Jonathan Bailey (our hearthrob-de-jour) swaps the big screen to be a KIng on the London Stage

Most of the Queerguru Team think their colleague Contributing Editor Andrew Hebden has won the equivalent of a queer lottery. Why?  Because very soon he will be getting a close up view of our hearthrob-du-jour Jonathan Bailey as he performs RICHARD II live on stage in London. The Bridgerton and Wicked actor will star  in an exciting new production of the famed Shakespeare history directed by Nicholas Hytner, who was previously director of London’s National Theatre .

If you are not up on your classics that we should tell you that the play is a masterful and suspense-filled exploration of the themes of both power and plotting. In the presence of King Richard, Henry Bolingbroke accuses Thomas Mowbray (Duke of Norfolk) of embezzling crown funds and of plotting the death of his uncle, the Duke of Gloucester. And in addition to Jonathan, Royce Pierreson, who starred in The Witcher and will play Henry Bolingbrook, plus Olivia Popica who starred in The Wheel of Time and Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald will play Queen Isabel. Phoenix Di Sebastiani from The Great and Top Boy will play Thomas Mowbray and Groom. Meanwhile here’s a glimpse of them all in rehearsal

Jonathan (we would never dare address him as Bailey) has a gap in his schedule at the moment after the release of Wicked and having just wrapped up filming Jurassic World Rebirth, alongside Scarlett Johansson. So he hwas swapped  dinosaurs for dukes  but this is by no means his first time doing the classsics having played Edgar opposite none other than Sir Ian McKellen in King Lear in 2017.

Last night in the UK Jonathan was on the Graham Norton TV Show ostensibly to talk about Richard II  (its most famous line being a horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!) so it wasnt a total surprise that he ended up talking about one of the loves of his life : Jack 

Actually Jack is not the only ‘love’ of this life but when the Evening Stanfard recently brought uo the topic in a recent interview he confirmed that he does have a partner, who he described as a “lovely man”. “It’s not secret, but it’s private,” he explained of the relationship.“Having a private life is, for me, completely critical. I don’t know if I would be able to be as confident to speak out on other things if I felt that my whole life was up for grabs.”

And while he  has kept his romantic life under wraps during his rise to stardom, he has been romantically linked with actor James Ellis in the past.  

Watch this space maybe in his review of Richard II , our Andrew Hebden will be able to reveal all.

Richard II

Mon 10 February – Sat 10 May 2025

https://bridgetheatre.co.uk/whats-on/richard-ii/

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