Old Play in Manhattan

Richard III (by William Shakespeare; produced by Theater Productions) is Broadway's only revival of Shakespeare this season. It is not a very rewarding one. Richard III is second-rate Shakespeare, lacking depth, dimension, verbal magic. But in its evil, hunchbacked hero, mounting through blood and stealth to the throne he covets, it has a thumping good stage character. Arrogant, brilliant, constantly dissembling before others but never deceiving himself, murdering without a qualm his followers, his friends, his sovereign, his brother, his little nephews, Richard can be a fascinating villain. Two centuries of notable actors, from Garrick to John Barrymore, made him one.

Talented Actor George Coulouris (Julius Caesar, Watch on the Rhine) plays Richard as if he were just a matter of feverish impatience and petty willfulness, ignores his sardonic mind, his serpentine guile, his high pride of villainy. Jerky and rapid of speech, Hunchback-of-Notre-Dame-like in movement, he exudes evil rather than expresses it. He is too unimpressive for a figure that has to carry the whole load of the play on his crooked back.

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