Twelfth Night (Shakespeare in the Park 2018)
Photograph: Courtesy Joan Marcus | Twelfth Night (Shakespeare in the Park 2018)
Photograph: Courtesy Joan Marcus

Free outdoor theater this summer in New York

Here’s a guide to other free outdoor theater you can find in New York in 2025, including Shakespeare in the Park.

Adam Feldman
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Public spaces come alive with free outdoor theater in New York City in the summer, and especially with the plays of William Shakespeare. The top destination, of course, is usually the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, where the Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park presents excellent productions that among New York's best things to do in the summer. But you can also enjoy plays by Shakespeare and other classical masters elsewhere in the city: in Harlem and Brooklyn, at Battery and Riverside Parks, even in a Lower East Side parking lot. You might be surprised by the magic that can come from wonderful words, inventive actors and a mild summer breeze. (And don't forget to check out the free and cheap offerings on Little Island this summer.)

RECOMMENDED: Full guide to things to do outside in NYC

Free outdoor theater in NYC

  • Musicals
  • Manhattan

Theater for the New City takes its 49th annual Street Theater Company show on the road, bringing agitprop to outdoor locations throughout the five boroughs. Crystal Field and Peter Dizozza's family-friendly (but fascism-hostile!) satirical musical, directed by Field, celebrates diversity, immigration and the welcoming torch of Lady Liberty. Michael David Gordon stars as a Guyanan-American bogeda owner; the cast of 22 is buttressed by giant puppets, moving scenery and a five-piece band led by Dizozza. Visit TNC's website to find out where and when the show is playing.

  • Shakespeare
  • Central Park

After taking last summer off for renovations to the open-air Delacorte Theater in Central Park, the Public Theater's cherished annual series Shakespeare in the Park returns with one of the Bard's most popular plays: an ever-popular comedy of cross-purposes, cross-dressing and cross-gartered socks. Resident director Saheem Ali (Buena Vista Social Clubdirects a starry cast: Lupita Nyong’o and her brother Junior Nyong'o as Viola and Sebastian, nearly-identical siblings separated by a shipwreck; Sandra Oh as the mourning noblewoman who takes a shine to Viola when she is dressed as a boy; and Peter Dinklage, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Khris Davis, Bill Camp, Daphne Rubin-Vega and Moses Sumney as various figures in the lovely Olivia's orbit. Tickets are, as always, free; see our complete guide to Shakespeare in the Park tickets for details.

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