A brand-new production of Richard II will open
10 February 2025 and run until 10 May 2025 at the Bridge Theatre. Directed by Nicholas Hytner, Jonathan Bailey will star in the title role.
The Award-winning stage and screen actor shot to global fame as Lord Anthony in the popular period drama Bridgerton. He has recently starred in the critically acclaimed Showtime series Fellow Travelers. Bailey will play the lead love interest of Fiyero in the highly anticipated Wicked film which will have its theatrical release later this year and is currently in production on Jurassic World, leading the film alongside Scarlett Johansson. His prolific and acclaimed stage career includes playing Edgar to Ian McKellen's King Lear and winning an Olivier Award for his portrayal of Jamie in Company.
Richard II is charismatic, eloquent, and loved by his friends. And a disastrous King – dishonest, capricious, and politically incompetent. Echoing down the centuries is the perennial problem: how to deal with a ruler who has a rock solid right to rule but is set on wrecking the country he leads. Shakespeare's subtle, ambiguous, and beautiful play finds feudal England on the cusp of modernity, as a divinely sanctioned monarch is confronted, in the figure of Henry Bolingbroke, by the hard-headed pragmatism of real authority.
Richard II will be designed by Bob Crowley (for The Bridge: Straight Line Crazy; The Book of Dust – La Belle Sauvage; in the West End: Olivier Award-winning An American in Paris) with Lighting Design by Bruno Poet (for The Bridge: Julius Caesar; A Midsummer Night's Dream; in the West End: Tina – The Tina Turner Musical). Lily Dyble is Associate Director and the Casting Director is Robert Sterne (for The Bridge: Straight Line Crazy; The Southbury Child; for screen: Game of Thrones; The Crown).
For the Bridge Theatre, Nicholas Hytner has directed Young Marx; Julius Caesar; Allelujah!; Alys, Always; A Midsummer Night's Dream; Two Ladies; Beat the Devil; The Shrine; Bed Among the Lentils; A Christmas Carol; Bach & Sons; The Book of Dust – La Belle Sauvage; Straight Line Crazy; The Southbury Child; John Gabriel Borkman; and Guys & Dolls. Previously he was Director of the National Theatre from 2003 to 2015.
Performances are from 10 February until 10 May 2025.
Tickets on general sale from 26 June 2024
Press Night Tuesday 18 February 2025
Guys & Dolls is playing at the Bridge Theatre until 04 January 2025.