Twelfth Night played at the Delacorte Theater from August to September 14, 2025.
By Elazar Abrahams
As we approach the end of the year, I find myself with a large backlog of articles that still need to be written. See, I got married this September, and while 2025 has been incredible because of that, it also meant that TV and City took a backseat. That’s valid, but there’s so much great entertainment out there that deserves to be shared with our readers. On top of that, I also accepted screeners and press tickets for a number of projects. Those perks come with the expectation that this site will be covering them, and I feel quite bad about that. Many of the shows and movies have long since premiered, and the theatrical productions closed as scheduled. Still, it feels only right to sit down, put pen to paper (or keyboard to screen, rather) and get these pieces out into the world. May 2026 bring more great times and excuses, and more good art into all our lives.
One of the most regrettable reviews that I fell behind on was that of Twelfth Night, this year’s Shakespeare in the Park production from the Public Theater. Our followers know I’ll take any chance to hype up the Public; they do incredible work.
There are a lot of places in New York City that feel iconic, but the Delacorte Theater in Central Park is one of the few that feels genuinely magical. It is not just the setting, or the fact that you are watching Shakespeare outdoors with the skyline humming somewhere beyond the trees. It is the ritual of it all, the communal sense that this is a summer tradition the city shares together.
So yes, it was awesome to be back.
After a year off for renovations, this summer’s production of Twelfth Night felt like a proper homecoming, and a fitting re-christening of the Delacorte. The Public Theater has built an impressively high bar for these productions over the years, and thank goodness for that. The expectation is not just “free Shakespeare.” It is Shakespeare executed with real ambition, smart staging, and the kind of casting that makes you do a double-take when you remember you are sitting there without a Broadway-sized ticket price attached.
Directed by Saheem Ali, this interpretation of Twelfth Night leans into what the play does best: romance and comedy. It’s the story of shipwrecked twins, mistaken identities, longing that spills into obsession, and a whole lot of people falling for the wrong person at the wrong time. Shakespeare can sometimes be staged in a way that emphasizes the cleverness at the expense of the feeling. This production excels at both. The romance is sincere enough to root for, and the comedy is sharp enough to keep the night moving.
The cast is stacked, with Lupita Nyong’o as the lead, but the standout for me was Peter Dinklage as Malvolio. His comedic timing is incredible, and he finds the sweet spot that makes Malvolio such a fascinating figure in the play, painfully human and ridiculous. The performance gets laughs because it is funny, not because it is trying to be funny, and there is a difference. When the character’s humiliation arc ramps up, Dinklage makes it both entertaining and uncomfortable, which is exactly the point. You are laughing, but you are also aware that Shakespeare is letting the comedy get a little sharp around the edges.
Jesse Tyler Ferguson is also terrific, bringing expert comic control to Sir Andrew Aguecheek. Sir Andrew is basically a walking disaster, and Ferguson plays him with that perfect blend of confidence and cluelessness that makes every entrance feel like a new punchline. He helped pull my attention toward the production’s comedy, which is where I felt most connected to the book.
Sandra Oh, meanwhile, is obviously great, but this particular iteration does not give Olivia all that much to do beyond the character’s foundational beats. That is less a knock on Oh than a reminder that even dream casting cannot change the fact that some roles simply have more meat on the bone than others.
One of the pleasures of Shakespeare in the Park, when it is firing on all cylinders, is how well these productions use the space. The Delacorte stage is huge, and outdoor theater demands clarity and scale. This Twelfth Night understands that. It uses the stage like a playground, keeps the action readable, and makes the evening feel like a big-city event rather than an academic exercise.
And then the production seals the deal with its final choice: ending the night with a high-energy dance party. It was absolutely the right call. It felt like a celebration, not just of the show, but of the institution itself being back where it belongs. After a year away, it was the kind of joyous release that felt like exactly what the city needed as a welcome back to one of its best traditions.
TV and City 