Broadway Review: Mark Rylance in ‘Farinelli and the King’
8 / 10
In the context of the period setting, the anachronistic language is barbarically contemporary. A theater impresario, for instance, complains that 'so many people want a piece' of his star performer; even his wife, who 'has been on my case since we opened.' That's a pity, since director John Dove has taken such pains to re-create the heavily gilded style of the formal Baroque setting of this production, which originated at Shakespeare's Globe Theater in 2015. The richly textured costumes look especially sumptuous in the blaze of candlelight (supplied by designer Paul Russell), and the period musical instruments - harpsichord, violins, viola, theorbo, Baroque guitar - all sing true, especially as stripped of all mechanical amplification.
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