Review Roundup: Ato Blankson-Wood & More Star In HAMLET At Free Shakespeare in the Park
Read reviews for The Public’s Free Shakespeare in the Park production of HAMLET, directed by Tony winner Kenny Leon starring Tony nominee Ato Blankson-Wood.
By: A.A. Cristi Jun. 28, 2023
The Public’s Free Shakespeare in the Park production of HAMLET, directed by Tony winner Kenny Leon features Tony nominee Ato Blankson-Wood in the title role. He is joined by Solea Pfeiffer, Lorraine Toussaint, John Douglas Thompson, Greg Hildreth, and more. HAMLET will have an extended run through August 6.
In 2019, director Kenny Leon’s entrancing production of Much Ado About Nothing was widely adored and heralded as “delicious & powerful” by The New York Times. Returning once again to Free Shakespeare in the Park, Leon commands The Delacorte stage with a nine-week, tour-de-force production of the Bard’s masterpiece, HAMLET, a riveting, contemporary take on Shakespeare’s classic tale of family and betrayal, as enduring as the stars above Central Park.
The complete cast of HAMLET includes Ato Blankson-Wood (Hamlet), Mikhail Calliste (Player), Liam Craig (Understudy), Brandon Gill (Guildenstern/Opening Vocalist), Safiya Harris (Gentlewoman/Ensemble), Lauryn Hayes (Player), Tyrone Mitchell Henderson (Osric/Priest), Greg Hildreth (Gravedigger), LaWanda Hopkins (Player), Jaylon Jamal (Ensemble), Trí Lê (Barnardo/Ensemble), Colby Lewis (First Player/Opening Vocalist), Cornelius McMoyler (Gravedigger’s Assistant/Ensemble), Warner Miller (Horatio), Daniel Pearce (Polonius), Solea Pfeiffer (Ophelia), Nick Rehberger (Laertes), Laughton Royce (Messenger/Ensemble), Lance Alexander Smith (Marcellus/Opening Vocalist/Ensemble), John Douglas Thompson (Claudius), Lorraine Toussaint (Gertrude), Myxolydia Tyler (Understudy), William Oliver Watkins (Understudy), Lark White (Sailor/Ensemble), Mitchell Winter (Rosencrantz), and Bryce Michael Wood (Understudy).
HAMLET features scenic design by Beowulf Boritt; costume design by Jessica Jahn; lighting design by Allen Lee Hughes; sound design by Justin Ellington; projection design by Jeff Sugg; music composition by Jason Michael Webb; hair, wig, and makeup design by Earon Chew Nealey; fight direction by Tom Schall; and choreography by Camille A. Brown. Karyn Meek serves as production stage manager and Rachel Zucker serves as stage manager.
Jesse Green, The New York Times: I’m happy to go for a ride on its less-traveled roads. Throughout this production I heard arresting poetry I’d somehow missed before (“a pair of reechy kisses”) and saw old ideas revivified by bright new details. (When Polonius sends Laertes off with his tired advice, he also slips him an N95 mask, as other fathers might slip their child condoms.) Yet I worried that those less familiar with “Hamlet,” let alone those more invested in a traditional rendition, would be left unanchored on its heaving sea of meaning. Though performed, and often well, under the open sky of Central Park, its thoughts (as Claudius says) “never to heaven go.” They’re atilt like the house, and, like that javelin, too strangely angled.
Tim Teeman, The Daily Beast: The experience is even better when the production is as good as this Hamlet, with Ato Blankson-Wood commanding and magnetic in the title role, and director Kenny Leon overseeing an engaging production that makes this most familiar of Shakespeare feel fresh and vibrant. The secret casting of A-lister Jackson, and effectively concealing him, is a mischievously positioned cherry on top.
Robert Hofler, The Wrap: “Ripped off” may be too strong. “Weak imitation” is more apt. Kenny Leon directs this “Hamlet,” and his cribbing of “Fat Ham” is most obvious when Claudius (John Douglas Thompson) and Gertrude (Lorraine Toussaint) make out in public and all their underlings have to turn away to hide their smirks. It’s not the only time the classic seems to be a retread of the much newer version.
David Cote, Observer: Such novel devices and the infusion of fresh musical styles are welcome, lively touches, but can’t make up for a staging that feels undercooked. It may not be as rotten as the state of Denmark, but the time is definitely out of joint.
Adam Feldman, Time Out New York: The production occasionally gets muddy—literally, thanks to fresh earth and a garden hose, and figuratively, as in the needlessly confusing doubling of actors in the Murder of Gonzago sequence. But the combination of artifice and human detail works to highlight the degree to which the characters are often acting: fronting to others, lying to themselves, feigning madness. (When Hamlet is playing crazy, Isaac strips down to his underpants.) If this Hamlet is rarely emotionally moving, it is never less than engaging. For more than three and a half hours, it holds you in the gentle fascination of watching a constantly changing mind.
Melissa Rose Bernardo, New York Stage Review: Then the ghost of Hamlet’s dead father arrives, and suddenly we’re transported into a horror movie. It’s a bold choice—the voice of the ghost (provided by Samuel L. Jackson) possesses the house and an SUV that’s marooned outside, and, at one point, it even takes over Hamlet’s body—but it’s also a jarring one. Seen last season at the Delacorte as the lovestruck Orlando in Shaina Taub’s musical version of As You Like It, Blankson-Wood looks every inch the moody millennial; Jessica Jahn’s costumes (think combat boots, tons of black, and piles of gold jewelry) serve him well. But he seems far too level-headed to buy into all this voice-of-a-dead-dad business, let alone any kind of revenge plot. As Hamlet himself says, he is “too much in the sun.”
Jonathan Mandell, New York Theater: Despite the production’s commitment to clarity and judicious cutting, some theatergoers might feel a little… restless… as the play winds up its two hour and 45 minute runtime (including intermission.) But that’s not something I would admit in print. Free Shakespeare in the Park is going on hiatus at the end of the summer, in order to renovate the Delacorte Theater. Now is not the time to be a marble-hearted fiend by expressing even a hint of ingratitude for one of New York City summertime’s greatest perks.
Jackson McHenry, Vulture: The point, perhaps, is that the pandemic and protests over police violence in 2020 made it all the more obvious that something is rotten in America. But Hamlet is a big, ungainly play on its own terms, and when Leon tries to wrap it around all these contemporary signifiers, it resists bending toward his interpretation. Hamlet’s family, John Douglas Thompson as Claudius and Lorraine Toussaint as Gertrude, is Black and styled in Jessica Jahn’s modern costumes as a luxe, lowercase-c conservative military household. It’s an interpretation that, like Fat Ham’s, makes you aware of the masculine expectations for the young prince, but it’s hard to graft the dynamics of a royal court onto of-the-moment American politics and say anything clearly.
Gillian Russo, New York Theatre Guide: Blankson-Wood, on the Delacorte Theater stage for the second summer in a row following last year's As You Like It, is a sharp Hamlet, exhibiting the perfect blend of boyish petulance and thoughtful introspection. Solea Pfeiffer, even in her comparatively little stage time, matches his skill as an Ophelia who demands to be heard. Daniel Pearce provides delightful comic relief as Polonius, and the masterful John Douglas Thompson almost makes the audience sympathize with Claudius before turning on a dime, ending Act 1 with a perfect line delivery and commanding exit.
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