Review: Glenda Jackson Rules a Muddled World in ‘King Lear’
Ben BrantleyApril 4, 2019: Could we please have a little quiet? There’s a great actress onstage at the Cort Theater, and I’d like to hear what she’s saying. That was the way I felt during much of Sam Gold’s production of “King Lear,” which opened on Thursday night with the extraordinary Glenda Jackson in the title role. 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. That includes a perfectly lovely string quartet — playing original music by Philip Glass, no less — that under other circumstances I would have enjoyed listening to.
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