Harewood is similarly understated in the title role. This military genius is suave and faintly self-satisfied, yet his descent into madness never really tugs at the emotions. Harewood falls heavily to the ground in the scene where Othello slips into a paralytic fit, but there’s not much light and shade to his verse-speaking. (It didn’t help, to be honest, that throughout the evening the audience was prone to chortle at scenes and lines that weren’t remotely comical.)
This is every bit a “West End Othello” that is ravishing to look at, immaculately choreographed and darkly humorous. It is pacy and does not probe deeply or seek to connect the play’s manipulations with our era of Trumpian truths and lies (and our own trusting of the wrong people?). There is an impressive clarity of language and events as we hear how doubt against Desdemona’s virtue is first cast by her own father, Brabantio (Peter Guinness), who says “she deceived her father and may thee”, before Iago capitalises on it.
| 1751 | Broadway |
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| 1865 | Broadway |
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| 1904 | Broadway |
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| 1905 | Broadway |
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| 1906 | Broadway |
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| 1907 | Broadway |
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| 1907 | Broadway |
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| 1907 | Broadway |
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| 1909 | Broadway |
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| 1911 | Broadway |
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| 1913 | Broadway |
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| 1914 | Broadway |
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| 1915 | Broadway |
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| 1918 | Broadway |
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| 1925 | Broadway |
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| 1935 | Broadway |
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| 1937 | Broadway |
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| 1943 | Broadway |
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| 1945 | Broadway |
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| 1970 | Broadway |
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| 1982 | Broadway |
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| 2009 | West End |
London Production West End |
| 2016 | Off-Broadway |
NYTW Off-Broadway Revival Off-Broadway |
| 2017 | West End |
National Youth Theatre Adaptation West End |
| 2025 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Production Broadway |
| 2025 | West End |
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