All’s Well That Ends Well
Opening Night: June 11, 2011
Closing: July 30, 2011
Theater: Delacorte Theatre
All’s Well That Ends Well is a fairytale for grown-ups. This beguiling fable follows the low-born Helena, one of Shakespeare’s most resourceful heroines, as she inventively surmounts obstacle after impossible obstacle in order to win the love of the aristocratic and haughty Count Bertram.
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June 26, 2011
Daniel Sullivan plants a hot kiss smack in the middle of his captivating production of the thorny “All’s Well That Ends Well” for Shakespeare in the Park. Acts of osculation have of course been known to sweep people off their feet. But Mr. Sullivan ingeniously uses this one to ground his audience and to stabilize an uneasy play.
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June 25, 2011
"Shakespeare in Bed": That’s the sexy slogan the marketing department at the Public Theater has come up with to advertise the company’s Central Park season of "All’s Well That Ends Well" and "Measure for Measure," presented in repertory with the same cast. While both works do deal with carnal issues, they are known as "problem" plays because of their credulity-stretching plots. "Measure" has had a resurgence in productions in recent years due to its strong depiction of sexual hypocrisy, which contemporary directors have used to draw parallels to the inappropriate behavior of current political figures. "All’s Well," however, the first production on the Delacorte Theater bill, remains a problem child.
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June 26, 2011
A young woman’s near-obsessive love for a man well above her station is at the center of Shakespeare’s dark romance, All’s Well That Ends Well, now playing at the Public’s Delacorte Theater. The play is perhaps one of Shakespeare’s most tricky to perfectly calibrate in performance, and although director Daniel Sullivan offers up a lucid, crowd-pleasing production, there is also a sense of shallowness to the bitter love affair at the show’s center.
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June 26, 2011
There are good reasons "All’s Well That Ends Well" is considered one of Shakespeare’s "problem plays." Besides featuring a detestable hero, defining love as an unhealthy obsession, and reducing marriage to a slave market lottery, this dark romantic comedy takes indecent delight in the sadomasochistic games played by its cynical characters. Although the Central Park production doesn’t entirely escape these awkward themes, helmer Dan Sullivan wisely acknowledges the play’s problems by adding yet another layer of darkness and attributing the play’s cruel events to the dehumanizing consequences of living in a time of war.
READ THE REVIEWJune 27, 2011
There’s no silly suitor in a mask. But between the presentations of long-stem roses and the obsessive single lady bent on getting one certain man to be her mate, you don’t have to squint to see traces of ABC’s "The Bachelorette" in the Public Theater’s new "All’s Well That Ends Well."
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