How Shakespeare Saved My Life Off-Broadway Reviews

After hearing all that Ming-Trent had to overcome to earn his moment in the spotlight, he never allows himself the time to actually bask in it. That’s a shame. How Shakespeare Saved My Life details an absorbing, often haunting journey through the d...

After hearing all that Ming-Trent had to overcome to earn his moment in the spotlight, he never allows himself the time to actually bask in it. That’s a shame. How Shakespeare Saved My Life details an absorbing, often haunting journey through the darkness — but offers only fleeting glimpses of the light on the other side.

But despite Ming-Tent’s charisma and vibrancy, the 95-minute piece feels self-indulgent and formless. The performer, who recites several Shakespearean passages, makes clear that the Bard gave meaning to his life. What we never really find out is ex...

But despite Ming-Tent’s charisma and vibrancy, the 95-minute piece feels self-indulgent and formless. The performer, who recites several Shakespearean passages, makes clear that the Bard gave meaning to his life. What we never really find out is exactly how or why.

If the way Shakespeare saved Jacob Ming-Trent’s life seems mostly by giving him a livelihood, and perhaps more amorphously an identity and a purpose, there is at least one tangible life lesson that he attributes to the Bard. It’s what at the end ...

If the way Shakespeare saved Jacob Ming-Trent’s life seems mostly by giving him a livelihood, and perhaps more amorphously an identity and a purpose, there is at least one tangible life lesson that he attributes to the Bard. It’s what at the end softens the harsh portraits and grim stories in the play: “Shakespeare usually ends his comedies with an act of forgiveness, and my life has been a comedy of errors. I’ve been walking around thinking nobody’s ever been hurt like me.” His ability to understand that others have hurt too – to believe in sweet mercy as nobility’s true badge that is reason (along with Basquiat, james Baldwin, and Biggie Small, and the teacher that made him read Henry the Fifth) that “I’m able to stand in front of you today to tell this story.”

Ming-Trent is a high-energy explosion of joy — a striking contrast to the autobiographical material, which begins with his father going to jail when he was a child and includes chapters of homelessness, drug use, and fraught family tension. Under T...

Ming-Trent is a high-energy explosion of joy — a striking contrast to the autobiographical material, which begins with his father going to jail when he was a child and includes chapters of homelessness, drug use, and fraught family tension. Under Tony Taccone’s direction, Ming-Trent’s playfulness balances the tough truths of his story, while Shakespeare fits alongside hip-hop to create a cohesive production. Video projections by Alexander V. Nichols add to the show’s kinetic energy, and colorful typefaces, graphics, and illustrations help set the scenes.

Although Alexander V. Nichols' illustrative projections help ground each section, the journey sometimes feels disjointed. But there’s a moving aspect to watching him work through his issues on a stage at the Public Theater (in a Red Bull Theater pr...

Although Alexander V. Nichols' illustrative projections help ground each section, the journey sometimes feels disjointed. But there’s a moving aspect to watching him work through his issues on a stage at the Public Theater (in a Red Bull Theater production directed by solo show expert Tony Taccone). As a teenager, Ming-Trent started his training at the Public's now-defunct Shakespeare Lab Jr. Now he's back, with lessons of his own, to retake the stage as his world.

Ming-Trent — who found confidence in the verbal and intellectual bravado of Shakespeare — seems to have embraced only half the equation that made those artists great. He’s still fronting: The histrionic flourish, whether rap battle or soliloquy...

Ming-Trent — who found confidence in the verbal and intellectual bravado of Shakespeare — seems to have embraced only half the equation that made those artists great. He’s still fronting: The histrionic flourish, whether rap battle or soliloquy, still attracts him more than what actually powers the poetry, which comes at a higher risk. Even at the spiritual nadir of his story — in which he positions himself, who knows how accurately, underneath the Brooklyn Bridge, having escaped from a mental hospital and howling, Lear-like, against a storm — he’s so determined to out-thunder the thunder that any actual rage and pain dissipate into bluster.