Michael Urie is Richard II

Now showing at the Astor Place Theatre, Michael Urie stars in this fresh reimaging of Shakespeare's classic history play. Adapted by Craig Baldwin, the action is moved from draughty English halls to the club scene of 1980s Manhattan, where the beleaguered king and his realm are under threat from those around him.

What Is The Story?

Richard II is a capricious and vain monarch who is convinced of his own divinity, but fails to see the danger in the precarious nature of his claim to the throne. Exiling all those whom he sees as a threat, the banishment of Henry Bolingbroke would prove to be his undoing. Accusing the Duke of Norfolk of seizing his lands and plotting to murder his uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, Henry leaves for exile abroad, promising to return for his rightful inheritance, with an army to support him. When Richard is distracted by a rebellion in Ireland, Bolingbroke returns quietly to England, intent on recovering his rightful property, and instigates an uprising against the incompetent king, much to the glee of his peers.