Shakespeare in the Park's Merry Wives Streams Free Through PBS
Recorded last summer as part of The Public Theater’s Free Shakespeare in the Park series, an encore presentation of Jocelyn Bioh’s critically acclaimed adaptation of Shakespeare’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor" will be streaming through PBS this month. Here's how to stream MERRY WIVES on PBS now: Directed by The Public’s Saheem Ali, the production takes a new spin on Shakespeare’s classic and is set in South Harlem where immigrants of the West African diaspora are living together with their African American neighbors. The play was directed for television by David Horn (Holiday Inn, She Loves Me) and filmed at Central Park’s Delacorte Theater in September 2021. The PBS stream of Merry Wives will be available through the online platform of Great Performances for free, until November 5th, 2022. A direct link has been added to our updating list of free streaming musicals and plays. The more classic production is also available to stream - RSC's The Merry Wives of Windsor from 2018 is also available to stream online. "Merry Wives" tells the story of the charlatan Falstaff and the wily wives who outwit him. The adaptation filmed is a complete celebration of Black joy, laughter, and vitality. HBO's "Reopening Night" documentary chronicled the behind-the-scenes story of the show as it returned to the stage following the pandemic with its first production - Merry Wives. Great Performances: Merry Wives features Gbenga Akinnagbe (Mister Nduka Ford), Abena (Anne Page), Pascale Armand (Madam Ekua Page), MaYaa Boateng (Fenton/Simple), Phillip James Brannon (Pastor Evans), Joshua Echebiri (Slender/Pistol), Angela Grovey (Mama Quickly), Jacob Ming-Trent (Falstaff), Jennifer Mogbock (Madam Nkechi Ford), Julian Rozzell Jr. (Shallow), Kyle Scatliffe (Mister Kwame Page), and David Ryan Smith (Doctor Caius). "Merry Wives" is part of the PBS' fifth annual “Broadway’s Best” lineup, which included the West End production of Anything Goes starring Sutton Foster.