentioned on that page."

Go to that link.  Then, scroll down to where you see the calendar. To the left of the calendar are four grey "bars" with drop down menus.  The last grey bar says "Standby Performance Schedule." Drop down, and it says: 


"Emily Gardner Xu Hall will perform as "Jaques" at the following performances:

• Wednesday, August 10 at 8:00 PM
• Thursday, August 11 at 8:00 PM
• Friday, August 12 at 8:00 PM
• Saturday, August 13 at 8:00 PM
• Sunday, August 14 at 8:00 PM"

Jaques is the role normally played by Shaina Taub.

Updated On: 8/10/22 at 08:35 PM

[Alessio2]

Posted: 8/10/22 at 10:29pm

Hi guys, advice on the best way to secure tickets for As You Like It?  My husband and I are flying in from California for my birthday weekend wednesday August 17 though Sunday August 21.  Seeing Into the Woods on Saturday and will see in Between the Lines also, but would love to see this!  Have never been to a Shakespeare in the Park show so any tips greatly appreciatede!!

[raddersons]

Posted: 8/10/22 at 10:51pm

EDSOSLO858 said: "Tonight’s first preview apparently sold out very early."

Interesting you heard that, because there were full sections of the audience empty tonight. Basically everything above the landing was empty in the two side sections. I wonder if it was intentional because… 

First preview and while I had a great time, you could feel it. Oskar Eustis got on stage before the show and said this was the first full run through of the show and that it might stop in the middle. Luckily it didn’t, but the show started with lots of timing/pacing issues. The pacing picked up more as the show went on. Some moments actors were not well lit and mics cues were missed.  These are all things that will improve over time with more performances. I say give it a week to cook before you wait in line. 

All that said it’s a fun night out with lots of fun moments. I was surprised, the book had lot more original text than Twelfth Night did, despite cutting so much so as to reduce it to 100 minutes. Because of cuts there were a few confusing moments — you never really understand the person Touchstone is in love with outside of Touchstone.  As You Like It felt a lot more like a public works show than Twelfth Night did in my mind — As You Like It had many moments that didn’t quite make sense for the book but were there just to feature public works performers, which were all very fun pastiche-ish moments. Twelfth Night integrated those moments into the action much more seamlessly in my mind. Music was lovely, and the audience came out humming “All The World’s A Stage”.

Performers were all great. Rebecca Naomi Jones (Rosalind), Ato Blankson-Wood (Orlando), Brianna Cabrera (Silvia), and Bianca Edwards (Phoebe) were my personal standouts. Shaina was in fact out — her standby was lovely but Shaina’s voice is so distinct I couldn’t help but miss it a little.


As far as the line goes, I got there ~9am and could still see the Delacorte. Maybe only 30 people in front of me.

Updated On: 8/10/22 at 10:51 PM

[alexidarling15]

Posted: 8/11/22 at 10:58am

Thanks for that report! Wow, interesting that they hadn't done a full run-through yet. I'll probably enter the lottery this weekend. If anyone goes tonight, can you please report back?

[JBroadway]

Posted: 8/11/22 at 11:30am

If anyone is curious to read a few reports (including mine) from when this played in 2017:

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.php?thread=1103945

(LOL at myself - basically describing what a Public Works show is, as though it were unique to this production - it was my first one)

In retrospect, while this show was somewhat messier than Taub's Twlefth Night, I think I have more respect for it. It was more inventive, and less cloying. But still suffered from a lot of the same issues.

I don't remember there being much original text outside of the songs; I seem to recall almost all the spoken text was Shakespeare, but maybe I'm misremembering, or maybe they've since added more original text.

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 8/11/22 at 11:37am

On line now; about 75-80 people in front of me. 

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 8/11/22 at 11:26pm

Tonight was my first Shakespeare in the Park experience and my first time inside the Delacorte, and As You Like It did not disappoint. If you don’t walk out of that space with a big smile on your face, you’re probably dead inside.

I had a PERFECT view from my seat, smack in the center and not too far back. Laurie Woolery stepped on stage at about 8:10 and made a pre-show speech, and I’d say the show ended tonight right around 10.

