Reviews of Richard II starring Jonathan Bailey at the Bridge Theatre in London

"An eloquent staging of Shakespeare’s grand study of power"

"Jonathan Bailey is magnetic in the title role of Nicholas Hytner’s production at London’s Bridge Theatre"

"We first see Jonathan Bailey’s magnetic Richard II picked out by a shaft of white light against a dark platform, sleek in his bespoke suit and velvet loafers. Grant Olding’s music surges through the auditorium, Succession-like in its rippling grandeur, ready to propel Nicholas Hytner’s fresh, fleet staging which styles Shakespeare’s tragedy as a gripping modern account of power absolute and abused."

"Hytner’s staging takes the medieval world’s problem — a divinely anointed king who rules badly — and refashions him into our own nightmare: a hyper-rich, arrested child who spins policy on a whim and considers himself beyond the reach of law or hindrance."

"Hytner sends key exits and entrances through the watching crowd. The message is clear: Shakespeare’s drama may deal with characters long gone, but the dilemmas it raises about power are still very much with us."

"... what Hytner delineates so eloquently is that it’s not Richard who is the greatest problem — it’s power itself, in the shape of the crown. That golden circle tantalises everyone"

"It’s a journey deftly traced by Bailey and complemented step-for-step by Royce Pierreson’s wonderful Henry: all watchful stillness, coiled strength and rough pragmatism. Henry will, after deposing Richard, be forever tormented by guilt. Necessary it may be; treason nonetheless."

"Jonathan Bailey is electric as the flawed king"

"Bailey inhabits and humanizes the king in a clean, clear, martial staging from Nicholas Hytner that feels right for our times"

"Jonathan Bailey gives the best performance I’ve ever seen of Shakespeare’s flawed monarch, an erratic tyrant who gains dignity once deposed."

"Bailey inhabits and humanizes the king in a clean, clear, martial staging from Nicholas Hytner that feels right for our times. Altogether this is a winningly bold combination of casting, programming and cultural curation"

""Still, Richard II, with its rigid structure and strict double-narrative about two different styles of kingship, is never going to be a crowd-pleaser unless it’s by star casting. Hence Bailey. He commands the stage and even allows a little camp to seep into the character"

"Hytner’s production brims with top-notch character actors, including Michael Simkins as a dogged Duke of York and Christopher Osikanlu Colquhoun as a suave Duke of Northumberland. It also has a future star in Royce Pierreson."

"Jonathan Bailey brings a wonderful clarity and charisma to this tale of a misbehaving, queer-coded despot in Richard II"

"The ‘Wicked’ star delights in the extravagant speeches of Shakespeare’s homoerotic text"

"This is a play that’s rich with chewy metaphors and Bailey relishes them, delighting in extravagant speeches as much as he does in the circlet of gold that rings his head – which is to say, a little too much."

"The homoerotic playfulness of these early scenes soon curdles into something sickening. Richard II is an exploration of the limits of power, examining whether someone who abuses their position should be overthrown, even if that means parting ways with the rule of law."

"It’s the speeches, not the fireworks, that really dazzle here. Hytner’s decades of directing experience shine through this cast’s universally strong renditions of Shakespeare’s verse, bringing an acidic zing to words that otherwise could feel rich and stodgy. Similarly, his subtle reframing of some scenes makes them feel strikingly modern."

"Bailey lights up Hytner’s lucid production of a strange but infinitely satisfying play."

"Bridgerton's Jonathan Bailey is 'viciously petulant and deluded' as Richard II"

"Casting Bridgerton’s Jonathan Bailey as the vacillating king and surrounding him with a handful of veterans and a sprinkling of talented newcomers is a shrewd move by director Nicholas Hytner."

"Bailey is effectively ineffectual as Richard, viciously petulant and deluded throughout, citing the Divine Right of Kingship to cling to power that he doesn't merit."

"If some scenes would benefit from tightening up and greater projection, Bailey stands up to the challenge of Pierreson’s charismatic force field with subtle dignity."

"Hytner ensures clarity throughout and there is never a moment when we don’t know who’s betraying whom, right down to Richard’s beloved horse, Barbary. An illuminating production."

