King Lear (Broadway) NYC Reviews and Tickets

"It should surprise no one that Ms. Jackson is delivering a powerful and deeply perceptive performance as the most royally demented of Shakespeare’s monarchs. But much of what surrounds her in this glittery, haphazard production seems to be working overtime to divert attention from that performance...By and large, the performances seem to have been blown into uneasy coexistence by random winds from different directions."
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"Gold’s production is full of interesting directorial choices that do not quite cohere into a shared universe for 'King Lear’s' characters to inhabit...Some of these performances work well on their own terms. What’s missing is a larger sense of shape...This production doesn’t want to be indulgent or overwrought; perhaps it doesn’t want to risk dishonesty. But after three and a half hours of diffuse dramatics, I felt nothing."
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"After a royal amount of hype built on the promise of the towering Glenda Jackson’s role-defining performance, the painful truth is that Sam Gold’s 'King Lear' is a hot, heavy mess. And more painful still, Jackson’s Lear fails to transcend it...Underneath the production’s winks and nods, there’s nothing there — meanwhile, the play languishes somewhere in the wings. Most distressing of all, Jackson, for all her innate and palpable power, isn’t saving it."
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"Gold makes a lot of audacious choices, many of which you might disagree with, but they are seldom uninteresting...Gold at times lays on this contemporary veneer a tad too thickly...But even with on-the-nose moments like this, the production still feels thematically undercooked...Still, while the ensemble doesn't feel unified, there are some standout performances, Pascal's terrific Broadway debut as Edmund among them."
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"She offers her own take on male frailty and hubris, her voice booming, her focus astonishing. If her gender enters into her portrayal at all, it is only fleetingly toward the end; it may be in the eye of this beholder, but a woman grieving a child registers differently from man facing the same catastrophe...Worth mention in an overall solid cast is Broadway regular John Douglas Thomas as the Earl of Kent...It is this returning veteran in the title role that makes this Lear memorable."
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"Although Jackson fails to wring tears, let alone blood, from this production, the sheer intelligence of her performance makes it memorable...The supporting performances are all over the place, and the fidelity to fashionable race/gender/age-blind casting sometimes requires work to figure out who’s who...The bland staging has no discernible unity or vision, and actors rarely connect. In the end, you’re really here for Glenda Jackson...Wouldn’t have missed it for the world."
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"This 'Lear' is a knock-out...A production of many memorable parts and moments...Wilson's performance grows in strength and vitality and even poignance, as if Wilson and director Gold have decided that only a truly go-for-broke approach could withstand the force of nature that is Jackson. They choose wisely...Scholars have long debated on whether the Fool is actually Cordelia...Gold suggests he has the answer. It isn’t the first or last moment of truth in this extraordinary production."
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"Confoundingly muddled evening...On the evidence of this latest version, no one is going to go near this thorny brute of a play there again anytime soon. Not that Jackson isn’t an inspired choice for Lear...Little effort has gone into creating the impression that all these characters occupy the same space or to establishing with any secure command of temporal logistics where we are at any given moment."
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