Kevin Kline is an able Shakespearean, but I couldn't help shaking the thought that he's completely miscast as Lear. His trademark naturalism is all wrong for the larger than life king, and half the time he seems to wander around the stage of the Anspacher aimlessly, reciting his lines as if he were reading a telephone book. And this is before his descent into madness, which came off totally unbelievable. It pains me to write that Kline is lackluster, but he really, really is here.
He's surrounded by several other poor performers: Laura Odeh is laughable as the always laughing Regan, while Brian Avers' Edgar didn't seem to register a single human emotion. Philip Goodwin plays The Fool as if he'd just had a small stroke before walking onstage. Worst of all, though, is Logan Marshall-Green's Edmund; he's an actor with very few tricks, and often finds himself either over annunciating or just plain shouting.
There is some good, though: Kristen Bush is appropriately moving as Cordelia, and Angela Pierce presents Goneril as a proper stone cold bitch. Best of all, though, is Michael Cerveris' Kent; with this performance, he's announcing himself as a rising star of American Shakespearean interpretation.
2 comments:
How's the score?
Pretty minor. It's incidental music, and you'll forget it as soon as it stops playing. It's a cross between Law and Order underscoring and something a grad student would use in their art film.
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