Joanne Kaufman, The Wall Street Journal

March 19, 2014

With his red sneakers, loose-fitting blue trousers and scruffy beard, Michael Pennington looked rather like a vagrant as he walked through a gentrifying neighborhood here.

But perhaps that was just his way of getting into character; Mr. Pennington, 70, is playing a homeless man, an elderly imperious fellow down on his luck and down on his daughters, in the Theatre for a New Audience’s production of “King Lear,” directed by Arin Arbus. Currently in previews, it opens March 27.

Mr. Pennington isn’t exactly a household name in the U.S., except perhaps to those “Star Wars” obsessives who send fan mail hailing his performance as imperial officer Moff Jerjerrod, commanding officer of the Death Star, in “Return of the Jedi.” But in his native England he’s an acclaimed classical actor whose many stage credits include leading roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company—among them, Angelo and the Duke in “Measure for Measure”; the title roles in “Hamlet” and “Timon of Athens”; star turns in “The Madness of George III,” “The Master Builder” and “The Dance of Death.” He also frequently tours in his one-man show “Sweet Will,” a tribute to Stratford-upon-Avon’s favorite native son. […continued]

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