By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Monday 10 February, opens 18 February and runs through 10 May 2025 RUNTIME: 160 minutes (with a 20-minute interval)

Bailey is perhaps best known as Fiyero in film Wicked, nominated for 10 Oscars on 2 March, although we have previously reviewed him in Shakespeare (King Lear, Chichester Festival Theatre) but never as the leading man.

• Read on for reasons including the parallels between Fiyero and Richard II and how this accessible production could be your gateway to Shakespeare

We last saw him onstage lead the cast in a troubled production of Mike Bartlett’s COCK (Ambassadors Theatre) in London’s West End and he won our Best Performance Of A Song monsta in 2018 for his Getting Married Today from Company (Gielgud Theatre).

Tonight he is directed by Nicholas Hytner (Giant, Royal Court and transferring to the Harold Pinter Theatre) at his Bridge Theatre on a stage almost in the round which cleverly has props and scenery emerging from its bowels and descending from its roof in a way that reminds of the previous award-winning show at this venue (Guys And Dolls).

Richard II (played by David Tennant at Barbican Centre) isn’t 1 of Shakespeare’s best loved history plays and is based on the life of King Richard II of England who ruled from 1377 to 1399.

It’s believed to have been written around 1595, chronicles his downfall and the machinations of his nobles and is the first part of a tetralogy, referred to by some scholars as the Henriad, followed by three plays about Richard’s successors: Henry IV, Part 1; Henry IV, Part 2; and Henry V.

The play spans only the last two years of Richard’s life, from 1398 to 1400, and begins with King Richard sitting majestically on his throne in full state, having been requested to arbitrate a dispute between the nobles Thomas Mowbray and Richard’s cousin, Henry Bolingbrooke, who has accused Mowbray of high treason for stealing money that had been raised for the English army and of murdering Bolingbroke’s uncle, the Duke of Gloucester.

This production’s dress is modern day and we can see Mowbray’s, a memorable Phoenix Di Sebastiani, Calvin Klein’s as he goes topless to fight Royce Pierrson’s similarly disrobed Bolingbrooke with a knife in a pit in a duel Bailey’s vain king can’t help but intrude on.

A period piece in modern day dress can fall flat (see Brie Larson in Elektra currently at the Duke Of York’s) but here the choices, including Richard snorting cocaine with his flatterers as he plots the downfalls of those who oppose him, work well.

Richard’s flaw is skewered by the marketing (see picture below) as a king who believes he is born to rule but fails to lead in a situation many may think has parallels with some of our politicians of today.

The confrontation between warring factions is well realised and we don’t think we’ve seen quite such an impressive cannon/rocket launcher on any stage before.

Fans of Bailey’s (pictured above at the curtain) from Wicked – Part 1 at least – may find parallels between his Richard and Fiyero and this accessible production could well be the gateway many people need between film and musical theatre and a deeper appreciation of 1 of Shakespeare’s lesser known tragedies.

• Main pictures via Facebook courtesy Bridge Theatre Tickets
• Have you seen a Jonathan Bailey show before and what did you think of this 1? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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