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Shakespeare in the Park is back!
Even the heaviest summer sky is beautiful over the Delacorte.
There is no audience as besotted as one that has gotten in for free.
Its not just release, though, that makesMerry Wivesso buoyant.
Every tangle combs out in the end.
Invitations to dinner involve roast goat; mentions of sack now refer to rum or palm wine.
Mama Quickly then checks her blood pressure because they stress me too much, o!
There are guys in this show, but you could feel them being bustled away from your attention.
Not everything serves the farce.
When the merry wives enter, theyre greeted with a theme song they strut, pose, vamp.
(Merry Wiveswould be great as a sitcom, to be clear.
Freeze-frame as the credits roll!)
Ming-Trent certainly has the right chops for that kind of Falstaff.
Its the adaptation and the production that hurt him: Bioh and Alis modernization shears away Falstaffs context.
Hes no longer a knight, no longer a rolling stone.
Here, hes just the poorest, loneliest guy in the neighborhood.
This is never the right thing to do.)
The problems and the promise of this productions particular Falstaff are exemplified by his bedroom.
style crown, the 90s vibes rolling off it like smoke.
FALSTAFF the poster says in a typewriter font, and DISCRETION/VALOR.
On the one hand, the designers render a fantastically detailed idea of who this guy is.
Every Shakespeare modernization comes at a cost.
Here, only the wives are made more merry.
Does that dancing ever really stop?
Our spirits rise and rise and rise.
These women are not supporting characters.
Merry Wivesis at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park through September 18.
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