Michael Urie in RICHARD II to Kick Off Red Bull Theater Fall Season
This event will premiere live in-person, for three performances only, on Saturday September 27th at 2pm and 7:30pm, and Sunday September 28th at 7:30pm.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Apr. 21, 2025
Red Bull Theater's 2025-’26 Season would begin with a special Revelation Reading: Michael Urie starring in a new version of Shakespeare’s RICHARD II, adapted and directed by Craig Baldwin. This event will premiere live in-person, for three performances only, on Saturday September 27th at 2pm and 7:30pm, and Sunday September 28th at 7:30pm*, at Sheen Center Loreto Theater.
A long-time artistic associate of Red Bull Theater, Michael Urie has performed to acclaim in numerous Revelation Readings and Off-Broadway productions, including his acclaimed star turns in The Revenger's Tragedy in 2005, and The Government Inspector in 2017: “The peerless Michael Urie,” as Ben Brantley wrote in the New York Times, about his performance in the title role. “As this play's misleading protagonist, Mr. Urie establishes himself as a bona fide leading man, in the tradition of great physical comedy performers like Kevin Kline."
In this electrifying, one-man reimagining of Richard II, Shakespeare’s poetic masterpiece is stripped to its core — one actor embodying every ambition, betrayal, and fall from grace. With striking minimalism and raw intensity, the production transforms Richard's tiny prison cell into an epic battleground of identity and power, where a king’s divine right crumbles beneath the weight of human frailty. Michael Urie's virtuosic performance and Craig Baldwin's inventive multimedia adaptation make Richard’s tragic descent freshly immediate. This is Shakespeare like no other — intimate, innovative, and utterly unmissable.
Mr. Berger says “I am so pleased to welcome Michael Urie back to Red Bull Theater for this theatrical event. Michael was born to play Richard the Second, and I’m thrilled that we have the chance to do it with him in this way. It is also a pleasure to welcome back our former associate artistic director, Craig Baldwin, as director and adapter. In Craig’s wonderful vision for the play, and with Michael’s incredible talents as an actor, audiences will have the opportunity to experience one of Shakespeare’s most beautifully written plays in a uniquely intimate and powerful way!”
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