In the News

Critical Acclaim for A Midsummer Night’s Dream:

  • New York Times Critics’ Pick: “The director who redefined spectacle on Broadway… has now given New York a Midsummer Night’s Dream that doesn’t so much reach for the heavens as roll around in them, with joyous but calculated abandon… For Ms. Taymor, the sky is not the limit. It’s a supple canvas to be stretched and bent to the whims of the imagination. Her eye-popping take on the canon’s most enchanted comedy… confirms Ms. Taymor’s reputation as the cosmic P. T. Barnum of contemporary stagecraft… This Dream exists… as a glittering necklace of breathtaking moments… [and] when the moments are this beautiful, they take root in your mind and assume lives of their own. Don’t be surprised when they start showing up in your own dreams. The ingeniously mixed music of Elliot Goldenthal ranges from anxious jazz riffs to sustained, ethereal lullabies.” – Ben Brantley, The New York Times
  • “FIVE STARS. Visionary director Julie Taymor is a thrilling painter of theater…she sprinkles each scene with creative fairy dust. You’d be hard pressed to find [a production] that rivals Taymor’s for beauty.” – Adam Feldman, Time Out New York
  • “A deliriously beautiful, deeply magical staging that’s as human as it is wildly inventive.” – Linda Winer, Newsday
  • “The sexiest Oberon and Titania imaginable. Tina Benko is luminous…David Harewood [has a] transfixing sensual power as Oberon, mixing malevolence with mischief.” – David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
  • “A marvelous new production.  Terrific music by Elliot Goldenthal.” – Jesse Green, New York Magazine
  • “Taymor’s new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream… is a vibrant, visually stunning journey into William Shakespeare’s beloved fairy-land.  In the end, there is no mistaking that the star of this production is Taymor herself.” – Thomas Geier, Entertainment Weekly
  • “[A] tremendous, magical new show… Pulling out every last theatrical trick — puppets, projections, shadows, acrobatics, dance and, yes, flying — Taymor reminds us why she’s been hailed as a stage innovator for the past 25 years. Every minute brings new surprising ravishments, starting with the jaw-dropping opening scene… By the end of the show, we feel as if we’ve been enchanted along with the characters.” – Elizabeth Vincentelli, New York Post
  • “This is a high-concept show, beautifully designed and erected on the scaffolding of a conviction that Shakespeare’s play is all a dream — that all of life, in fact, is a dream… Max Casella hits his comic mark as Bottom the Weaver… Meanwhile, the lovers get into the same comic spirit and earn every laugh they get… But the night really does belong to the night people — Oberon and Titania, to be sure, but first and foremost, Hunter’s extraordinary Puck, who graciously blesses this new house and everyone in it.” – Marilyn Stasio, Variety
  • “A stunningly beautiful and wickedly funny new production.  You may feel like you’ve emerged from a dream when you leave Julie Taymor’s visually sumptuous production of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  Taymor is endlessly inventive with everyday objects and the human body. In fact, the most awe-inspiring moments of this play are the ones that are the least technically complicated.  This is theater by everyone, for everyone.” – Zachary Stewart, TheaterMania.com
  • The Village Voice gives a rave review of the production. Click here to read the full article.
  • A Midsummer Night’s Dream is featured in The New York Times’ year-end review “2013: The Year in Pictures.” Click here to view the slideshow.

Features and Articles: 

  • Click here to read Julie Taymor’s feature in the New York Times Arts + Leisure section.
  • Director Julie Taymor shares her vision for A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Newsday.
  • Smithsonian Magazine conducts an in-depth interview with director Julie Taymor on her relationship with Shakespeare’s work throughout her career. Click here for the full interview.
  • Academy Award and Golden Globe winning composer Elliot Goldenthal speaks with Broadwayworld about the music he created for A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Click here to read the full interview.
  • Julie Taymor, director of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Kathryn Hunter, playing Puck, and Founding Artistic Director Jeffrey Horowitz sat down with Leonard Lopate on WNYC to discuss this new production of Shakespeare’s joyous comedy. Click here to listen to the full interview.
  • Playbill profiles Julie Taymor and explores her extensive international theater career. Click here for the full profile.
  • TDF Stages talks to director Julie Taymor and actor Kathryn Hunter about the creation of the character of Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Click here to read the interview.
  • Tina Benko, playing Titania, receives the Actors’ Equity St. Clair Bayfield Award for her work in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Click here to learn more from Playbill.
  • David Harewood, who plays Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, shares his Shakespearean warm-up routine with The New York Times. Click here to read the article.
  • New York Magazine includes A Midsummer Night’s Dream on its “Approval Matrix” under Highbrow and Brilliant and includes the show on the To Do List for the week.
  • Broadwayworld features photos of Julie Taymor, Trevor Nunn, and more friends of Theatre for a New Audience at a dinner hosted by Dr. Leonard Polonsky and Dr. Georgette Bennett to celebrate A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Click here to see their “Photo Flash.”
  • Performances of A Midsummer Night’s Dream began on October 19. Read the full story on Playbill.
  • Scott Brown of New York magazine selects A Midsummer Night’s Dream as one of his most anticipated shows of the season!
  • Director Julie Taymor discusses her favorite Shakespeare moments with The New York Times.
  • Click here to see all the photos from A Midsummer Night’s Dream‘s very first rehearsal.
  • Finally, we’ve announced our entire company of 36 actors. BroadwayWorld.com has the complete casting details.