Once the temperature rises, the entire city becomes Shakespeare Central. The Bard is as inevitable as a superhero movie on Memorial Day weekend — and most of the productions are not only free, but al fresco.
Hovering above everybody else is the Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park, which this season is presenting “Much Ado About Nothing” (June 3 to July 6) and “King Lear” (July 22 to Aug. 17) at the Delacorte.
John Lithgow and Annette Bening head “Lear” while the wonderful Hamish Linklater and Lily Rabe step up as the first play’s bickering lovers, Benedick and Beatrice. You may know them from TV’s “The Crazy Ones” and “American Horror Story,” respectively, but these two are Central Park regulars — this is his fifth appearance and her third.
Asked why he’s a repeat offender, Linklater says, “You can sum it up succinctly in three words: Free. Shakespeare. Park.”
“It’s really all about the audience,” the lanky actor adds. “They’re the best anywhere, ever. Also it’s just the most beautiful place to say the most beautiful things.”
Rabe is just as enthusiastic. “I love every single thing about Shakespeare in the Park,” she says. “The heat, the rain, the bugs, the way the dressing rooms smell. Having the opportunity to play Beatrice at this moment with this group of people feels like a gift so big, it wouldn’t fit under the tree.”
Also in Central Park is “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (June 21 to July 20) by the Boomerang Theatre Company. This one’s a lot more informal than the Delacorte shows — audiences are encouraged to bring a blanket.
A couple of weeks later, Boomerang moves to Bryant Park for “Love’s Labour’s Lost” (Aug. 14 to 30).
That Midtown oasis, long home to summer movie screenings, is branching out in a big way with live Shakespeare, starting with the Drilling Company’s “Hamlet” (through May 31).
The elegant Bryant Park, with its pétanque courts and library racks, is a big step up for the group, which for years ran its infamous Shakespeare in the Parking Lot on a concrete spot in the Lower East Side, where the closest bathroom was in the McDonald’s around the corner.
Finally, dedicated freeloaders can also catch Moose Hall’s “The Tempest” (June 4 to 21) at Inwood Hill Park, at the northern tip of Manhattan. A big attraction is the park itself, among the biggest and wildest in all New York. Make sure you give yourself time to wander in the woods before the show.