King Lear
Starring Glenda Jackson
Written by William Shakespeare
Music by Philip Glass
Directed by Sam Gold
Cort Theatre
March 11, 2019
Production website
💉💉💉 out of 5.

This is a major chew for an audience.  For a crowd that is going to the theatre expecting all to be would up in a 90 minute intermission-less night, Lear coming in at almost three hours and thirty minutes is a test.  Of course to see the incandescent Glenda Jackson take on this role of lifetime at the age of 82 is worth the wait!

I wanted to adore this show . . 

I wanted it to be the ultimate showcase for Ms. Jackson – – fresh off the Tony award for Three Tall Women.  The trouble tonight was that she was buried is so much STUFF it was hard to find her on stage.  Here is a but a short list of the distractions that stood in the say of appreciating her work.

1.  Both she and Jayne Houdyshell as the Earl of Gloucester were played as drag kings with their black suits and slick backed hair.  The same goes for Lear’s Fool.  I have to admit that this was one of the distractions that really worked.  The “drag” gave them an odd magnetism on stage.
2. BUT now you have the Duke of Cornwall, wearing a kilt and being played as a deaf man accompanied by his interpreter who accompanies him throughout the play, until, of course he is shot by one of Lear’s daughters.  A kilt, American Sign Language, and a handgun ending the life of his interpreter = – – please.
3. AND the cast was EXTRA blind cast.  I certainly approve of bringing everyone to the stage to rethink works, but this company seemed to go out of the way to include EVERY possible race, creed and color.  It was just trying too hard.
4. AND the cast kept exiting and entering from the stage to the aisles of the theatre.  I got it – – you are surprising us and trying to bring the act to us – but it just reminds me to bad high school theatre.
5. AND the shouting – OH the shouting.  I get that a LOT of bad shit happens but must all the daughters shout.  It felt like The Crucible all over again.
6. A string quartet that played beautifully (with original music from Phillip Glass) but wondered around the battlefield and often almost bumped in the actors – and did their best to “act invisible”  played so richly that the took away from the musicality of the language.  Trust the text – I mean, come on!
7. Chair clutter piling up on stage.  Gigantic bug lights to give us that war feeling.  An almost comic way OVERSIZED hanging that brought even a few laugh.

Here I thought that what was going to happen was that Glenda Jackson would be met on a blank stage, beautifully lit, superbly and subtly enhanced by the other characters – and she would be working through the words.  There were glimpses of her magic here and there – but come on the woman is 82 and 5′ at best.  Give the lady some room – she don’t need all of your theatrics – she can do the words.