Photo Flash: MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING Takes First Bows at Central Park's Delacorte Theatre!

The Public Theater's free Shakespeare in the Park production of Much Ado About Nothing officially opened tlast night, Monday, June 16. The production will run through Sunday, July 6. Obie Award winner Hamish Linklater and Tony Award nominee Lily Rabe return to the Park as the wise-cracking, would-be lovers Beatrice and Benedick in the beloved romantic comedy. Central Park becomes sun-drenched Sicily at the turn of the last century, where the heat of summer ignites the fevered passions of lovesick ladies in corsets and pining gentlemen spying from the verandah. Three-time Tony winner Jack O'Brien directs this delightful skirmish of wit between two self-declared bachelors tricked by their mischief-making friends into falling in love against their will and in spite of their own hearts.

Check out photos from opening night below!

The complete cast of Much Ado About Nothingfeatures Steel Burkhardt (Balthazar); Jack Cutmore-Scott(Claudio); Austin Durant (Friar Francis, Sexton); John Glover(Leonato); Hamish Linklater(Benedick); David Manis (Antonio, Verges); Kathryn Meisle (Ursula); Ismenia Mendes (Hero);Brian Stokes Mitchell (Don Pedro); John Pankow (Dogberry);Pedro Pascal (Don John); Lily Rabe(Beatrice); Eric Sheffer Stevens (Borachio); and Zoë Winters (Margaret). The non-equity ensemble includes Matt Bittner, Alex Breaux, Carisa Cotera, Isabella Curti, Paco Lozano, and Matthew Russell.

Tickets to The Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park are FREE and are distributed, two per person, at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park on the day of the show. The Public Theater will again offer free tickets through our Virtual Ticketing lottery on the day of the show at www.shakespeareinthepark.org. The Delacorte Theater in Central Park is accessible by entering at 81st Street and Central Park West or at 79th Street and Fifth Avenue.

Photo Credit: Simon Luethi