"Jonathan Bailey is a vicious monarch"

"The most compelling quality of the staging – driven on by a Hitchcockian score by Grant Olding – is the way that it treats the unfolding events not as historical inevitability, but as if they are changing moment to moment."

"Hytner and Bailey reflect that sense of absolute power tinged by temperamental instability."

"Even as he faces death, when Richard is usually deemed to have discovered the compassion and humanity that has hitherto eluded him, Bailey is angry when the music he hears is played out of time. It’s a bravely vicious performance, leavened with wit and humour and yet also deliberately mannered and alienating. This riveting and not always comfortable portrayal is absolutely matched by Pierreson, who cleverly charts, with the smallest inflections of head and eye exactly how difficult it is to make policy on the hoof."

"Jonathan Bailey exudes charisma as a cocaine-snorting king of misrule"

"Nicholas Hytner’s production plays like a thriller, while Brigerton star Bailey glitters with feeling in a potently physical modern-dress production"

"Nicholas Hytner, as director, smooths away most of the play’s creakiness with a pared-down production that has the pace and intrigue of a thriller. It is muscular in its look and Bailey singularly shines, his luminosity putting the others slightly in the shade."

"... its lyricism becomes slightly muted, though never by Bailey, whose words glitter with feeling."

"If the grip of the first half of the production slightly loosens by the second, it remains engaging. The background music, coming on to heighten moments, has the generic sound of a film score, and the near empty stage now leaves the drama slightly more unmoored."

"Jonathan Bailey is a monarch on the edge"

"Nicholas Hytner’s modern-dress production, featuring cocaine-snorting courtiers and a distracting set, overwhelms its cast"

"In Nicholas Hytner’s modern-dress vision of Richard II, Jonathan Bailey gives us a monarch who is forever teetering on the edge of hysteria, with a touch of camp too."

"Bailey is a persuasive verse speaker, yet he often seems hemmed in by the directorial concept. I’ll admit I’m starting to grow tired of visions of Shakespeare where royal courtiers are transformed into prim, clipboard-wielding special advisers who have decided to go into battle with their PPE degrees. The actors also seem constrained by Bob Crowley’s narrow design and the use of hydraulics to raise and lower sections of the stage."

"The quieter, unflashy scenes were where emotions ran deepest."

"Jonathan Bailey turns Shakespeare’s anti-hero into a coke-snorting pin-up"

"The Bridgerton star doesn’t attain the greatness of Ben Whishaw and David Tennant as Richard in Nicholas Hytner’s unflashy staging"

"His reign had saving graces – he showed early courage and verve – but on stage, there’s divinely-ordained high-handedness then a mortal reckoning. So there’s not a great deal to work with, in the first instance. The temptation is to give us flouncy regality, a touch of effeteness, too. Capitalising on Bailey’s action-hero looks, Nick Hytner’s modern-dress production instead opts for seeming solidity."

"Compared to the previous promenade thrills of Hytner’s Shakespeares at the Bridge (Julius Caesar, Dream), it’s conventional, albeit there’s ingenious use of the stage’s hidden depths, conjuring boardrooms and intimations of hell pits. Compared, above all, to Hytner’s Iraq War-resonant Henry V at the National, the contemporary approach yields little topical urgency."

"He acquits himself well, then, even if, despite impressive splenetic flourishes, he doesn’t attain the recent greatness of Ben Whishaw and David Tennant in the part. A fine supporting cast assist in a commendable, unflashy evening that, unlike its tragic hero, grows in power."

"The Bridge returns to active duty with this compelling but muddled take on Shakespeare’s tragedy, starring Jonathan Bailey"

"Bridge boss Nicholas Hytner is a brilliant director of Shakespeare and Jonathan Bailey is a great stage actor. Hytner’s take on Richard II does nothing to make me think I’m wrong about either of these things. But it falls short of the rigorous textual reinvention of the typical Hytner Shakespeare revival – although he gives it a good try."

"There is a clear nod to Succession in Grant Olding’s stringy score, and also in the modern dress production’s prevalent visual of besuited men trading a country away over glasses of expensive scotch."

"The strong suggestion that Bailey’s Richard knows he’s in over his head is an interesting one. At the very least he clearly has doubts, abusing substances to get through the pressure of an insanely high pressure job that was forced on him at birth."

