Joy (and Le Beau) and Platt (as Touchstone) join the previously announced MacIntyre Dixon (Adam), David Furr (Orlando), Renee Elise Goldsberry (Celia), Omar Metwally (Oliver), Seminar veteran Lily Rabe (Rosalind) and Tony Award winner Stephen Spinella (Jaques) in Shakespeare's comedy.
As You Like It, part of The Public Theater's 50th season of free Shakespeare at Central Park's Delacorte Theater, runs June 5-30. Additional casting will be announced.
Joy's Broadway credits include The Nerd and Abe Lincoln in Illinois. Platt appeared in Broadway's Shining City and the 2009 production of Guys and Dolls.
Sullivan won raves as the director of Shakespeare in the Park's The Merchant of Venice, starring Rabe and Al Pacino, in summer 2010. It later moved to Broadway. Curious about Sullivan's many Broadway credits? Check out his biography in the Playbill Vault.
As reported, Grammy and Emmy winning actor/comedian/musician and bestselling author Steve Martin will compose original music for As You Like It which will feature a live Bluegrass band. The comedy is Shakespeare's most song-filled play. Sullivan (Proof, Rabbit Hole, The Columnist) will set the play's Forest of Arden "in the rural American South, circa 1840, where folk and roots music perfectly capture the mood of the time," according to Public notes. As You Like It will feature scenic design by John Lee Beatty; costume design by Jane Greenwood; lighting design by Natasha Katz; and sound design by Acme Sound Partners.
In As You Like It, according to The Public, "Rosalind, Shakespeare's most breathtaking heroine, and her boyfriend Orlando find themselves in the enchanted Forest of Arden, where all the world's a stage, and where sudden infatuation is as confusing as it is beautiful. Along with other 'country copulatives,' they discover that nothing transforms, redeems, or enriches experience quite as powerfully as love. As You Like It has everything we adore about Shakespearean comedy: mistaken identity, cross-dressing, madness, mayhem, rage, lust, laughter, and of course plenty of romance, both heartbreaking and joyous."
Also playing in the NYSF season this summer is a revival of Into the Woods starring Amy Adams.
Tickets to Shakespeare in the Park are free and are distributed, two per person, at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park the day of the show. The Public Theater will again offer free tickets through our Virtual Ticketing lottery at www.shakespeareinthepark.org on the day of the show.
Summer Supporter donations can be made at The Public Theater Box Office at 425 Lafayette Street, by phone at (212) 967-7555, or online at www.publictheater.org. Seating locations for donors are allocated strictly by giving level and in the order that they are received.
The Delacorte Theater in Central Park is accessible by entering at 81st Street and Central Park West or at 79th Street and Fifth Avenue.
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The Public Theater is under the leadership of artistic director Oskar Eustis and executive director Patrick Willingham.
