Public Theater

The Public Theater’s 2008-2009 season will include work from Stephen Sondheim, John Guare, Danny Hoch, Christopher Durang, Craig Lucas, Mike Daisey, and Tracey Scott Wilson, Variety reports. The Sondheim musical, called “Bounce,” will be directed by John Doyle, who previously helmed the Sondheim hits “Company” and “Sweeney Todd.” The Guare piece, “A Free Man of Color”—his first new one in over seven years—will be directed by George C. Wolfe and will feature actor and hip-hop artist Mos Def and actor Jeffrey Wright, who co-starred in the Public's 2003 hit"Topdog/Underdog." Also announced: The theater’s consistently popular Shakespeare in the Park series will feature, in 2009, a presentation of “The Bacchae” directed by JoAnne Akalaitis and backed with music by Philip Glass (a preceding production has yet to be announced).

Lauren Ambrose will return to the Delacorte this summer as Ophelia in the Public Theater's production of Hamlet. The fiery redhead was the leading lady in last year's Romeo and Juliet at Shakespeare in the Park and will replace Crimes of the Heart's Lily Rabe, who had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts.  read more »

We've been hearing a lot about this young lady, Lily Rabe. We wrote about her in Kathleen Turner-directed play Crimes of the Heart and she stars in Emily Hubley's animation film The Toe Tactic. Now she has joined the cast of the Public Theater's production of Hamlet in Central Park this summer, according to Variety. Ms. Rabe plays Ophelia to Michael Stuhlbarg’s Dane and Andre Braugher will play the royal usurper Claudius. Hamlet runs May 27-June 29. Tickets go on sale March 30.

Elizabeth LeCompte’s latest avant-garde experiment in high-tech disorientation and miked automatons might be described as the world’s first karaoke production of Hamlet.  read more »