New York’s Free Shakespeare in the Park production this summer of Merry Wives, a comedy adaptation by Jocelyn Bioh of the Bard’s Merry Wives of Windsor, will feature an all-Black cast including Jacob Ming-Trent (HBO’s Watchmen), Gbenga Akinnagbe (Broadway’s To Kill A Mockingbird), Shola Adewusi (CBS’ Bob Hearts Abishola) and Susan Kelechi Watson (NBC’s This Is Us).
The Public Theater announced the complete casting today, along with new dates for the staging in Central Park’s Delacorte Theater: Performances will begin Tuesday, July 6 (instead of the previously announced July 5) and run through Saturday, September 18 (an extension of three weeks from the previously announced engagement). The official opening night is Tuesday, July 27.
In addition to Ming-Trent (who’ll play Falstaff), Adewusi (Mama Quickly) and Akinnagbe (Mister Nduka Ford), the cast will include This Is Us‘ Susan Kelechi Watson, Abena, Pascale Armand, MaYaa Boateng, Phillip James Brannon, Joshua Echebiri, Kyle Scatliffe, Julian Rozzell Jr., David Ryan Smith, and, in the ensemble, Brandon E. Burton, Branden Lindsay, Ebony Marshall-Oliver, Jarvis D. Matthews and Jennifer Mogbock.
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