Destiny Rose Murphy's Adventures and Blatherings

Seeing Shakespeare

Feb 20, 2024
3 minute read

I love Shakespeare. I read almost all the histories in college and fell in love, and now that I’m an adult with cash and access to good theater I see as much Shakespeare on stage as I can. I dream of seeing every show Shakespeare wrote, including the bad ones, and I have now seen enough of them that I’m struggling to keep track! This post is a tracker for what shows I have seen, when, and where, so that I can know what to look for. Also, so that I can look back fondly on the good shows I have seen, and remember the shows that I hated so that I can see better productions of those.

Comedies: 8/16

  • Much Ado About Nothing
    • 2017 - The Globe (my first ever live Shakespeare!)
  • The Taming of the Shrew
    • 2018 - Dallas Shakespeare in the Park (terrible)
  • The Comedy of Errors
    • 2018 - Dallas Shakespeare in the Park (terrible)
  • The Merchant of Venice
    • July 31, 2018 - Utah Shakespeare Festival (fantastic)
  • The Merry Wives of Windsor
    • Aug. 1, 2018 - Utah Shakespeare Festival (fun)
    • July 10, 2021 - NYC Shakespeare in the Park (cut out a whole wife!)
  • As You Like It
    • March 1, 2019 - SMU Meadows (high quality student production, but still clearly students)
  • Twelfth Night
    • June 17, 2019 - Drunk Shakespeare at The Wild Detectives (my favorite version of the fool I've ever seen)
    • July 10, 2019 - Utah Shakespeare Festival (fun)
  • Pericles, Prince of Tyre
    • March 5, 2024 - Fiasco Theater (great production, awful play)
  • The Tempest
  • The Two Gentlemen of Verona
  • Measure for Measure
  • Love's Labour's Lost
  • A Midsummer Night's Dream
  • All's Well That Ends Well
  • The Winter's Tale
  • The Two Noble Kinsmen

    • Histories: 5/11

  • Henry VI, Part 1
    • Aug. 2, 2018 - Utah Shakespeare Festival (solid production but this play is so bad)
  • Henry VI, Part 2
    • July 8, 2019 - Utah Shakespeare Festival (same)
  • Henry VI, Part 3
    • July 8, 2019 - Utah Shakespeare Festival (same)
  • Henry IV, Part 1
    • Oct. 6, 2019 - DC Shakespeare Theater (acceptable, but not inspired)
  • Richard III
    • July 15, 2022 - NYC Shakespeare in the Park (a cool reversal of expectations about disability, but the lambast by Richard's mother was done in ASL without an interpreter, and I think it really took away from what the production was trying to accomplish)
  • King John
  • Richard II
  • Henry V
  • Henry IV, Part 2
  • Henry VIII
  • Edward III

    • Tragedies: 5/12

  • Julius Caesar
    • 2017 - Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford Upon Avon (stunning)
  • Hamlet
    • 2017 - In London (with Andrew Scott!)
    • July 9, 2019 - Utah Shakespeare Festival (the strongest Hamlet actor I've seen so far)
    • July 8, 2023 - NYC Shakespeare in the Park (great Polonius, bad everything else)
  • Othello
    • Aug. 1, 2018 - Utah Shakespeare Festival (acceptable, but not inspired)
  • Macbeth
    • July 9, 2019 - Utah Shakespeare Festival (not spooky enough)
  • Romeo and Juliet
    • Feb 7, 2024 - Circle in the Square (incredible Romeo and person playing Mercutio + Friar, but they added pop songs at several points including cuing the audience to sing We Are Young in the emotion build of Act 2 and it was an awful choice; also cut the death of Paris wtf! Juliet was just not believable, and having one person play Nurse and Tybalt didn't land
  • Troilus and Cressida
  • Coriolanus
  • Titus Andronicus
  • Timon of Athens
  • King Lear
  • Antony and Cleopatra
  • Cymbeline

    • Honorable Mentions (Shakespeare-Adjacent): All the Devils Are Here (overview of Shakespearean villains; delightful), The Book of Will (not memorable), Sleep No More (sort of Macbeth but barely; cool spectacle), Drunk Shakespeare (a version that did not adhere to the text, but was nevertheless a fun telling of Macbeth), The Tempest (interpretive dance version; terrible).