{"id":165654,"date":"2025-08-22T05:13:20","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T05:13:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/165654\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T05:13:20","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T05:13:20","slug":"twelfth-night-at-the-delacorte-review-new-york-theater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/165654\/","title":{"rendered":"Twelfth Night at the Delacorte Review \u2013 New York Theater"},"content":{"rendered":"

My take on this starry \u201cTwelfth Night\u201d beneath the stars was much like my reaction to the renovations at the Delacorte, where it is opening tonight. They both occurred in stages.<\/p>\n

I was thrilled that the Central Park theater was getting a makeover, and delighted at one detail in particular: The new fa\u00e7ade is made out of redwood from 25 water towers that once had graced the New York City skyline; how much more lyrical can you get!\u00a0\u00a0But I didn\u2019t really notice much else that was different. The seats might be more comfortable; it maybe looked a little less run-down; but the biggest changes (which are reportedly great for cast and crew) are not really visible to theatergoers.<\/p>\n

So maybe for a moment I thought: Is this it?<\/p>\n

But then I realized: This is the way it should be.<\/p>\n

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There are so many reasons to be excited by director Saheem Ali\u2019s production of Shakespeare\u2019s\u00a0\u00a0comically convoluted tale of mistaken identity and addled affection. It was inspired to cast\u00a0Lupita Nyong\u2019o\u00a0<\/strong>and her brother\u00a0Junior Nyong\u2019o\u00a0as the twins Viola and Sebastian, who are split apart during a shipwreck and make their separate ways through Illyria.\u00a0\u00a0When after much misunderstanding and misadventure, they reunite, the twins now speak to one another in Swahili. (The Nyong\u2019o siblings were raised in Kenya, as was director Ali.) What this does within the dramatic context of the play is\u00a0\u00a0emphasize their status as immigrants, a subtle touch of timeliness.\u00a0\u00a0And I understood the rhapsodic hand\u00a0claps and foot stamps for Sandra Oh and Peter Dinklage, two familiar faces, when they first entered the stage together as\u00a0Lady Olivia\u00a0and her haughty steward Malvolio.<\/p>\n

When it was over, it\u2019s true I thought: This might not be the best-acted \u201cTwelfth Night\u201d I\u2019ve ever seen. These are all actors with great track records, and they all do fine work, but the only performance I\u2019m likely to remember in detail is the hilariously fussy and deluded Malvolio created by Peter Dinklage, a relatively minor role.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But then I realized: The point of Free Shakespeare in the Park is not to win a competition with the many splendid \u201cTwelfth Nights\u201d over the years. (Who, anyway, could possibly compete with Mark Rylance as Olivia in the\u00a02013 Broadway production?)\u00a0\u00a0The point is to create an entertaining night out for New Yorkers. This it does wondrously, from the very moment that a string quartet performs in front of enormous letters that spell out \u201cWHAT YOU WILL,\u201d followed by two hours of laughs and sighs, sumptuous costumes, lovely original music, a fidelity to the spirit and language of the play while offering\u00a0\u00a0a stream of clever and inventive new moments \u2014 and yes the live presence of well-known, beloved performers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cTwelfth Night\u201d can be divided into three stories, each with its own sets of characters, although of course they all overlap (and collapse into one another at the end.) In order to survive in a foreign land, Viola disguises herself as a man whom she names Cesario, and finds employment as a man-servant to the Duke of Illyria, Orsino (portrayed by Khris Davis, a spectacular stage actor in such plays as \u201cThe Royale\u201d and \u201cSweat\u201d who has since gone on to an impressive film career.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This\u00a0Orsino comes off like a CEO of a major enterprise (I\u2019d say a Sean Diddy Combs-type character, but before the scandal, and not in music but maybe in sports) He takes pride in his appearance; we first see him lifting weights in front of an enormous poster of himself. (Whenever one of his business-suited underlings makes a faux pas, they take it on themselves to drop to the ground and do push-ups to make amends. The Duke enlists Cesario to woo Olivia.\u00a0\u00a0(Does it matter that he seems so full of himself that we might not entirely buy his infatuation with Olivia?) Olivia (Oh) has resisted his advances because she continues to mourn the deaths of her father and her brother. But she\u2019s entranced with the young Cesario, whose attempt to woo Olivia for her master includes rapping to her.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In the second story, Olivia\u2019s uncle\u00a0Sir Toby Belch (John Ellison Conlee) has encouraged his friend Andrew Aguecheek (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) to woo Olivia as well,without any success, and without much apparent experience. They prefer to lounge together in a hot tub, serenaded by Feste (Moses Sumney, who does a fine job performing\u00a0Michael Thurber\u2019s original songs.) <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

After a nasty encounter with Malvolio, they decide to play a prank on him, in cahoots with Maria (Daphne Rubin-Vega) Olivia\u2019s maidservant, letting him find a letter that they made up that he thinks comes from Olivia professing his love for him. This makes Malvolio do all sorts of embarrassing things that wind up humiliating and enraging him \u2013 and amusing and delighting us.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

During this time, Sebastian has made his way with\u00a0Antonio (the actor who goes by the name b.) It\u2019s hard to see their relationship as anything other than a queer romance, which the production neither pushes nor obscures, but adds a little frisson to the scenes when Antonio thinks he\u2019s defending Sebastian but has actually run into Viola who professes (honestly) not to know him.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

All is straightened out, with happy endings for all (except Malvolio) in this latest of over 160 free productions seen by more than six million people in the more than six decades since the Delacorte was built<\/p>\n

Twelfth Night<\/a>
Delacorte through September 13
Running time: 115 minutes with no intermission
Tickets are free
See\u00a0Five Ways to Get Tickets<\/a>
Written by William Shakespeare
Compositions by Michael Thurber
Directed by Saheem Ali
Scenic design by Maruti Evans, costume design by Oana Botez, lighting design by Bradley King, co-sound design by Kai Harada and Palmer Hefferan,\u00a0hair, wig, and makeup design by Krystal Balleza, prop management by Claire M. Kavanah,fight direction by Tom Schall, choreography by Darrell Grand Moultrie. Karishma Bhagani serves as the Swahili dialect coach. Delacorte Veteran Buzz Cohen serves as the Production Stage Manager and Jessie Moore and Luisa S\u00e1nchez Col\u00f3n serve as the stage managers
Cast: Dario Alvarez (Ensemble), b as Antonio, John Ellison Conlee as Sir Toby Belch, Khris Davis as Orsino, Peter Dinklage as Malvolio, Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Andrew Aguecheek, Jaina Rose Jallow (Ensemble), Ariyan Kassam (Curio\/Ensemble), Valentino Musumeci (Ensemble), Junior Nyong\u2019o as Sebastian, Lupita Nyong\u2019o as Viola, Chinna Palmer (Ensemble), Sandra Oh as Olivia, Precious Omigie (Ensemble), Nathan M. Ramsey (Ensemble), Daphne Rubin-Vega as Maria, Jasmine Sharma (Ensemble), Moses Sumney as Fest, Kapil Talwakar (Ensemble), Joe Tapper as Sea Captain\/Priest, Julian Tushabe (Ensemble), Adrian Villegas (Ensemble), Ada Westfall (Ensemble), and Mia Wurgaft (Ensemble)<\/p>\n

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