The Taming of the Shrew (Delacorte) NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (189)
See it if the misogyny of Shrew has always bothered you.
Don't see it if you're Donald Trump.
See it if Entertaining take on the classic with excellent performances by Janet McTeer, and Bianca particularly. Full of energy,and liveliness.
Don't see it if you are wedded to the traditional Shakespeare.
See it if you enjoy an exploration of gender-bending roles in a fresh interpretation of the Bard. It works! Wonderful McTeer, lots of fun.
Don't see it if you object to updating and great liberties taken by Phyllida Lloyd with an all-female cast over a single two hour act.
See it if You want to see a modern take on one of Shakespeare's better known comedies with an all female cast.
Don't see it if If you like your Bard presented more traditionally.
See it if You want to see a totally different take on this classic Shakespeare play. All woman, diverse cast is a great way to see this. Love the park
Don't see it if You like your Shakespeare pure and straightforward. You like indoor theaters. This is the wonderful outdoor Delecorte in the great NYC!
See it if You like to see a fun silly off kilter production of Shakespeare's most misogynistic comedy. Turned on its head by an all female cast
Don't see it if You like your Shakespeare not messed with.
See it if you enjoy new spins on classic shows.
Don't see it if Shakespeare isn't your jam.
See it if You like gender-bending performances by some pretty talented women!
Don't see it if You need impeccable loyalty to the original Shakespeare
Critic Reviews (42)
"Sadly, this season’s first offering is as disappointing as biting into the first watermelon of the season only to find it tasteless and dry...None of the performances stood out, and I found McTeer’s overly dramatized, husky-voiced Petruchio to be one-dimensional and irritating...The more telling reaction was the virtual absence of raucous laughter during the core of the play...Genteel laughter throughout the piece is a sign of failure, not success, and that was the mood of this one."
Read more
"As for being tamed, Ms. Jumbo does not quite deliver…It is obvious that this production has been carefully constructed...Judy Gold (Gremio) is given the task of explaining in a stand-up routine that there were cuts made…She pulls it off just fine, but it is an odd insertion…Only McTeer is free of headgear, binding or zippers. This may be in part why she is so loose and free in her performance. McTeer brings swagger, spark and bounce to the evening."
Read more
"Having only women play roles in a work focusing on male-female behavior helps underline issues of gender construction but it goes only so far...Apart from McTeer’s show-stealing, super-macho, bully-boy, but oddly charmless Petruchio...few others make much of an impression. Jumbo has done much better work...but here she’s...more a petulant child than a serious challenge for Petruchio to overcome."
Read more
"The all-female production seems to be working hard to make the play more palatable…A pieced-together, awkwardly integrated entertainment that can be enjoyed as a whole, as long it’s not overly scrutinized...The sexism is too obvious, and too edged in something ugly… McTeer is a caricature of The Human Male, and while much of it is humorous, there is nothing funny about her torturing of Katherina."
Read more
"Lloyd jubilantly knows what she’s doing, and, with this 'Shrew,' she jubilantly comments on male behavior…It’s not going out on a limb to say that Lloyd delivers one of the best free Shakespeare offerings ever, courtesy of a cast of male-impersonator beauties, led by the fearless Janet McTeer…Indeed, there’s not a woman as a man in the entire cast who isn’t pulling the drag off hilariously and looking to be having a helluva good time at it...Lloyd fills this 'Shrew' with delightful surprises."
Read more
"The radical decision in Phyllida Lloyd's carnivalesque version isn't the (stellar) all-woman cast. No — it's that these women actually play Shakespeare's violence without apology...McTeer's Petruchio breaks Katherina to marriage while swaggering like Mick Jagger, giving a performance worth standing in line for. Indeed, the deep bench of women performing next to her are Lloyd's real rebuke to the patriarchy. Why do we do Shakespeare any other way?"
Read more
"Lloyd offers an often funny, sometimes astute, and not exactly subtle reading of Shakespeare’s problem comedy...The cast is mixed in its abilities...No one wears the verse as lightly and brashly as McTeer...Though the play clocks in at just two hours and though Lloyd’s clarity of vision doesn’t flag, in certain scenes the actors seem to do little more than trudge through the iambs...The ending is somehow too blatant. It defuses and eases the real discomfort the play occasions."
Read more
"I hate when overly ambitious directors think it is OK to screw with an author's text…Phyllida Lloyd’s all-female production is an all-out Trump hate fest and not the play...The only reasons to see this production are for the fabulous Janet McTeer, who makes Petruchio a swaggering, crotch-grabbing, peeing, barfing, farting, strutting man watchable, and the wonderful Donna Lynne Champlin playing multiple roles."
Read more