The Deal

• $29 for one ticket to Drunk Shakespeare (up to $58 value)
• When: select dates, December 12–January 17
  Additional dates available, November 1–December 11
• Where: The Lounge
• General admission
• Door time: 30 minutes before showtime
• Ticket values include all fees
• Click here for additional dates.

This event is 21+, and our customers most provide a 21+ ID for entry.

Drunk Shakespeare

TimeOut New York calls Drunk Shakespeare a “live-action Drunk History,” and every performance starts the same way: one member of the five-person cast downs at least four shots of whiskey, one right after another. From there, though, it’s impossible to predict what might happen next, or how the performance might end. Shirtlessness is a good bet. Slurred speech also has favorable odds. Yet, no matter what unfolds or how hard the chosen drinker tries to derail the performance, the members of the Drunk Shakespeare Society do their darndest to keep it on track. Of course, who could really blame Hamlet, Macbeth, or Othello for futzing with the play’s ending? All of this caused the New York Times to proclaim that Shakespeare “…would most likely be familiar with all the boozing, rowdiness and debauchery encouraged by the excitable cast.”

Before the iambic pentameter begins pouring across the bar, the troupe invites one audience member to join the drinker for a shot in order to prove that what’s going down the hatch is in fact booze. This gives a glimpse into the level of audience participation to follow, with people doing everything from singing and clapping to taking part in the drama. A whimsical show by a group of “professional drinkers with a Shakespeare problem,” Drunk Shakespeare was called “an irreverent, bawdy, and good-spirited show, in equal service to liquor and poetry” by Exeunt magazine’s Patrick Maley.