The Delacorte Theater officially repoens this summer with Free Shakespeare in the Park's TWELFTH NIGHT. Revel in the midsummer madness as twins Sebastian and Viola survive shipwreck, revenge plots, and the trick doors of love. Read reviews for this star-studded production!
The Public's Associate Artistic Director and Resident Director, Tony Award nominee Saheem Ali directs.
After 62 years as the home of Free Shakespeare in the Park, The Delacorte Theater was due for a major makeover. When the theater makes its triumphant return this summer with TWELFTH NIGHT, it will be more welcoming, more accessible, and more sustainable than ever before. We hope you'll join us to celebrate this exciting summer!
The cast of Free Shakespeare in the Park's TWELFTH NIGHT includes Dario Alvarez (Ensemble), b (Antonio), John Ellison Conlee (Sir Toby Belch), Khris Davis (Orsino), Peter Dinklage (Malvolio), Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Andrew Aguecheek), Jaina Rose Jallow (Ensemble), Ariyan Kassam (Curio/Ensemble), Valentino Musumeci (Ensemble), Junior Nyong'o (Sebastian), Lupita Nyong'o (Viola), Chinna Palmer (Ensemble), Sandra Oh (Olivia), Precious Omigie (Ensemble), Nathan M. Ramsey (Ensemble), Daphne Rubin-Vega (Maria), Jasmine Sharma (Ensemble), Moses Sumney (Feste), Kapil Talwakar (Ensemble), Joe Tapper (Sea Captain/Priest), Julian Tushabe (Ensemble), Adrian Villegas (Ensemble), Ada Westfall (Ensemble), and Mia Wurgaft (Ensemble).
Sara Holdren, Vulture: Shenanigans like these aren't unenjoyable, but neither are they entirely fulfilling. It's a happy relief, therefore, that Oh blows through this Twelfth Night like, as Orsino might say, the sweet wind "that breathes upon a bank of violets, / Stealing and giving odor." Her Olivia is a giddy, glowing delight -- playful and sexy and grounded, as full and compelling a human being as this production will allow. She finds the play's joy without resorting to gimmick, accessing her character's essential truth and beauty while still allowing for the exuberant artifice of farce. In her, one can glimpse a broader, deeper Illyria, a Twelfth Night that -- because it is as full of wondering as of wonders -- is indeed most wonderful.
Jonathan Mandell, New York Theater: There are so many reasons to be excited by director Saheem Ali's production of Shakespeare's comically convoluted tale of mistaken identity and addled affection. It was inspired to cast Lupita Nyong'o and her brother Junior Nyong'o as the twins Viola and Sebastian, who are split apart during a shipwreck and make their separate ways through Illyria.
Melissa Rose Bernardo, New York Stage Review: The biggest strength of this current production -- beyond its general jubilant mood -- is its central casting: a real-life brother-sister duo, Junior Nyong'o and Lupita Nyong'o, as the play's shipwrecked siblings, Sebastian and Viola, respectively.
Steven Suskin, New York Stage Review: The disparate elements come together, more or less, combining for a wholly satisfying evening. Albeit one with little of the exuberance that has marked various Shakespeare in the Park outings going back to the 1971 rock musical rethinking of Two Gentlemen of Verona and the glorious Civil War-era Much Ado About Nothing as well as the more recent Comedy of Errors and As You Like It. Even so, this Twelfth Night does a satisfactory job of leaving the audience beaming, and that, after all, 'tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.
Matthew Wexler, One-Minute Critic: A triumphant gender-defying curtain call, costumed in glorious technicolor by Oana Botez, further challenges the recent assault on creative expression and the arts, demonstrating that joy is an act of resistance. And there's nothing more joyful than the return of Shakespeare in the Park.
Lane Williamson, Exeunt: The production is pretty well-cast all around. Lupita Nyong'o and her brother Junior Nyong'o are the shipwrecked twins and, aside from their height disparity, are nearly identical in Oana Botez's costumes and Krystal Balleza's hair design. Viola and Sebastian's eventual reunion at the end of the play is wrought with the kind of palpable, historied connection that only real-life siblings can bring.