Public's King Lear, with Kevin Kline, Moved to Spring '07

The Public Theater's upcoming production of the classic Shakespeare tragedy King Lear--starring Kevin Kline as the proud monarch of the title--has been moved back from fall of 2007 to spring of 2007.  Specific opening dates have not yet been announced.

Kline had previously been involved in a workshop for the Public.  Tony Award-winner James Lapine (Spelling Bee, Into the Woods, Sunday in the Park with George) will direct King Lear, in which a king's misplaced anger at one of his daughters leads to his downfall.

Kline, a Julliard graduate and former member of the famed Acting Company, most recently took on the role of Falstaff in the acclaimed 2003 Lincoln Center production of Henry IV (for which he received a Tony Award nomination).  Other Shakespearean credits include Friar Pete in John Houseman's 1973 staging of Measure for Measure, as well as the title roles in Hamlet, Richard III and Henry V, and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing at the Public Theater.  Other Broadway credits include Ivanov, Arms and the Man, Three Sisters, On the Twentieth Century and The Pirates of Penzance; he won Tony Awards for the latter two shows.  Screen credits include De-Lovely, Life as a House, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Chaplin, The Pirates of Penzance, Sophie's Choice and A Fish Called Wanda, for which he earned an Academy Award.

The Public's 2006-2007 season will also include Daniel Beaty's Emergence-See, Julia Cho's Durango, the musical Passing Strange, Craig Lucas' The Singing Forest, and Suzan-Lori Parks' 365 Days/365 Plays.  It will kick off on September 25th, with Wrecks, a one-man play by Neil LaBute starring Ed Harris.

Visit www.publictheater.org for more information.