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2025 Shakespeare in the Park, my thoughts… I was so looking forward to the return of “Shakespeare in the Park” at the Delacorte Theater when, finally, a sunny Friday came along with no rain in sight, and it was time to “do the line”. As veterans of the line to get tickets for this free show from the Public Theater know, it is “get there by 6 AM or don’t bother to go”. They hand out the tickets at 12 noon, so you know it’s a 6 hours wait, but I really wanted to see Peter Dinklage and Sandra O, so I set my alarm for 5, and, living 2 blocks from the entrance on West 81st Street, I got myself together, grabbed my beach chair, and off I went. The show is so popular this year, not only to see the many stars in the cast, but because we have not had “Shakespeare in the Park” for 2 years due to the major reconstruction of the theater and bathrooms, still not open when I attended, 6 more stalls were expected. When I saw the line outside on along Central Park West with hundreds of patrons waiting to be allowed to enter at 6, the official opening of the Park, I was glad I got myself up early. I am a woman of a certain age who goes on the Senior Line right in front of the Box Office. You show your ID and get down-front tickets to the side at Gate 4 every time. Every one person on the line can get 2 tickets and I was planning to bring a friend who was as happy to be going as I was. It had become a summer ritual we always enjoyed. There was more than one person anxious to get those 2 free tickets. I sleep through most of the 6 hours and listen to the happy chatter of other like-minded seniors who are making friends with their neighbors, fending off any attempt by a line-crasher to get in front of us. It’s finally 12 noon, and we all gather ourselves to receive the fruits of our labors and go home and shower. I am pleased to see the tickets; Gate 4. Down in front! We go back to the Delacorte by 7:30 PM for an 8 PM show and join the now thousands of people assembled with smiles on our faces waiting to be entertained by a play most of us know having seen here many times over the years. The smiles slowly turn to frowns as we see what Public Theater Director Oscar Eustace has prepared for us. The reconstruction is magnificent, brand-new walls of donated Water Tower wood stained and beautifully appointed, with 2 more inches in the new seats. The bathrooms have doubled the number of stalls in the women’s bathroom, Hurrah! It’s the same but better! The cast is predominately black, with only Lupita Nyong” O, known to me as Viola, who does an excellent turn. Count Orsino has been directed to be a thug, lifting weights, trash talkin’, and surrounded by muscle men who do push-ups. It is no wonder Olivia, played beautifully by Sandra Oh, does not welcome his advances, he’s an idiot. I blame the director, Saheem Ali, for these choices, not the actors. The comic relief cast including Peter Dinklage brilliantly as Malvolio, and Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Aguecheek who perform with gusto and great humor were worth the 6 hour-wait. If you know the plot, Viola and her brother Sebastian, played well Junior Nyong’O, Lupita’s real-life younger brother, are washed up after a shipwreck. She chooses to dress as a young boy to get work, knowing her chances as a girl will be none. This cross-dressing becomes the main theme of the rest of the evening. The shipwrecked Sebastian is rescued by a character always played by a man named Antonio, who is still called Antonio but played by a lovely breasted women dressed as a man, who, when she reminds him of her/his love for him turns their brotherly love on its head, for no other reason than to be quirky. They cut so much of the Sebastian plot that we rarely get to see this actor who plays him so well, but the result is a shortened performance of 90 minutes rather than the 3 hours it can often take to do the whole play, and thank God, it is almost over. We are almost out of there when we are assaulted with a finale of all the male characters dressed in drag, ball gowns and jewels on bearded men and all the leads in gold. Not all the men look very happy about it, but cross-dressing has become the main theme of this production. They make a big deal of the play’s subtitle “What You Will” in large letters, well, this is not what I would-will. The Play 12th Night is not a play about cross-dressing! This is what happens when the concept overwhelms the play! Perhaps I am too old to “get it” but if this is what The Public continues to serve up, I will save myself some sleep and 6 hours in a beach chair. Patron since 1990