Randy Weiner's and Diane Paulus' The Donkey Show, now in the sixth year of its Off-Broadway run, explores Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream in the context of the sexual revolution of the late '70s by turning the play into a night at a disco; but most audience members are too busy drinking, dancing, and singing along to the music of the era to pay attention to the show's post-gender deconstruction of the Bard's work. (Think of it as the slacker's approach to literary criticism.) Now, Weiner and Paulus have adapted A Winter's Tale into the gospel/R&B musical Best of Both Worlds, transforming Shakespeare's rarely performed romance into a religious allegory for the holiday season. The resu[...]