A star studded new production of William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" opened Monday night at the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park. NY1's Roma Torre filed the following review.
One of the hallmarks of the Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park is its determination to entertain no matter what it takes. And so we’re treated each summer to a mixed bag of productions - sometimes they’re off the mark, others exhilaratingly original.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream most certainly entertains in exuberant fashion; and if not a perfect production, its spell of enchantment makes for a near perfect midsummer night.
With its fairies and love potions and magic in the forest, Shakespeare’s popular comedy allows for wild interpretation. This time around director Lear deBessonet assembled a dream team of talents to strut their stuff. Led by actors Annaleigh Ashford as Helena, Kristine Nielsen as Puck, Danny Burstein as Nick Bottom and Phylicia Rashad as Titania, the performances are sublime. And the design team crafted a stunning array of costumes, lights and set complete with twinkling trees and even a slide.
If it all seems a hodgepodge, it is but a delightful one that holds pleasant surprises. Skewing older with Titania and Oberon, deBessonet cast veteran actors dressed in pajamas to play the fairies. It’s certainly a novel touch while strangely touching.
Original music by Justin Levine raises the tempo with some terrifically jazzy tunes and the mechanicals provide fine comic relief - some of it, the split-your-gut kind.
Danny Burstein as the blustery Pyramus paired with Jeff Hiller’s lisping Thisbee are downright hysterical.
And Annaleigh Ashford proves herself yet again a masterful comedienne, and if she seemed to go overboard, in this show, the more the merrier.
DeBessonet put a feminist spin on the production, with the girls landing on top much of the time. And if there were occasional misses, it mostly hit the bullseye aiming for both heart and funnybone.