Richard ll Tickets

Guys and dolls have made way for kings and dukes at the Bridge Theatre, where Jonathan Bailey rules in his first stage role since Wicked and Bridgerton fame. 

No stranger to Shakespeare (Bailey trod the boards with the RSC long before he walked down the Yellow Brick Road in Wicked), the Olivier award-winner appears centre stage, bathed in a decadent glow of light from three large crystal chandeliers - a false halo cast over him. The titular character in the lesser performed ‘Henriads’, Richard II (Bailey), believes he’s Jesus. That he is of divine right. But when we see the angelic image quickly dispel as he steps out of the light and stalks downstage (or upstage, it is in-the-round afterall) to claim his crown, we see he’s simply delusional. 

Sitting in a sea of black and gold furniture, grandiose and ostentatious. The decor, chosen by set designer Bob Crowley, could quite easily fit into a hotel room in Trump Tower. This visual parallel sets the tone for a king who, like President Trump, craves admiration and notoriety above all else, shifting opinions to curry favor or simply to alleviate his own boredom. Bailey’s Richard is intoxicated by his own divine right, dismissive of his advisors, and blinded by entitlement—a dangerous cocktail that ultimately sets in motion his downfall. When he banishes his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, and seizes his inheritance from his uncle's hospital bed (and celebrates by scoffing the dead man's grapes) the cracks in his rule begin to show, paving the way for rebellion.