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: 9/16
- 2017 - The Globe (my first ever live Shakespeare!)
- 2018 - Dallas Shakespeare in the Park (terrible)
- 2018 - Dallas Shakespeare in the Park (terrible)
- July 31, 2018 - Utah Shakespeare Festival (fantastic)
- Aug. 1, 2018 - Utah Shakespeare Festival (fun)
- July 10, 2021 - NYC Shakespeare in the Park (cut out a whole wife!)
- March 1, 2019 - SMU Meadows (high quality student production, but still clearly students)
- 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)
- March 5, 2024 - Fiasco Theater (great production, awful play)
- July 2, 2025 - Bridge Theater in London (fun modern immersive production! It swapped Oberon and Titania so that Oberon goes for Bottom, and it made Theseus warlike in the beginning which I liked but it softened him by the end which felt like a cowardly read)
- The Tempest
- The Two Gentlemen of Verona
- Measure for Measure
- Love's Labour's Lost
- All's Well That Ends Well
- The Winter's Tale
- The Two Noble Kinsmen
Histories: 5/11
- Aug. 2, 2018 - Utah Shakespeare Festival (solid production but this play is so bad)
- July 8, 2019 - Utah Shakespeare Festival (same)
- July 8, 2019 - Utah Shakespeare Festival (same)
- Oct. 6, 2019 - DC Shakespeare Theater (acceptable, but not inspired)
- 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
- 2017 - Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford Upon Avon (stunning)
- 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)
- Aug. 1, 2018 - Utah Shakespeare Festival (acceptable, but not inspired)
- July 9, 2019 - Utah Shakespeare Festival (not spooky enough)
- 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).