Roger Rees reading The Cardinal

In the “put money in my purse!” category—money for the hotel room/plane ticket to NYC, since the event tickets are only $20—the divine Roger Rees is among the cast doing a Red Bull Theater “Revelation Reading” of Elizabethan playwright James Shirley’s The Cardinal.

Roger Rees, if the name isn’t quite a household word, was last seen in that disturbing and magically mind-bending movie about magicians, The Prestige, starring Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Michael Caine and David Bowie. Rees is probably best known, however, for his Tony (and every other award)-winning lead role in the legendary and Tony (and every other award)-winning stage production of Nicholas Nickleby back in the early Eighties. (For Clan Murphy, the well-filmed marathon production has become a staple of repeat DVD viewing—so many amazing performances!)

I confess I am ignorant about playwright James Shirley and The Cardinal. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia entry, he was “the last of the great Elizabethan dramatists linking the Golden Age with the period of the Restoration.” (See also the Wikipedia and Theatre Database entries.) The Cardinal is generally considered his masterpiece, and can be read online in The Dramatic Works and Poems of James Shirley via Google book search.

In any event, Roger Rees is one of those actors who could make The Wall Street Journal read like poetry, so if you’re in the Big Apple next week, head for the Red Bull.

And for heaven’s sake, if you haven’t seen it, check out Nicholas Nickleby!