The Public Theater's musical version of Twelfth Night—the second show of the 2018 Shakespeare in the Park season—officially opened July 31 in the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. The adaptation is conceived by Kwame Kwei-Armah and Shaina Taub and directed by Artistic Director Oskar Eustis and Kwei-Armah, with choreography by Lorin Latarro.
Performances began July 17 and are scheduled through August 19.
The cast of Twelfth Night is made up of Ato Blankson-Wood as Orsino, Nikki M. James as Viola, Andrew Kober as Malvolio, co-creator Taub as Feste, Shuler Hensley as Sir Toby Belch, Nanya-Akuki Goodrich as Olivia, Lori Brown-Niang as Maria, Troy Anthony as Sebastian, JW Guido as Illyrian, Daniel Hall as Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Jonathan Jordan as Antonio, and Patrick J. O’Hare as Fabian.
Twelfth Night was originally performed in 2016 through Public Works, which brings together professional artists and community members from all five New York City boroughs.
The Public Works community partner organizations are Brownsville Recreation Center (Brooklyn), Center for Family Life in Sunset Park (Brooklyn), DreamYard (Bronx), The Fortune Society (Queens), and Military Resilience Foundation (all boroughs), along with alumni partners Casita Maria Center for Arts and Education (Bronx), Children's Aid (all boroughs) and Domestic Workers United (all boroughs).