''The Donkey Show: A Midsummer Night's Disco'' is a theatrical adaptation of Shakespeare's ''

A Midsummer Night's Dream ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a comedy written by William Shakespeare 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One subplot involves a conflict amon ...

''. The production, created in a

disco Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...

-era style, was written by

Diane Paulus Diane Marie Paulus (born 1966) is an American theater and opera director who is currently the Terrie and Bradley Bloom Artistic Director of the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University.Colleen Walsh"Paulus reaches beyond boards" ''Harvar ...

and her husband

Randy Weiner Randy Weiner (born March 10, 1965) is an American playwright, producer and theater and nightclub owner. Weiner co-wrote the Off-Broadway musical ''The Donkey Show'' and, as one-third of EMURSIVE, produced the Drama Desk Award winning New York p ...

and the members of Project 400, Emily Hellstrom, Jordin Ruderman, Rachel Murdy and Anna Wilson. It first appeared

Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

, opening August 18, 1999. The show subsequently ran for six years including venues in England, Scotland, France and Spain. After a successful run at the Edinburgh Festival the Donkey Show came to London for an 8-month run in Londons West End (Hanover Grand). The London show was produced by David Babani and Graham Kentsley. Rob Goodmonson (NYC) played the part of the DJ in the UK production. In 2009, the show was revived by the

American Repertory Theater The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) is a professional not-for-profit theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1979 by Robert Brustein, the A.R.T. is known for its commitment to new American plays and music–theater explorations; to ne ...

in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for which Paulus is Artistic Director. The club/theater space used in Cambridge is called OBERON, after the king of the fairies in ''A Midsummer Night's Dream''. The show ran in that space until September 2019.Meredith Goldstein,
“‘The Donkey Show’ Lowers the Mirror Ball”
www.bostonglobe.com, 22 Aug 2019

References

External links

The Donkey Show
at th
American Repertory Theatre
1999 musicals Off-Broadway musicals Plays and musicals based on A Midsummer Night's Dream {{musical-theat-stub