Farinelli and the King
Opening Night: December 17, 2017
Closing: March 25, 2018
Theater: Belasco Theatre
Oscar- and three-time Tony Award-winner Mark Rylance return to Broadway in the Shakespeare’s Globe production of a new play with music by author and composer Claire van Kampen. Farinelli and the King tells the story of King Philippe V of Spain (Rylance), who, plagued by insomnia, lies awake in his chamber. The Queen, desperate for a cure, hears of Farinelli – a castrato with a voice so divine it has the power to captivate all who hear it. Philippe is astonished when Farinelli sings, and begs him to stay. But will Farinelli, one of the greatest celebrities of his time, choose a life of solitude over fame and fortune in the opera houses of Europe?
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December 17, 2017
His Majesty is not himself today. His most unserene highness, the King of Spain, does not know who or what he is, except that he’s not where he belongs. Approach him with caution: He bites. And allow me, if you will, to advise you never to take your eyes off him.
Not that you’ll want to.
As was observed of another stark raving royal (named Hamlet), “Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.” This is especially true when a great one is portrayed by one of the greatest actors on the planet.
Uncork the Champagne and unfurl the straitjacket. Mark Rylance is once again ruling audiences at the Belasco Theater, where the strangely enchanting “Farinelli and the King,” Claire van Kampen’s shimmering fairy tale for grown-ups, opened on Sunday night.
READ THE REVIEWDecember 17, 2017
His Majesty is not himself today. His most unserene highness, the King of Spain, does not know who or what he is, except that he’s not where he belongs. Approach him with caution: He bites. And allow me, if you will, to advise you never to take your eyes off him.
Not that you’ll want to.
As was observed of another stark raving royal (named Hamlet), “Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.” This is especially true when a great one is portrayed by one of the greatest actors on the planet.
READ THE REVIEW
December 17, 2017
Mark Rylance stars in his wife Claire van Kampen’s play with music as the 18th-century Spanish monarch whose chronic melancholia could be soothed only by the heavenly singing of the celebrated castrato.
While movie audiences have lately caught on to the mercurial brilliance of Mark Rylance in films like Bridge of Spies and Dunkirk, Broadway has been in on the secret for close to a decade, making every one of this extraordinary stage actor’s appearances a bona fide theatrical event. He played the clueless patsy in the slapstick farce Boeing-Boeing; an obnoxious theatrical windbag in the mock-Moliere verse comedy La Bete; a brawling modern-day dragon-slayer in the epic eulogy for Englishness, Jerusalem; and in an unforgettable double-bill from Shakespeare’s Globe, he delivered a fluttering, ineffably human Olivia in Twelfth Night alongside a Richard III whose toying duplicity quivered with blackest resentment. READ THE REVIEWDecember 17, 2017
“Farinelli and the King” follows Spain’s Phillipe V, an 18th century monarch who was out of his mind, and an Italian castrato, whose singing was out of this world. So much so that Farinelli’s ethereal voice eased the ruler’s debilitating depression and hushed unsettling chatter in his head. Yes, Carlo Broschi, who was castrated at age 10 and used the stage name Farinelli, was that singular.
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December 17, 2017
With “operatic” now a synonym for excessive grandiosity, and the demanding diva de rigueur for any opera, it is easy to forget the primal, visceral nature of the early years of the art. To paraphrase what is said in the fascinating new Broadway play “Farinelli and the King,” which opened here Sunday night, opera once was a much dirtier business. Not so much galas, donors and elitism as candles, sweat and story.
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December 17, 2017
Before Bridge of Spies, The BFG and Wolf Hall made him familiar to millions, Oscar winner Mark Rylance was known to theatergoers as an actor who wore the heavy mantle of The Best with considerable grace and wit. In 2008, he accepted his first Tony award with an incomprehensible speech quoting an obscure Minnesota poet, and he did the same when he won his second Tony three years later. He’s played a substance-addled ex-motorcycle daredevil, an airline pilot juggling mistresses like so many bowling pins and most recently, switched off as Countess Olivia and King Richard III in alternating, all-male productions of Twelfth Night (Tony number 3) and Richard III (Tony nomination number 4).
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