Delacorte Theater - Free Shakespeare Under the Stars
Photo: Jellybean222, CC0 (cropped)
A stop on Central Park Highlights Walk, a free self-guided tour.
This open-air theater is home to one of New York's best-loved traditions: free Shakespeare in the Park. The theater producer Joseph Papp started staging free Shakespeare in the 1950s, and he fought the city's parks chief, Robert Moses, for the right to keep doing it here. The Delacorte opened in 1962 with The Merchant of Venice, built with help from George Delacorte, a publisher who gave money to finish it.
Every summer since, New Yorkers have lined up for free tickets, sometimes for hours, to see stars on a stage with the castle and the pond as a backdrop. Millions have attended over the decades.
The theater closed in 2023 for a major rebuild and reopened in July 2025, with fresh wood recycled from old New York City water towers. You can only look from outside unless a show is on, but look for the bronze sculptures nearby showing scenes from Romeo and Juliet and The Tempest.
Getting here: Walk west along the south side of Turtle Pond; the curved walls of the theater are on the pond's western shore.
Did you know?: The theater stands on part of the old Croton reservoir, the same one that became the Great Lawn.
Photo op: Frame the curving outside wall of the theater with the pond and the castle on its rock behind it.
More on Wikipedia: Delacorte Theater · Joseph Papp · Robert Moses
Stops on this tour
- Grand Army Plaza - A Golden General
- The Pond and Gapstow Bridge - The Classic View
- Wollman Rink - Skating Under the Skyline
- The Mall and Literary Walk - A Cathedral of Elms
- Bethesda Terrace - The Heart of the Park
- Cherry Hill - A Rest Stop for Horses
- Strawberry Fields - A Living Memorial
- Bow Bridge - The Park's Romantic Span
- The Ramble - A Wild Garden by Design
- Turtle Pond - From Reservoir to Wildlife Haven
- Delacorte Theater - Free Shakespeare Under the Stars
- Seneca Village - The Community Under the Park
- Belvedere Castle - The View From Vista Rock