'King Lear' Never Gets Old
Glenda Jackson is holding court at a noisy New York City diner on a Sunday afternoon. "I'm done with this," she barks, handing an unfinished fruit salad to the waiter. "And take their orders." The waiter, more bemused than affronted, looks at the two women seated in the booth across from Jackson. They dutifully order.
Jayne Houdyshell and Elizabeth Marvel are Jackson's co-stars in a gender-bending production of William Shakespeare's King Lear, currently occupying the Cort Theatre on Broadway. Despite their own busy, esteemed careers (among other honors, Houdyshell won a Tony for 2016's The Humans), they are clearly awed by their entertainingly spiky star. Well, who wouldn't be?
In late 2016, Jackson returned to the London stage after over 20 years as a member of Parliament. The role was Shakespeare's mad king, her performance a critically acclaimed barn burner. Jackson, who was 81, then hightailed it to Broadway, picking up a Tony in 2018 for Edward Albee's . After a short breather—"mostly on grandma patrol," she says—she's reprising her Lear in New York. The production, directed by Sam Gold (Tony Award winner for 2015's ), is otherwise entirely new, with Houdyshell as the Earl of Gloucester, a nobleman loyal to Lear, and Marvel
