“When Robert Newman takes the stage as King Henry II in “Lion in Winter,” the audience spontaneously applauses before he even utters a word.
And it’s well deserved.
Not just because the man himself is royalty at The Barn — having started his career more than three decades ago at the beloved summer stock theater and returned again and again throughout a fruitful stage and screen career — but also because his Henry is regal, pompous, twisted, convincing, selfish, virile, and utterly charming.
Yet a king is nothing without his queen. And fellow guest star Kim Zimmer — Newman’s four-time Emmy Award-winning costar in daytime soap opera “Guiding Light” who has also made appearances on The Barn stage for decades — is “Medea to a T” as Henry accuses her, embodying the wit, grace, devilishness, and cunning scheming of the imprisoned aging Queen Eleanor, while also inspiring sympathy. She’s terribly devious, though deliciously so.”
–Marin Heinritz Review West Michigan