The Taming of the Shrew (Delacorte) NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (189)
See it if If you would enjoy a modern feminist twist on one of Shakespeare's most misogynist plays, a fantastic all female company, and quirky add-ons
Don't see it if You don't enjoy updated versions of Shakespeare (that don't change dialogue but actions with) or talented females playing "male" parts.
See it if see a first-class production spun on its head in setting and gender to often hilarious effect; McTeer and Jumbo shine at the top of cast
Don't see it if Kate's closing speech still rankles sensibilities despite the production spin; not as tight as one might expect from Shakespearian companies
See it if You like Shakespeare!
Don't see it if You don't like Shakespeare interpreted in new ways. The show is quite sexist though the director made several choices to make it a statement
See it if You're a Shakespeare buff and enjoy modern adaptations of his work. With allusions to current events.
Don't see it if You are overly conservative and do not like untraditional Shakespeare productions.
See it if you're interested in an original, unexpected staging of a stale Shakespearean work.
Don't see it if you're a feminist. Despite the all-female cast & director and the attempt to "take back" the story, the misogynistic themes are off-putting
See it if You like an all-female cast, you are a feminist.
Don't see it if You like traditional Shakespeare plays.
See it if you enjoy Shakespeare
Don't see it if you don't like Shakespeare
See it if Revisiting an inherently misogynistic pay with an all female cast and a new message appeals
Don't see it if Cross dressing makes you uncomfortable our you're a Shakespeare purist
Critic Reviews (42)
"In short, this 'Shrew' is a hot mess, but a goofily entertaining one…Cush Jumbo amps it up to the max...In contrast, Donna Lynne Champlin and LaTanya Richardson Jackson both play it straight as men, which actually adds to the comedy...Things start to drag halfway through, but then, that’s the Bard’s fault. No one seems to know how to handle the final scene...We rush through to the choreographed curtain call, set to Joan Jett’s 'Bad Reputation.' When in doubt, rock out."
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"An all-female, freewheeling, politically-minded production, which presents the comedy as lowbrow entertainment...The characters are played up as broad caricatures who engage in clowning and visual gags. Jumbo’s Katherine is a spoiled, screaming child in pigtails and McTeer’s Petruchio is a cocky cowboy in a black leather jacket...The fast-paced production, even if self-conscious and somewhat muddled, manages to be both enjoyable and outright disturbing.”
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"While there is undoubtedly a direct line from the woman-breaking themes of Shakespeare's text to the vaselined feminine perfection engendered by beauty pageants, Lloyd dilutes the potential of this concept by seeming to choose several others as backups...The end result is a cacophony of ideas that drown one another out. This is unfortunate because, stripped of all its bells and whistles, this is an incredibly well-acted and compelling production."
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"Phyllida Lloyd's freestyle riff on 'Shrew,' a sly-humored feminist rebellion...More a play about privilege than just a knockabout battle of the sexes. Lloyd trims the play to an intermissionless two hours, punctuated with fun off-beat moments…Perhaps the faded carnival setting is more representative of the production's style than of its dramaturgy. Here, 'The Taming of the Shrew' serves as the carnival midway for an entertaining assortment of attractions revolting against the patriarchy."
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"Lloyd's ideas are sophomoric or self-congratulatory or both…Her satire is so lame, so secondhand, so left over from television comedy sketches of three or four decades ago...Because so much time is spent on this sort of fooling around, the actual play seems to have gotten very little attention...This points to a deeper problem: Her conception of the main characters forecloses on any possibility of their engaging our interest."
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"Lloyd's crowning achievement here is unquestionably getting this big group of gifted, charismatic actresses to come together and tell this story, and it's certainly a joy to watch them. But because Lloyd's spin is so sloppy and incomprehensible, in the way it repudiates Shakespeare but replaces him with nothing, the many fine women in the company become almost props in an act that claims to elevate them but instead causes them to shrink before our eyes."
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“If you missed Phyllida Lloyd’s all-female productions of ‘Julius Caesar’ and ‘Henry IV’, don’t miss her rollicking
all-female version of the now politically incorrect comedy, ‘The Taming of the
Shrew’, first of this year’s Free Shakespeare in the Park. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that she has cast Tony, Olivier, Golden Globe and Drama Desk Award
winner Janet McTeer who turns in a virtuoso performance as Petruchio giving
the unmarriageable Katherina a run for her money.”
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“A hilarious and thoroughly of the moment romp. It may not be Shakespeare at his most subtle or have the consistency of style of LLoyd's other Shakespeare plays, but it's definitely great fun...Ms. Lloyd, her actors and staging team have mined every possibility for boisterously bold comedy, taking full advantage of the outdoor setting, and using the gender-busting casting to satirize Elizabethan macho.”
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