Richard III (Public Theater) NYC Reviews and Tickets
About the Show
Production Covid-19 Safety ProtocolsShow-Score Member Reviews (89)
See it if you like Shakespeare & appreciate brilliant acting. Danai Gurira is marvellous as Richard. Always a treat to see performance in the Park.
Don't see it if You don't like the Park and don't appreciate Shakespeare.
See it if you enjoy Shakespeare, being outdoors, and long plays (2hrs 40mins).
Don't see it if you don't want to see violence.
See it if you want to see an actor at the top of her craft. Just spellbinding to watch Danai Gurira do her thing.
Don't see it if You’re not into Shakespeare or can’t stand the heat and humidity out at the Delacorte for several hours.
See it if you love Shakespeare and/or Danai Gurira, both of whom deliver here.
Don't see it if you don’t like Shakespeare plays performed amazingly.
See it if like The Public's take it or leave it approach to tradition. Not every casting pick agreed w/ me, but overall brisk, entertaining, popular.
Don't see it if u root Richard in deformity & are rudderless/uncomprehending without it (despite that most evildoers don't come stamped w/ the mark of Cain) Read more
See it if A wonderful cast of assorted actors brings a new look at Shakespeare’s work. A cast of big and small people, some with disabilities.
Don't see it if Of course, if you don’t like classic plays don’t go.
See it if you are open to seeing the play laid out without preconceived boundaries. All good actors get an opportunity.
Don't see it if you can't adjust to change.
See it if You like shakespeare, want a free show, are interested in shakespeare
Don't see it if Shakespeare isn't your thing or your too serious about shakespeare
Critic Reviews (17)
"These coherently interpreted characters do not add up to a coherent interpretation of the play, which wobbles between shouty polemics and a kind of Tudor snark."
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"when Richard steps out into the audience and explains away his wrongdoings, we listen, enraptured, and applaud on cue. It's the most clever bit of staging in this nearly 3-hour production, which doesn't shed much new light on the 600-year-old play, but is well designed and provides a worthy talent showcase for its actors."
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"It’s certainly a funny tragedy, full of snide asides from the sociopath at its center, but it’s about as breezy as a tornado. The English duke Richard, through trickery and force, rolls like a juggernaut through his own family, murdering right and left, just to reach the crown....Robert O’Hara’s production has ideas — but it is not rich in those other things, and it lets our focus waver."
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"Happily for audiences, if not for the many characters who fall victim to his machinations like ninepins, Richard is onstage almost all the time. Ms. Gurira’s performance makes a memorable case for the benefits of nontraditional casting."
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"The play concludes with order restored and the agent of chaos removed; the audience stumbles into the night, the spell of Gurira’s charisma and Richard’s ambition broken, wondering what it is that Shakespeare’s England, and we, just lived through."
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"The young Prince of Wales and Duke of York wear glitter sneakers. Those shiny shoes exemplify the primary problem of this production: So much is going on, yet so little is going on."
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"Admittedly, not all these disparate-sounding choices add up, and those of us searching for the why in O'Hara's staging will probably come up empty-handed. But I found this 'Richard III' properly thrilling. My kingdom for more nights like that."
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We've had some great productions of Richard III in recent years, along with some really terrible ones, but none have been as conflicted as Robert O'Hara's staging at the Delacorte. It's a mass of warring impulses, both high-concept and deeply conventional, eager to make a statement but lacking anything meaningful to say. A handful of strong supporting performers do their best to keep this rudderless ship on course, but nobody should have to work that hard, not on a warm summer's night in Central Park.
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