John Gielgud to Jonathan Bailey: Stars on stage in Shakespeare's 'Richard II'

Ahead of Jonathan Bailey's performance as Richard II at the Bridge Theatre, we look at other leading actors to have played the tragic medieval monarch.

He might not have been the lead in this year's season of Netflix’s Bridgerton, but all eyes were nevertheless on Jonathan Bailey as the dashing eldest son and heir Anthony, Viscount Bridgerton, back from honeymoon and blissfully in love with his new wife, Kate. The most eligible leading man of the moment, Bailey will also soon be seen as Fiyero in the hotly anticipated Wicked film, opposite Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande

In 2025, Bailey will return to the stage with a very different challenge. Swapping the Georgian era for the Plantagenet period, he takes the title role in Shakespeare’s Richard II at the Bridge Theatre, directed by Nicholas Hytner (Guys & Dolls, Giant). Following his first history play King John, Shakespeare skipped several generations to focus on Richard. The most famous passage is “Our sceptr’d isle”, though this speech goes to Richard’s uncle, John of Gaunt.

Shakespeare’s play about the ill-fated 14th-century monarch spans the last two years of Richard’s life and is written entirely in verse, employing a complex and formal structure. Shakespeare makes extensive use of soliloquies, metaphors, similes, and symbolism to explore the key theme of kingship and the complex mindset of this highly literate but ineffectual king. Many productions emphasise the character’s ambivalent sexuality.

The play has never been adapted for the big screen. However, on television, Richard was played by Derek Jacobi in the BBC Television Shakespeare project in 1978, with John Gielgud as John of Gaunt. Ben Whishaw played the role in the BBC’s The Hollow Crown in 2012. Read on to learn about some of the notable actors who have played this challenging and haunting role on stage.

Book Richard II tickets on London Theatre.

Jonathan Bailey (2025)

The aforementioned Bailey is a performer who can do it all, including classical and contemporary drama, comedy, and musicals. Bailey began his career as a child actor and successfully transitioned into adult roles. He won an Olivier Award for playing Jamie (previously Amy) in Marianne Elliott’s production of Company. Soon to be bringing his song and dance skills to the big screen as Fiyero in the Wicked movie, his talent is unlimited!

Simon Russell Beale (2019)

Although the historical Richard died at the age of 33, Simon Russell Beale was 58 when he played the role at the Almeida. The play was abridged to 100 minutes and London Theatre’s reviewer commented that the production “feels equal parts like an experimental student production and a Steven Berkoff show: highly stylised and frequently physical, as well as full of alternately raw and heightened theatrical gestures.” Russell Beale, wearing a paper gold crown and a T-shirt and jeans, played Richard “with a confiding, melancholic intensity.”

David Tennant (2013)

Gregory Doran’s first production as artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company was a serious statement of intent. Doctor Who star Tennant’s Richard appeared Christ-like with long flowing hair, dressed in white robes with a large crucifix around his neck. He was also surrounded by an outstanding supporting cast, including Michael Pennington, Oliver Ford Davies, Nigel Lindsay, and Jane Lapotaire. Tennant will reprise his Macbeth in Max Webster's production at the Harold Pinter Theatre this autumn, opposite Cush Jumbo.

Eddie Redmayne (2011)

For Michael Grandage’s swan song as artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse, Eddie Redmayne, then a rising star of stage and screen, took the title role. Redmayne’s angelic appearance highlighted Richard’s youth and fragility in a production that was encased in elaborate ritual.

Mark Rylance (2003)

The mercurial monarch was the perfect fit for the ever quirky Mark Rylance, then artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe. London Theatre’s critic commented that "Beplumed and lavishly attired, his monarch is a mischievous, capricious figure whose political favours show whim rather than wisdom and whose callous indifference to the death of his uncle John of Gaunt has rarely been better conveyed. Rylance seems a natural for the melancholy king who gains in dramatic sympathy as the rudder of his kingdom swings in favour of the headstrong Bolingbroke."

Fiona Shaw (1995)

A woman playing a king? Deborah Warner’s National Theatre production starring Fiona Shaw caused quite a stir in the mid-1990s when concepts of gender fluidity were less widely discussed than they are today, with one reviewer disparagingly comparing it to a production staged by a girls’ boarding school. A film version was later broadcast, allowing a wider audience to experience this experimental take.

Ian McKellen (1968)

Richard II can be a real breakthrough role for some actors – including Ian McKellen, who played the role for the touring company Prospect Theatre. The production alternated with Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II, in which McKellen also played the title role. McKellen explained that the Dalai Lama was an inspiration for his characterisation of "a medieval king who thought he was God."

John Gielgud (1929)

During his first season at the Old Vic, John Gielgud's roles included Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, and the title role in Richard II. The latter established him as a major Shakespearean talent and helped to bring the play back into favour. The unfortunate Richard II was an auspicious figure in Gielgud's career. In 1932, he played the same monarch in Richard of Bordeaux by Gordon Daviot (a pen name of Elizabeth MacKintosh, best known for her detective novels as Josephine Tey), a romanticised version of Richard’s life in which the characters spoke in modern English. The play cemented Gielgud’s status as a leading West End box office star.

Book Richard II tickets on London Theatre.