Rylance Triumphs As Evil King, Mournful Countess: Stage
10 / 10
His Richard crows with glee at every lethal lie, venomous kiss, broken promise. Rylance has mastered each of Richard’s 1,171 lines and adds guffaws, asides, stutters and winces.
10 / 10
His Richard crows with glee at every lethal lie, venomous kiss, broken promise. Rylance has mastered each of Richard’s 1,171 lines and adds guffaws, asides, stutters and winces.
9 / 10
Rylance plays the humpbacked and murderous conniver Richard III with much the same comic brio — he pats his shriveled (fake) baby hand when he speaks of being 'rudely stamp'd' and 'not shaped for sportive tricks,' then during his coronation flashes both thumbs up and whips his oversize cape about in childlike triumph. His Richard, while consistently entertaining, throws the play's more tragic elements somewhat off-balance, particularly in the many (more serious) scenes when he's off stage. Still, Rylance exquisitely manages Richard's tricky seduction of Lady Anne (Joseph Timms), whose husband and father-in-law he has killed. And there's a delicious crackle to the late scenes with Barnett's Queen Elizabeth, who responds to Richard's entreaties to woo her own daughter with a bold and surprising response. (No spoilers here.)
| 1750 | Broadway |
Broadway |
| 1821 | Broadway |
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| 1825 | Broadway |
Broadway |
| 1904 | Broadway |
Broadway |
| 1905 | Broadway |
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| 1906 | Broadway |
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| 1907 | Broadway |
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| 1908 | Broadway |
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| 1909 | Broadway |
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| 1911 | Broadway |
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| 1915 | Broadway |
Broadway |
| 1917 | Broadway |
Broadway |
| 1918 | Broadway |
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| 1920 | Broadway |
Broadway |
| 1930 | Broadway |
Broadway |
| 1930 | Broadway |
Broadway |
| 1943 | Broadway |
Broadway |
| 1949 | Broadway |
Broadway |
| 1953 | Broadway |
Broadway |
| 1957 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
| 1970 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
| 1974 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
| 1979 | Broadway |
Broadway |
| 1983 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
| 1998 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
| 2004 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
| 2007 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
| 2012 | West End |
Globe Theatre Transfer West End |
| 2017 | Off-Broadway |
BAM Off-Broadway Revival Off-Broadway |
| 2019 | West End |
London Revival at Alexandra Palace West End |
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | New York Drama Critics Circle Awards | Special Citation | |
| 2014 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play | Mark Rylance |