King John (Shakespeare’s Globe, 2015)
Time Out said:
“Alex Waldmann’s charisfamatic The Bastard works the audience nicely […]”
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Exeunt Magazine was full of praise for Alex’s performance.
“But the show belongs to Alex Waldmann as The Bastard, who gives up land and legitimacy to claim royal lineage and a knighthood, and with it the sir-name of his supposed father Richard Plantagenet. His belief in kingship over commodity, in destiny over political proficiency, and in nobility over the marriages and bartering that hide behind it, win us over easily because we are so uninspired by John. Not the Shakespeare’s typical Machiavellian Aaron or Edmund, Waldmann’s smiling unpolished Bastard nevertheless develops a similar easy complicit relationship with the audience. He is unsocialised in the ways of pomp, but he unfailingly acts with noble pride and blunt bravery, where John only chokes and cavils in response to his mother, the citizens of Angiers, and papal authority – the audience get barely a glance from him. The compelling arc of the play is watching the Bastard’s faith fail him, as he sees John (C16th spoilers ahead) succumb to an ignoble death by poison, his country torn apart in near civil war.”
From David Ralf’s four star review in Exeunt Magazine. Read the full review here.
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Sarah Hemmings four stars in the Financial Times referred to “Alex Waldmann’s enjoyable performance. .[…]. Howard Loxton in the British Theatre Guide noted that, “Alex Waldemann [sic] gives him [the Bastard] honesty and an easy rapport with the audience.”
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Dominic Cavendish in The Telegraph also gave the production four stars and says,
“The evening thrives on a dark comedy of decisions hastily taken, steadfast enmities suddenly resolved in the name of expediency, principles sacrificed – all this commented on by Falconbridge, referred to as the “Bastard”, an arch, cynical opportunist who in Alex Waldmann’s lusty, sneering performance is far more vigorously in control than Stone-Fewings’s grey-bearded, rather wan King (whose frail thread of life snaps before our eyes in a fantastic deathbed scene).”
Read the full review here.
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Fiona Mountford in The Evening Standard gave the production 4 stars.
Waldmann, previously a lively Shakespearean performer for the RSC, gives an energetic performance as this curious character […]
Read the review here.
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Stephen Collins in the British Theatre Guide gave the production 5 stars and said:
Alex Waldmann continues to increase in stature as a classical actor. He is a wonderful Bastard here – noble of spirit, courageous, rowdy, brash, quick-tongued, fiery and audacious. A Bastard’s bastard.
Read the full review here.
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Another great 4 star review in the LDNCard.com priased Alex:
The Globe’s expansive and exploratory space allows for exceptional audience interaction, which Alex Waldmann exploits as the bastard son of Richard. He doesn’t mince his words, taking centre stage through his wit and a titillating rapport he builds with the Globe’s audience. His Machiavellian monologues are echoes of Richard III and Waldmann’s ubiquitous presence is extremely likeable.
Read the review here.
King John (Shakespeare’s Globe at Holy Sepulchre Church, Northampton)
“Alex Waldmann excels as the Bastard, but his comic ability and the intimacy of his dialogue to individual members of the audience shows a touch of genius.” (The Stage)
Northampton Chronicle said:
“Perhaps the stand-out performance is by Alex Waldmann, who revels in his role as The Bastard who provides a sardonic commentary on some of the ill-advised decisions of his contemporaries.”
Read the Northampton Chronicle review here.
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Broadway World said ” Alex Waldman [sic] is a compelling presence as The Bastard”.
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The Stage gave the production five stars saying, “Alex Waldmann excels as the Bastard, but his comic ability and the intimacy of his dialogue to individual members of the audience shows a touch of genius.”
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Lyn Gardner in The Guardian noted, “Alex Waldmann, clearly limbering up for an assault on Richard III – just as many believe Shakespeare was himself doing with this play – is entertaining as the Bastard.”
Read The Guardian review here.
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The Stage Reviews described Alex as a RSC veteran, “Philip the Bastard, exhilaratingly portrayed by RSC veteran Alex Waldmann, chats his asides to the three rows of pews lining the performance space.”
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The Northampton Herald and Post were complimentary about the production of King John at the Holy Sepulchre Church. There was praise for Alex’s performance.
“The whole cast is strong with Alex Waldman [sic] as The Bastard witlessly brimming with lionhearted courage particularly eyecatching.”
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The Stage Review gave the production five stars.
“Waldmann excels as the hot-headed bastard heir who acts as narrator and rabble-rouser. When not talking to the audience, he blasts John with rhetoric in a hopeless attempt to give the king some backbone.”
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The Stage Reviews described Alex as a RSC veteran, “Philip the Bastard, exhilaratingly portrayed by RSC veteran Alex Waldmann, chats his asides to the three rows of pews lining the performance space.”
King John (Shakespeare’s Globe at Temple Church)
Five stars from The Express
“The key player here is the common man Faulconbridge, the bastard son of Richard the Lionheart and a kind of proto?Bolingbroke, fearless, tribal and a bit of a bruiser with a native intelligence.”
“… but I have never seen anything to equal this.
This is not just a great production but a major theatrical event. Don’t miss.”
Read the Review here: http://www.express.co.uk/…/REVIEW-William-Shakespeare-s-Kin…
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Quentin Letts in the Daily Mail gave the production four stars and said: “Alex Waldmann is on swashbuckling form as the Bastard, the play’s opportunistic cynic.” Read the Review here.
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The Times gave King John 4 stars. Unfortunately, the review is behind the paywall, but there is praise for Alex.
“Alex Waldmann, as the Bastard, Lionheart’s illegitimate son, supplies both swashbuckling swagger and sardonic commentary.”
Access the review here: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/…/sta…/theatre/article4419262.ece…
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Michael Coveney on What’s On Stage said: “I had a poor pew in Temple to experience the raised cruciform/ traverse staging in the nave, but not too poor to marvel at Orlando Gough’s wonderful music, or to appreciate the rich and intelligently inflected performances of RSC leading men Jo Stone-Fewings and Alex Waldmann as the King and the Bastard Faulconbridge […]”
Alex Waldmann News 