What Is It With This Dizzy Queen????????????????????????

                             When I read Ben Brantley's review, this morning, of the Delacorte's "King Lear," I wanted to smack him across the face!  Every time I said this to someone, so far, it was suggested I was not alone.

                               You have to wonder about Brantley's position at the Times.  After all, Jill Abramson was fired because the good ole straight boys at the Times felt she was castrating them by the balls. Maybe they needed to be!  Brantley certainly does not fit that straight boy mold--are you kidding????--not to mention he is plug ugly, just one step up from Rondo Hatton as "The Creeper."

                                So, what is he doing, saying Annette Bening's delivery as Goneril is "like a high school valedictorian at a poetry reading competition?"  And referring to Jessica Hecht as a finely nuanced actress,(which she is!!!!!!) but not here?????????????  John Lithgow is the only one who comes off well here; who would dare criticize the magnificent work he does as Lear?  And Jessica Collins' Cordelia does have some spine,as I said, so don't be fooled by Brantley's musings.

                                  Which brings me back to the question of what he is doing at The Times. He is their one sign of political correctness--that they can be PC enough to hire a gay drama critic. Even if he is in the closet?????   A gay drama critic?  Wow, what a novelty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                    There is nothing novel about that, just like there is nothing novel about Brantley's remarks, which are more withering than pithy.  Not to mention displaying a lack of insight or awareness about this work, which, as I have said, is not only the foundation of family dynamics, but is the cornerstone for all family drama to follow.

                                      Why doesn't Brantley get a face lift, like Joan Rivers? Or, better yet, put a paper bag over his head??????????

                                        For what this production REALLY is, go back to my earlier post on the show.

                                         Lear says, famously, "How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is, to have a thankless child."   Let me revise that to "How useless for The New York Times to have so unworthy a drama
critic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

                                         Go to  'Lear,' girls!  At once!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!