Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Shakespeare in New York: Autumn 2015 (part 2)

Last week I mentioned the dozen full productions of Shakespeare and related work in NYC. But that's not the extent of NYC's Shakesphere, which should also include readings, operas, and movies. And not to snub the good work Off- and Off-Off-Broadway, but NYC's most high-profile stagings this autumn are actually onscreen. First off, the Cumberbatch Hamlet will be transmitted live from London in October. Other broadcasts from the National Theatre and the RSC also pepper art-house cinemas all fall (I'm only listing the live ones, but you can catch re-airings too).

But the culmination of this autumn season is a legit-film version of Macbeth, starring Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard. Here's a taste, courtesy the Guardian:




Locally, the Red Bull begins a new season of Revelation Readings, a crash course in Jacobean theater. I can't overstate how important the Red Bull is to New York's theater scene. Expanding the canon of classics, Red Bull mounts the plays that get overshadowed by Shak's titanic stature. AD Jesse Berger supplements his (invariably superb) stagings with a semi-monthly reading series. The first, The Man of Mode, is also a fundraiser for their upcoming Changeling. Though unaffiliated with the Red Bull, I urge you to contribute—even if you can't attend on Oct 26!

In the meantime here's the non-legit listings for NYC's Shakesphere: opera, film, and readings. Or my best effort at a complete listing, anyway. Also visit the Shakespeare Society for a listing of talkbacks to supplement all the shows in town! 
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Otello
Metropolitan Opera
Sep 21-May 6
Verdi's intense and dramatic version of the Moor gets an acclaimed new staging—now without blackface!
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Ran
NY Film Festival
Oct 2
Catch one of the greatest film adaptations of Shak, Kurosawa's samurai Lear

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Hamlet
National Theatre Live
Oct 15
Everyone's favorite Cumberbatch plays Hamlet in London while you watch him in Manhattan!
Live theater in letterbox!
Cumberbatch as the melancholy Dane
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The Man of Mode
The Red Bull at Playwrights Horizons
Oct 26
A reading/fundraiser for the vital Red Bull theater; the play's a Restoration comedy, with Michael Urie (Buyer & Cellar) as the quintessential fop, Sir Fopling Flutter
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Public Forum: An Evening with Cleopatra
Joe's Pub at the Public
Nov 16
Christine Baranski plays the Queen of the Nile in an inquiry with takes by Shakespeare & Shaw
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The Malcontent
Revel. Reading at the Lortel
Nov 16
This Jacobean tragedy, an early response to Hamlet, is caustic as battery acid
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The Winter's Tale
Branagh Co. Live
Nov 26
Branagh transmits his staging from the West End, playing Leontes to Judi Dench's Paulina. NYC location TBD
Dame Dench bundles up as Paulina
for Branagh's Winter's Tale
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The Atheist's Tragedy
Revel. Reading at the Lortel
Dec 7
This Jacobean drama has an atypically moral worldview, but it still brings the corruption, rape, & gore
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Macbeth
limited release
Dec 4
Director Kurzel (Snowtown) earned acclaim at Cannes for his period take on the Scottish play, while Fassbender & Cotillard are v. good film actors & popular to boot
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Every Man in His Humour
Revel. Reading at the Lortel
Dec 28
Ben Jonson populates an urban comedy with an aristo, a merchant's daughter, and half a dozen clowns
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