There were more productions of Shakespeare on Broadway in 2013 than at any time since 1958. But it wasn’t just on Broadway that the Bard was big this year.
That is I why, for the new magazine New York Theatre, I wrote “Drunk on Shakespeare” — focusing on the theater company Three Day Hangover, which specializes in productions of Shakespeare in neighborhood bars. They put on an Off-Off Broadway production of Romeo and Juliet in New York in the Fall — which was better-reviewed than the Romeo and Juliet done on Broadway (with Orlando Bloom) and the one done Off-Broadway (with Elizabeth Olsen)
“We bring theater to the audience’s turf,” said David Hudson, one of the three founders. “The bar is their turf: You hang out in bars; you relax in bars; you have fun in bars.”
As I write in the piece, the members of Three Day Hangover see no coincidence in the surge of Shakespeare this season. Company member Ben Charles cites television shows like House of Cards and Breaking Bad, which “seem to share a lot of common ground with Shakespeare’s plays in content, scope, character development, and presentation…..Something about the state of the world has drawn us closer to the stories” that Shakespeare tells.
Below are some photographs from a few of the many productions of Shakespeare that happened in New York this year.
Click on any photograph to see it enlarged
My article in New York Theatre Magazine: DRUNK ON SHAKESPEARE – THREE DAY HANGOVER COMPANY TAKES THE BARD TO BARS