"But despite a committed performance from Bailey, I struggled to get my head around some of the details."

"Elsewhere and the abiding sense is of a no-frills production that prioritises clean, fluid historical storytelling over flashiness. There are some nice turns, especially from Pierrson as a Bolingbroke"

"It’s still pretty entertaining, a treat to see this play performed with a top-notch cast. But it’s the first Hytner Shakespeare I’ve seen where the pieces didn't fully click into place conceptually."

"Thoughtful production with transfixing lead"

"Jonathan Bailey glitters in Nicholas Hytner’s lucid staging of Shakespeare’s history play"

"Shakespeare’s poet king is back, and he’s making one hell of a scene in this typically lucid, thoughtful production from Nicholas Hytner. Played by Jonathan Bailey of Netflix’s Bridgerton and the movie Wicked, this monarch is dangerously deluded, flamboyant and charismatic, with a deep vein of spite and self-obsession. Hytner is far too shrewd a director to serve up this drama of power and politics with any crude 21st-century parallels attached, but its exploration of statesmanship – and what we really mean, want or need when we talk about strong leaders – inevitably feels current in our unstable world. The staging is solid rather than exceptional. But Bailey makes a transfixing Richard, his plight engaging to the last, despite the nastier excesses of his capricious behaviour."

"Jonathan Bailey's coke-snorting Richard II pulses with energy"

"The 'Bridgerton' star is a fey and capricious monarch in Nicholas Hytner's modern-dress take on Shakespeare's challenging play "

"Bailey pulses with energy and charisma, which lifts the mood delightfully after all the monochrome men and their moody machinations. When Richard’s uncle John of Gaunt dies, Bailey flops insouciantly onto the sick bed and starts tucking into some grapes."

"The scene changes are accompanied by music (by composer Grant Olding) that has uncanny, yet highly fitting, echoes of the theme tune to Succession. For what this play boils down to is a struggle to the death between two cousins"

"The admirable flexibility of the Bridge space is once again on display here, with in-the-round seating looking on to a long thrust stage, onto which various props and furniture pop up briskly and efficiently. Yet despite all the accoutrements, this is a challenging evening’s viewing, the end result of which is lightly underwhelming."

"Jonathan Bailey Shows Off His Shakespearean Chops in a Stern, Stripped-Down Production"

"The actor cranks up several gears the moment his character is forced by usurper Henry Bullingbrook to give up the throne of England for a life of imprisonment in the second half of director Nicholas Hytner’s staging of Shakespeare’s history play. But the fact that Bailey takes time to catch fire is not entirely his fault, since neither Shakespeare nor Hytner make life easy for him."

"Gone is the expected heraldry and splendor of the English court in which King Richard traditionally basks. Instead, the audience is arranged in the round observing a traverse-style black runway staging with changing, minimal locations being lifted up through the floor on hydraulics. It makes for welcome fluidity, highly useful in a play that, for the first half at least, moves through an uncomfortable number of locations and a load of exposition."

"He’s even better when he’s calmly and quietly coming to understand himself and the nature of his previous selfishness in the play’s highly reflective and tender final scenes. But between those extremes of temperament, the living center of the character remains unseen, robbing the production of strength."

"Hytner is unquestionably one of the great directors of Shakespeare, but this production is uncharacteristically undercast in places. Some of the acting proves more proficient than powerful."

"Jonathan Bailey’s Bratty, Bad-Boy ‘Richard II’"

"The actor, on a hot streak after “Wicked,” takes on his biggest stage role to date. In London, he plays Shakespeare’s unfortunate king as a flouncing sociopath."

"Bailey gives an engrossing performance as Richard"

"Anyone hoping for a comforting allegory of contemporary politics — a cautionary lesson about overreaching leaders getting their comeuppance — won’t find it here. Though Shakespeare’s play is unsparing in its portrayal of Richard’s failings, it is agnostic about the rights and wrongs of his overthrow."

"The more compelling drama here is not the political intrigue, but the tragic transfiguration of the deposed king... This transition is tricky for actors to pull off — they must somehow become smaller and bigger at the same time — and Bailey executes it with admirable subtlety."