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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. We continue now to close out the show with our guide to summer culture. For this pledge drive, we're doing this at the end of the show every day because there's so much good stuff coming up around here. Why not give you a little preview? Today the focus is on theater, mostly the kind that happens outside in the parks, but there are a couple of picks that seem worth venturing indoors to see, which we will include as well. I'm joined for this by Jackson McHenry, theater, TV, and film critic for Vulture, the entertainment site at New York Magazine. Hey, Jackson. Thanks for coming on. Welcome to WNYC.

Jackson McHenry: Thanks for having me, Brian. Excited to talk about theater.

Brian Lehrer: This year, there's an absence in the list. We'll start with something that's not there because the Delacorte Theater is being renovated. The Public's Shakespeare in the Park is having to shift gears. Now there's going to be a wandering theater troupe making its way around the city?

Jackson McHenry: Yes. They're doing a sort of encore version of what they call the mobile unit, which is a group that tours around various places and they have a set schedule and it's still Free Shakespeare. They're doing a bilingual Comedy of Errors that they've staged before. It's a program they've done before, but in the absence of doing their mainline Shakespeare in the Park. There is all the more emphasis on this.

Brian Lehrer: The Public Theater took the name Shakespeare in the Park, but there are other productions of Shakespeare happening in parks. What are some of the other productions to catch?

Jackson McHenry: The Classical Theater of Harlem does Free Shakespeare productions in Marcus Garvey Park. They are doing A Midsummer Night's Dream later this summer. There's the Hudson Classical Theater Company is doing plays in Riverside Park. New York Classical Theater is doing Henry IV. There are still options to see Shakespeare in parks, just not the classic Shakespeare in the Park.

Brian Lehrer: Right. By the way, I don't know if we mentioned that the Shakespeare in the Park roving troupe starting, as you said, with bilingual Comedy of Errors, that's May 28th through June 30th. Is that the only production this summer and they'll be going park to park for that month period?

Jackson McHenry: Yes, they will. To parks and also I think Hudson Yards and other courtyards places where you can have people gather.

Brian Lehrer: Fun. Then there's the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, staying on Shakespeare, but moving around our area, up the river in Phillips Town. Not free or in a park, but outdoors in a tent.

Jackson McHenry: In a tent, and not just Shakespeare. They're doing some interesting new plays. They're doing a version adapted from Henry VI and Richard III directed by Whitney White, who is an interesting up-and-coming director. She did Jaja's African Hair Braiding on Broadway. Definitely worth wandering outside of the five boroughs and seeing what's also around.

Brian Lehrer: Interesting. So many places to see Shakespeare still these hundreds of years later. You mentioned some of them. Carl Schurz Park, East End Avenue at 87th Street. There's going to be Castle Clinton, Battery Park. One of the troupes you mentioned before, that's in July. Shakespeare, Shakespeare, Shakespeare. What makes a good summer production of Shakespeare in your Vulture critic's view?

Jackson McHenry: I think it's often an opportunity for directors to do something interesting, some way to reexamine, revitalize the script. You also just want actors who are good with the language. I remember talking to one actor who was saying, "Doing any performance in park, but especially Shakespeare, is a real challenge." Physically, you have to make sure you're projecting over helicopters and whatever else is in the sky of New York, but also, just to connect with people. Your attention might be distracting. You're having a nice little day, a nice little evening, but to be able to engage the audience emotionally to really get the language to land is a great exercise and challenge for the performers.

Brian Lehrer: Yes. Do you think that applies in general to outdoor performances? There's music. There's theater, which is your specialty. There's dance outdoors. Music might be a special challenge with the helicopters, for example, as you were citing that. In your experience with performers, is the vibe of actually doing it different when they're performing outside?

Jackson McHenry: I think certainly. I think it requires that much more wherewithal, but I think it's also very exciting for them and for audiences because a lot of these programs are free or designed to have minimal barriers to entry. Hopefully, unlike sometimes Broadway Theater, which can get more and more expensive, you're welcoming in a larger crowd. You're introducing people to something they might not normally be seeing. Getting to share that and getting to get their energy from the audience also is vitalizing.

Brian Lehrer: Do you think there are plays that don't work outdoors? If the summer vibe is this lighthearted joie de vivre, does heavy stuff that might be some of our most important theater not translate to an outdoor stage?

Jackson McHenry: I think it can be a challenge. I've seen productions of Othello or Hamlet at the public Shakespeare in the Park. When the sun starts to set and you feel like it's setting in, and if it's a good enough production, you feel that descent into darkness in a real thrilling way. I think what might be most difficult to pull off in a park is something like a quieter observed character drama that's not a farce and that's not a big tragedy that's somewhere in the middle, that you might need to be in a closed air-conditioned soundproof room to really lock into. [chuckles]

Brian Lehrer: That brings us to our last question, which is about what's happening at those indoor theaters this summer. It's too late for new plays to be nominated for next month's Tony Awards and too far away for next year. Do many new productions start up in the summer?

Jackson McHenry: Not typically. It's usually a quieter time when also actors are going on vacation and doing summer stock and people are out of town and you're continuing the runs of the things that have already won Tony's, but there are a couple of new ones. There's this uptown transfer of Cole Escola's Oh, Mary, which is a really delightful farce about Mary Todd Lincoln that is entirely ahistorical, but really charming.

The Roundabout is doing a revival of the Playwright Samm-Art Williams's play Home that was last produced by the ensemble Negro Theater Company in 1979. That's interesting.

Brian Lehrer: Really interesting stuff. Jackson McHenry, theater, TV, and film critic for Vulture, the entertainment site at New York Magazine. Thanks for giving people more reasons to stay in town this summer.

Jackson McHenry: [chuckles] Exactly. Keep away from your vacation homes for a bit.

Brian Lehrer: Thanks, Jackson. That's The Brian Lehrer Show for today. Thanks for listening, everybody. Stay tuned for All Of It. They'll have New York Times bestselling author Eric Larson talking about his history book, The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War, the stars of the New Tony-nominated Broadway show Mother Play. Also, writer Mahogany L. Browne and composer Sean Mason share excerpts from their new spoken word on the Black experience in America called Chrome Valley. Interdisciplinary artist Adrienne Elise Tarver discusses her show of new paintings on view at Dinner Gallery in Chelsea. So much coming up on All Of It right after the latest news.

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