The Shakespeare Society of New York City will host actors Philip Bosco, Blair Brown and Richard Easton in an April 22 reading of Shakespeare's King Lear. The date is the eve of the Bard's 438th birthday.
Bosco will play the tormented king to Easton's equally deluded Gloucester. Lear's daughters will be played by Brown (Goneril), Laila Robins (Regan) and Jessica Hecht (Cordelia). Michael Cumpsty and Boris McGiver play Edgar and Edmund, respectively, and Mark Linn-Baker joins Bosco on the heath as the Fool. Also in the cast are Mark Nelson and Philip Goodwin.
Bosco most recently appeared on the New York stage in Copenhagen, opposite Cumpsty, who went on to star in 42nd Street, and Brown. Robins was seen in Tiny Alice at Second Stage, where Linn-Baker acted in Chesapeake. Hecht last acted on stage in Lobster Alice at Playwrights Horizons.
Brian Kulick, the artistic director of the society, will direct the event, in which the actors hold their scripts in hand.
The event is at 7:30 PM at the Kaye Playhouse (68th Street and Lexington Avenue). Tickets are $10 and $25. For more information, call (212) 772 4448. —By Robert Simonson