"It should surprise no one that Ms. Jackson is delivering a powerful and deeply perceptive performance as the most royally demented of Shakespeare’s monarchs. But much of what surrounds her in this glittery, haphazard production seems to be working overtime to divert attention from that performance...By and large, the performances seem to have been blown into uneasy coexistence by random winds from different directions."
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"Gold’s production is full of interesting directorial choices that do not quite cohere into a shared universe for 'King Lear’s' characters to inhabit...Some of these performances work well on their own terms. What’s missing is a larger sense of shape...This production doesn’t want to be indulgent or overwrought; perhaps it doesn’t want to risk dishonesty. But after three and a half hours of diffuse dramatics, I felt nothing."
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"After a royal amount of hype built on the promise of the towering Glenda Jackson’s role-defining performance, the painful truth is that Sam Gold’s 'King Lear' is a hot, heavy mess. And more painful still, Jackson’s Lear fails to transcend it...Underneath the production’s winks and nods, there’s nothing there — meanwhile, the play languishes somewhere in the wings. Most distressing of all, Jackson, for all her innate and palpable power, isn’t saving it."
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"This 'Lear' is a knock-out...A production of many memorable parts and moments...Wilson's performance grows in strength and vitality and even poignance, as if Wilson and director Gold have decided that only a truly go-for-broke approach could withstand the force of nature that is Jackson. They choose wisely...Scholars have long debated on whether the Fool is actually Cordelia...Gold suggests he has the answer. It isn’t the first or last moment of truth in this extraordinary production."
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"A radical, enigmatic and uneven production that nonetheless showcases one of the great actresses of the stage, an octogenarian possessed of such energetic intensity and rhetorical accuracy as to seem almost superhuman. Jackson is a sight to behold, and to hear, in flawless rendition of the great text, which roars from her lower register like the play’s famous thunder...Gold’s 'King Lear' just has a better understanding of what needs to go than what needs to take its place."
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"Although Jackson fails to wring tears, let alone blood, from this production, the sheer intelligence of her performance makes it memorable...The supporting performances are all over the place, and the fidelity to fashionable race/gender/age-blind casting sometimes requires work to figure out who’s who...The bland staging has no discernible unity or vision, and actors rarely connect. In the end, you’re really here for Glenda Jackson...Wouldn’t have missed it for the world."
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"Gold makes a lot of audacious choices, many of which you might disagree with, but they are seldom uninteresting...Gold at times lays on this contemporary veneer a tad too thickly...But even with on-the-nose moments like this, the production still feels thematically undercooked...Still, while the ensemble doesn't feel unified, there are some standout performances, Pascal's terrific Broadway debut as Edmund among them."
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"Confoundingly muddled evening...On the evidence of this latest version, no one is going to go near this thorny brute of a play there again anytime soon. Not that Jackson isn’t an inspired choice for Lear...Little effort has gone into creating the impression that all these characters occupy the same space or to establishing with any secure command of temporal logistics where we are at any given moment."
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