{"id":6209,"date":"2016-11-17T07:44:36","date_gmt":"2016-11-17T12:44:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6209"},"modified":"2016-12-06T08:36:40","modified_gmt":"2016-12-06T13:36:40","slug":"the-lion-in-winter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6209","title":{"rendered":"The Lion in Winter"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"lion-in-winter-cast\"

Rear: Dee Hoty, Michael Cumpsty; front: Hubert Point-Du Jour, Noah Averbach-Katz; photo: Amanda Crommett<\/p><\/div>\n

It\u2019s Christmas 1183. The succession to the English throne is in disarray.<\/p>\n

The reasons are well laid out for you in this production at Two River Theater<\/a> in Red Bank, New Jersey, which I recently saw in preview (opening night is November 18). If you go\u2014and for many reasons the play is well worth seeing\u2014the problems in the second act will most likely have been resolved by director Tyne Rafaeli<\/a>.<\/p>\n

James Goldman\u2019s 1966 play exposed deep schisms in the English court as Henry II (played by Michael Cumpsty) reached the \u201cadvanced\u201d age of 50. He is intent upon preserving his empire, which includes England and provinces in France, especially the jewel, Aquitaine, acquired through his marriage to the elegant, passionate Eleanor (Dee Hoty<\/a>). While he holds court in France, she has been imprisoned in an English castle for the past decade for treachery against Henry. She\u2019s just arrived at the Chinon castle, released temporarily to celebrate Christmas in the viper-riddled bosom of her family.<\/p>\n

The couple\u2019s oldest son has died, and they are left with an unpromising trio of sons: Richard (KeiLyn Durrel Jones<\/a>), Geoffrey (Hubert Point-Du Jour<\/a>), and the youngest, John (Noah Averbach-Katz<\/a>). Sullen warrior Richard (the Lionhearted) is the queen\u2019s choice to succeed Henry, but the king wants the childish and rather dim John to follow him. For some reason that even he cannot understand, the scheming Geoffrey is overlooked by everyone, a non-entity in a family of manipulative power brokers.<\/p>\n

All five of them are plotting and counter-plotting, negotiating and undermining, and trying their best to strike secret deals with the visiting 18-year-old French King Philip (Ronald Peet<\/a>). Philip agrees to every plot. Why not? This is first-rate entertainment. If they tear each other apart, as every indication suggests they will, he can step in and pick up the pieces.<\/p>\n

Henry and Eleanor\u2019s relationship is the real heart of the play, and it has been complicated by Eleanor\u2019s young step-daughter Alais (pronounced \u201cAlice\u201d and played by Madeleine Rogers), who has a long-running affair with Richard. Cumpsty and Hoty are strong in their roles, and play off each other beautifully\u2014believable antagonists whose love still breaks through, time to time. He was a teenager when she first saw him at the French court, \u201cwith a mind like Aristotle and a body like Mortal Sin.\u201d Were their sons ever more than pawns in their dangerous game?<\/p>\n

Despite the deadly seriousness of the characters\u2019 plotting, the play has quite a few lines intended to draw laughter and they did. Under Rafaeli\u2019s direction, Act I perked along smoothly. Act II lost energy and felt over-long. I trust they will tighten that up.<\/p>\n

Kristen Robinson<\/a>\u2019s scenic design nicely reinforces the king\u2019s reference to the family as \u201cjungle creatures,\u201d and Andrea Hood<\/a>\u2019s costumes\u2014especially for Eleanor\u2014are gorgeous. Alais is a pale waif beside her. For tickets, call the box office at 732-345-1400 or visit the box office online<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Christmas 1183. The succession to the English throne is in disarray. The reasons are well laid out for you in this production at Two River Theater in Red Bank, New Jersey, which I recently saw in preview (opening night … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"The Lion in Winter - politics can be vicious when families are involved. Hmm.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[366,266,104,147],"tags":[700,697,699,698],"class_list":["post-6209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drama","category-history","category-the-morgue","category-theater","tag-dee-hoty","tag-henry-ii","tag-michael-cumpsty","tag-two-river-theater"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-1C9","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6209"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6211,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6209\/revisions\/6211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}