A Midsummer Night's Dream: Magic in the Park

Shakespeare in the Park is my favorite NYC summer event. I don't get the chance to go every year but this week, I won tickets to the opening night of A Midsummer Night's Dream, a play that I have loved since I was a child. I had never seen a live production of it, and this was the best possible introduction.

It had been several years since I had read the play, so when I read the synopsis in the playbill, I was startled to remember what a weird and wonderful fantasy it is, with trickster fairies and mismatched lovers, all ending with a play-within-a-play that, to me, has always been funnier than anything ever written in the English language. And given that the majority of the show takes place in a forest, there could be no better setting for this production than the beautiful Delacorte Theater, with Central Park's trees swaying in the background, birds swooping around (and OK, fine, the occasional helicopter), to transport the audience into the very heart of the play.

This production boasts a stellar cast, but the person I was most excited to see was Annaleigh Ashford. She is a renowned musical theater actress, but I adore her because of her work on Masters of Sex. And boy, she does not disappoint. She has the most impeccable sense of comic timing, whether it comes to delivering Shakespeare's lines in the most emphatically hilarious ways possible, or taking a pratfall in the most inelegant way calculated to generate mirth. Snobs who think dramatic actresses are putting in more work than comedic ones should watch this performance to get schooled.

The other interesting bit of casting is the fairies, helmed by the regal Phyllicia Rashad, who plays Titania. Director Lear deBessonet has made an inspired choice of casting older actors to play all the fairies, instead of the usual batch of teens or twentysomethings. It brings into question why we ever expect fairies to be spry little Tinkerbells; they're supposed to be wise and magical, no one said anything about never going gray. Sure, it's a little incongruous to see a bunch of senior citizens called Cobweb and Peasblossom traipsing around the stage, but you certainly get used to it.

And finally, we get to Pyramus and Thisbe, the play-within-a-play that has always been my favorite part of this story. Danny Burstein is magnificent as Bottom the Weaver (like Ashford, he has a remarkable sense of just how to deliver Shakespeare's lines for maximum comedic effect) and the entire hapless production put on by the theater novices is giggle-inducing from start to finish. At last, I got to see someone play "the chink" and "Moonshine" (and the man in the moon), and my heart was glad. And honorable mention to Jeff Hiller, whose high-pitched declaration of "O Pyramus!" is seared onto my eardrums forever.

As always, the Public Theater has delivered an outstanding production, designed to make every novice and expert fall in love with Shakespeare's work all over again. The splendid set design and lighting elicits gasps of wonderment, the twinkly fairy costumes and brightly colored "Athenian" garb are eye-catchingly perfect, and the musical interludes keep your spirits soaring between every act. As declared in the playbill, the sole purpose of A Midsummer Night's Dream is to evoke joy. It fully accomplishes that goal.