Meryl Streep & Kevin Kline to Read Romeo & Juliet in Central Park

This sounds epic: In honor of the 50th Anniversary of Shakespeare in the Park at the Delacorte Theater, the Public Theater will hold a special one-night-only gala event on Monday, June 18, featuring Kevin Kline as Romeo and Meryl Streep as Juliet in a staged reading of Romeo and Juliet directed by Daniel Sullivan, BroadwayWorld.com is reporting.

Streep and Kline have previously appeared on the Delacorte stage together in 2001's The Seagull and 2006's Mother Courage and her Children. The Delacorte Theater in Central Park officially opened on June 18, 1962 with a production of The Merchant of Venice, featuring the then-unknown actors George C. Scott and James Earl Jones.

At the gala, Tony Award winner Al Pacino will be honored for his body of work with The Public Theater, going back to the early 1970s and including his performance as Shylock in the Shakespeare in the Park production of The Merchant of Venice in 2010. The evening will include dinner al fresco in the park, the staged reading of Romeo and Juliet, and a party immediately following the performance.

Tickets for The Public Theater’s Anniversary Gala are available at www.publictheater.org.