Shaina Taub’s music straddles somewhere in between Hadestown and Great Comet, and I adored every bit. I can’t get the “Ah, ah, ah… all hail Duke Frederick” motif out of my head right now.
I was sitting next to a few of the understudies, and they told me Taub was in the house tonight, but she needed some more time to ease back into Jaques.  Emily Gardner Xu Hall was an okay understudy, but didn’t completely capture Jaques’s aw-shucks nature, though she nailed the sarcasm.

Tonight was also my first time seeing Ato Blankson-Wood and Rebecca Naomi Jones on stage. The two of them made Orlando and Rosalind very easy to root for. It was nice to hear Jones dip into her softer side, after seeing / hearing her get very intense and edgy in video clips from a few of her Broadway credits. Blankson-Wood has a capable singing voice and is given the best musical number in the show, a “One Knight”-esque R&B crooner called “Will You Be My Bride?”.

The show is in incredible shape for a second preview. Some of the subplots / side romances could be beefed up a bit before the 30th, and I don’t really like how they made Duke Frederick a Lord Farquaad-type stock villain, but those are minor quibbles.

The wrestling match scene gave me Rocky vibes. Was Bronco wearing a motorcycle helmet or a Power Rangers mask while in the ring?

Loved the gender-bending at play here: Silvius becomes Silvia, and Audrey becomes Andy, leading to a pair of queer relationships.

The guy playing Touchstone is dressed like a gay Hermes without the umbrella. Duke Senior looks like Joseph with that big gold coat he wears. And don’t get me started on the puppetry - those two animals in some of the Forest of Arden sequences looked like Milky White clones from down on 44th Street!

Much of the play felt very naturally staged in the middle of Central Park. 

Andrea Grody remains an incredible conductor and music director. 

Long story short: this As You Like It is JOY from start to finish, and I still can’t believe how ecstatic it’s made me at the moment. Such a wonderful 100-minute escape that celebrates love in all its forms. 
GO GO GO!


 


 

 

 

 

Updated On: 8/11/22 at 11:26 PM

[JBroadway]

Posted: 8/12/22 at 12:02am

EDSOSLO858 said: "those two animals in some of the Forest of Arden sequences looked like Milky White clones from down on 44th Street!”


It’s the same puppet designer as Into the Woods, James Ortiz. He’s been killing it lately - he also did puppets in Skin of Our Teeth, which were jaw-dropping. He also did great work on the PublicWorks Hercules. But I’ll always think of him as one of the primary artists responsible for The Woodsman, from about 6 years ago - one of the most gorgeous pieces of theatre I’ve seen. He’s a real talent! 











"

 

[alexidarling15]

Posted: 8/12/22 at 4:54pm

Great review of last night! Friends and I have been entering the online lottery, but so far no luck.

[nasty_khakis]

Posted: 8/12/22 at 5:11pm

I saw it last night from a great seat as well (lottery) but did not care for this. I thought the style of the score was truly all over the map, there was way too much set up scenes before getting to Arden, and I found the long repetitive use of the Duke entrance music annoying. I was really disappointed in the wedding scene. It's a Shakespeare comedy wedding in a musical! It should build and build and be joyous but it just didn't It wasn't a terrible song but it just didn't feel like a finale. I also didn't fully understand the ending with Jaques meeting...new Jacques? 

Public Works is always fun for the community theatre aspect and they all seem to be having a great time, but this adaptation is not for me, as pretty as the bridge on the set is! 

Unless large groups didn't show up there were plenty of empty seats in the far rear sides. Not sure if you could have just grabbed a ticket at any time, but I didn't see a Standby line when I first walked by at 7pm. 

[raddersons]

Posted: 8/12/22 at 5:34pm

nasty_khakis said: "I also didn't fully understand the ending with Jaques meeting...new Jacques?"

I was also confused by this. 

[frankiec]

Posted: 8/13/22 at 3:56pm

I walked up to Delacorte at 2:30 today and got a ticket. 

[alexidarling15]

Posted: 8/15/22 at 4:33pm

I keep losing the lottery, and yet it sounds like in-person tickets are super easy to get. I can't go at noon this week but a friend and I might try the standby line on Tues or Wed if we don't win. We have no experience doing this, but it seems like a decent bet this early in the run. Can I get in the line early, with her joining later?