GLAMOUR BEFORE THE FALL

A pansexual Richard II struts through
power, pleasure, and ruin in the 1980s

In its current staging at the Astor Place Theatre, Red Bull Theater serves up a Richard II for 2025 with lots of flash and style (some over substance). Director Craig Baldwin, who also adapted Shakespeare’s history play, leans into a more overtly self-aware, navel-gazing monarch.

Sarin Monae West, Lux Pascal, Michael Urie,
David Mattar Merten, Ryan Spahn, and James Seol

Michael Urie delivers a vulnerable, fascinating, fully committed Richard: pansexual and flippant one moment, thoughtful and self-reflective the next. Around him, the company offers sharp, vivid performances—Lux Pascal as the Queen, David Mattar Merten as Aumerle, Grantham Coleman as Bolingbroke, Emily Swallow as Northumberland, and a powerhouse Kathryn Meisle as the Duchess of York. And it’s always a pleasure to see stage veteran Ron Canada, whose presence here lends moving authority to both John of Gaunt and the Bishop of Carlisle.

Michael UrieMichael Urie and David Mattar Merten

The production opens with a muscular, boxer-clad Urie delivering a monologue from Richard’s cell—a reworked prologue that immediately marks this as Baldwin’s Richard II. The four-walled Plexiglas-and-metal rotating cube containing him becomes every location in the play, thanks to Arnulfo Maldonado’s malleable design, which proves remarkably transformative from scene to scene. Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew’s lighting takes full advantage of Maldonado’s spacial creativity, carving out multiple realities on what is essentially a black-box stage. An especially striking moment arrives when a tight spot and a handheld mirror combine to create an an in-the-moment pin-spot, illuminating the faces of both Urie and Coleman.

Lux Pascal and Ryan SpahnGrantham Coleman, Sarin Monae West, David Mattar Merten,
Michael Urie, Lux Pascal, and Daniel Stewart Sherman

Set in the 1980s—but not bound to it—the cocaine, flashy clothes, shoulder pads, and giant cell phones, contrast Richard’s indulgent court with the sterner nobles and military figures around them. There’s even a nod to the World Wrestling Federation theatrics when Bolingbroke and Mowbray (a solid Daniel Stewart Sherman) square off before Richard banishes them.

Sarin Monae West, James Seol, and Daniel Stewart ShermanKathryn Meisle, Ron Canada, Michael Urie, and Lux Pascal

Baldwin also frames the evening as Richard’s own recollection; Urie never leaves the glass-box cell, frequently observing or reacting to scenes he is not canonically present for. The kingdom at large is addressed through video cameras rather than to massed crowds—although nothing ever actually appears on a screen.. The device is disorienting at first, but eventually coheres with the production’s aesthetic.

Emily Swallow, Grantham Coleman, Michael Urie, and Kathryn MeisleMichael Urie

In this glammed up staging, the play’s not so much the thing. For Baldwin and Red Bull, it becomes secondary to the unbounded meditation on humanity, power, ambition, loyalty, love, and hubris. So what if the actual plot points and who’s doing what to whom can sometimes get lost? Baldein is more interested in exploring why people do what they do – not so much the actual doing. Which, in 2025, may be a much more valuable offering than another dry historical chronicle, even one crafted by Shakespeare.

photos by Carol Rosegg

Richard II
Red Bull Theater
Astor Place Theatre, 434 Lafayette Street
2 hours 30 minutes including intermission
Tues-Sat at 7; Sat & Sun at 2
ends on December 21, 2025
for tickets, visit Red Bull Theater