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Shakespeare & Beyond

What's onstage at American Shakespeare theaters in May: a 1940s-style Midsummer and more

Seattle Shakespeare A Midsummer Night's Dream
Seattle Shakespeare A Midsummer Night's Dream

Every month, we share a snapshot of Shakespeare in performance around America. This month, we check in with our theater partners at Seattle Shakespeare Company, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, Folger Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, and Atlanta Shakespeare Company.

There’s no business like show business! Seattle Shakespeare Company has created a “a musical valentine to show business told with fairy magic” with its production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (May 3-21), inspired by movie musicals of the early 1930s to mid-40s.

“They’re called backstage musicals,” says Artistic Director George Mount. “They’re movies about people on Broadway putting on plays. So we’re going to do a play, based on the movie genre, about putting on plays in which shenanigans and hijinks ensue. And since there’s such great suspension of disbelief both with Shakespeare and movie musicals, the power and magic of theatre is the spark that allows the fantastical things to happen during the course of the events.”