Famous for being a great (or perhaps greatest) powerhouse role for an actor who can dominate a stage, King Lear arrives on Broadway with last year’s Tony winning Best Actress, Glenda Jackson in the title role. At 82 years old, she does command a stage. She goes about the business of descent into madness efficiently. I cannot say hers is a Lear for the ages because the production is simply not good.
The stage is adorned with a garish gold lobby. Miriam Buether did the scenic design. A ruler with moralistically challenged daughters and son-in-laws conniving for their slice of the empire. It’s so blatantly Trump Hotel that it is boring. Too many productions this year are referencing the same target. Original compositions by Philip Glass are played by four musicians underscoring a world of privilege.
One of the the Fool’s speeches proclaims: “And bawds and whores do churches build; Then shall the realm of Albion/Come to great confusion.” At the end of this damning soliloquy the Fool (Ruth Wilson) pulls up her pant legs to show socks with the American flag. Exclamation point or thematic excess, your call. Sam Gold directed this very uneven production.
King Lear is certainly juicy enough to satisfy if the acting rose above the setting. That is not the case. In an attempt to provide more gender neutrality to the casting, the usually fantastic Jayne Houdyshell portrays the Earl of Gloucester. The performance is flat and her lines are flubbed all over the place. With one of the moral centers of the play this ineffectively realized, there is a collapse which cannot be recovered.
Lear’s daughters Goneril (Elizabeth Marvel) and Regan (Aisling O’Sullivan) are a mixed bag of unrelated concepts. Ms. Marvel’s characterization was fun and very contemporary. Ms. O’Sullivan’s was one unearthed from various countries and different accents with more than a whiff of Desperate Housewives thrown in. Why did Ms. Wilson play Cordelia and the Fool?
There are some pleasures to be enjoyed onstage through this long slog. Pedro Pascal’s Edmund, the illegitimate son of the Earl of Gloucester, delivered a fully realized villain. John Douglas Thompson was spot on as the king’s loyal and selfless aide. In the role of banished son Edgar, Sean Carvajal was my favorite performance in both speech and physicality. I have to add that Oswald’s death scene, as portrayed by Matthew Maher, was a high point. The proceedings were so boring that the levity was a welcome relief.
Now for very important information. If your tickets are located far to the right or left of the stage, you will miss key scenes. I had trouble and there were at five people sitting to my right. These were not “obstructed view” priced tickets. Did no one think that the entire audience might want to experience this whole play? It is not as if the directorial choice was so phenomenally interesting. These scenes are essentially characters just sitting on a bench. Dozens and dozens of theatergoers were unforgivably short changed.
I thought Glenda Jackson was truly marvelous in last year’s Three Tall Women. Here she shows us all that she can run a difficult marathon and finish, if not win. Overall, however, this production is a sorry mess and cannot be recommended.
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