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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. We'll end today with another installment in our pledge-drive miniseries, looking ahead to the cultural events coming up this summer in and sometimes around New York City. Today, it's theater out of doors with Adam Feldman, Time Out New York's national theater and dance editor and chief theater critic. Hey, Adam. Welcome back to WNYC.

Adam Feldman: Hello. Glad to be here.

Brian Lehrer: Maybe the big news is the opening of the newly renovated Delacorte Theater in Central Park, where The Public Theater has been putting on great productions of Shakespeare in the park since 1962. What's new there?

Adam Feldman: This year they are doing Twelfth Night, but the big excitement is that the Delacorte is reopening. As you say, The Public has been doing these since 1962, but it didn't do it last year, because the Delacorte was shut for long overdue renovations. This year, Twelfth Night is back. Twelfth Night is one of the most popular Shakespeare comedies. It's the one that has emerged as perhaps the most frequently performed in the past few years. This year is going to be headlined by a bunch of very big stars. Lupita Nyong'o is starring as Viola, and her brother, Junior Nyong'o, is going to be playing Viola's identical twin brother, Sebastian. That'll be a fun way to come back to the park. Also, Sandra Oh and Peter Dinklage and Jesse Tyler Ferguson and many others. This is really going to be a very attractive production.

Brian Lehrer: Now, I see that's not until August 7th. While we're waiting for the Delacorte to reopen, The Public Theater has a Mobile Unit that travels around the city putting on shows?

Adam Feldman: Yes, that's right. If you don't want to wait to go to Central Park in August, you can wait for Shakespeare and the park basically to come to you, because the Mobile Unit of The Public is going to be traveling through all five boroughs presenting Much Ado About Nothing, a sort of a musicalized and bilingual, very accessible production of Much Ado About Nothing. That'll be in all five boroughs. Mostly in Manhattan and Brooklyn, but also in Queens, The Bronx, and even Staten Island. That'll be a nice alternative. The Public has a third Shakespeare program in the summer as well.

At the end of the summer, they do something called Public Works, which is a community outreach program that brings in performers from all over the city. That's usually outdoors at the Delacorte as well, but this year it's going to be indoors at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Morningside Heights. That'll be a big production as well. In that case, they're doing a very rarely done Shakespeare play called Pericles.

Brian Lehrer: Another venue, Little Island. For people who don't know it, I haven't seen anything there, but I've walked by there and I think it's such a great venue right on the Hudson, kind of at the bottom end of the High Line, maybe more or less as a way to place it. Pretty big deal for cultural offerings this summer, right?

Adam Feldman: Yes. The High Line has just been open for about four years. It's a gorgeous oasis of [crosstalk]-

Brian Lehrer: Little Island. Yes.

Adam Feldman: -in the middle. Yes, Little Island. I'm sorry, Little Island has only been open for about four years. It's a gorgeous oasis in the middle of the-- just off the pier. Mostly, I think people enjoy it for its virtues as a park, but it's also emerged as a central arts institution with very ambitious high art programming. That's ballet, that's opera, and a lot of interesting theater and a lot of interesting new music. This season is no different. They've got several really attractive, very, very promising programs. There's one called The Counterfeit Opera, which is a new version of The Beggar's Opera.

Great cast of musical theater people in that, including Damon Daunno and Ann Harada. There is a Anthony Roth Costanzo, who's a countertenor, very, very acclaimed countertenor, is doing a version of the late Charles Ludlam's Galas, which is his take on Maria Callas. That should be very entertaining. We rarely get a chance to see that. A new version of the The Gospel at Colonus, which was the gospel retelling of the Oedipus plays. That's the first time that that's been-- that was a big deal in New York in the 1980s, with Morgan Freeman. It's now coming back for the first time in a new production.

Brian Lehrer: I want to make sure we get at least one more in here. That's the Classical Theater of Harlem, planning to bring a show to Marcus Garvey Park again this year. What can you tell us about that?

Adam Feldman: Yes. Classical Theatre of Harlem every year does a kind of Shakespeare Uptown. Uptown Shakespeare in the Park. These are really high production value, high standard productions that they do every year. This year they're doing something very interesting. It's an original play that is on classical themes, so it's about the Trojan War, but it's about an element of the Trojan War that gets very little attention in a lot of retellings. That is the character of Memnon, who was an Ethiopian king who brought a quite large contingent to the defense of the city of Troy and ended up running afoul of Achilles and Nestor.

This is very much a part of the original Greek myth, but not one that we hear very often. It's a large contingent of Black and brown soldiers from Africa. Eric Berryman, who's a very interesting actor who has done a lot of work with Wooster Group, will be playing the title role. That looks very promising as well.

Brian Lehrer: We're just about out of time, but I know you've got a list of a bunch of smaller companies that also do free outdoor plays around town this summer. I don't know if you want to shout out one or two in about 15 seconds, but I'll also say that your guide to summer theater is coming out. Is it today? On the Time Out New York website?

Adam Feldman: Yes, it is. It'll be on the Time Out theater page today, Time Out New York. Check it out there. I do want to give a shout out to New York Classical Theatre. That's another very fine off Broadway theater company, and they are doing a comedy that's quite rarely done anymore, which is All's Well That Ends Well. It's a strange comedy, but it has a terrific central role for a woman, for Helena, and that might be very interesting. That's going to be in three parks around the city.

Brian Lehrer: Then all must be well here, because that ended well. Adam Feldman, Time Out New York's national theater and dance editor and chief theater critic. On the Time Out New York website, you can see that list. Thanks, Adam. Thanks a lot.

Adam Feldman: Thank you.

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