Direct from a sold-out run in London’s West End, the critically-beloved, Shakespeare’s Globe productions of Twelfth Night and Richard III come to Broadway for a 16-week limited engagement.
Two-time Tony Award®-winner Mark Rylance (Jerusalem, Boeing-Boeing) will star on Broadway in two startlingly different performances in repertory: as the suddenly love struck noblewoman Olivia in Twelfth Night and as the ruthless and conniving title monarch in Richard III.
Outrageous high comedy ensues as the pangs of unrequited love affect the unforgettable characters of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. While the lovelorn Duke Orsino plots to win the heart of the mourning Olivia (Mark Rylance), an alliance of servants and hangers-on scheme against the high handedness of Olivia’s steward, the pompous Malvolio (Stephen Fry). When Orsino engages the cross-dressed Viola (Samuel Barnett), who has disguised herself as a young man under the name Cesario, to plead with Olivia on his behalf, a bittersweet and hilarious chain of events follows.
Richard Duke of Gloucester (Mark Rylance) is determined that he should wear the crown of England. He has already dispatched one king and that king’s son; now all that stands in his way are two credulous brothers and two helpless nephews – the Princes in the Tower. And woe betide those – the women he wrongs, the henchmen he betrays – who dare to raise a voice against him. Monstrous, but theatrically electric, Richard is Shakespeare’s most charismatic, self-delighting villain, revelling at every moment in his homicidal, hypocritical journey to absolute power.
Sonia Friedman Productions, Scott Landis, Roger Berlind, Glass Haf Full Productions / Just for Laughs Theatricals, 1001 Nights Productions, Tulchin Bartner Productions, Jane Bergere, Paula Marie Black, Rupert Gavin, Stephanie P. McClelland, Shakespeare's Globe Centre USA, Max Cooper, Tanya Link Productions and Shakespeare Road present Twelfth Night and Richard III.