It’s not until several minutes after Danai Gurira’s entrance in the Public Theater’s new production of “Richard III” — the first entry in this summer’s outdoor Shakespeare in the Park series — that you realize how physically different her titular tyrant will be from those presented by other actors.

Yes, Ms. Gurira is female and Black, but neither of those factors should seem particularly surprising, given the exponential rate at which diversity in casting has picked up in recent years. What’s most striking about this Richard is the extraordinary grace and poise. Investing the character with perfect posture and the powerful, fluid movements of a dancer, Ms. Gurira offers a sharp contrast to the “rudely stamp’d” hunchback that Shakespeare presented in a portrait marked by other historical inaccuracies, likely motivated by the politics of his day.