SOURCE: Evans, Greg. Review of Henry VIII. Variety 367, no. 9 (30 June 1997): 72.

In the following review of Mary Zimmerman's staging of Henry VIII in New York's Central Park, Evans lauds the period design and costumes, and assesses the main figures in the drama—King Henry, Queen Katherine, and Cardinal Wolsey—finding Josef Sommer's villainous clergyman the outstanding role.

The Public Theater's 36-play Shakespeare Marathon that Joseph Papp started nine years ago comes to a fitting end with the play that closed the Bard's stage career, Henry VIII. Rarely performed for reasons of quality (the title character is, as written, thoroughly unremarkable) and superstition (legend has it that Papp thought the play cursed since the Old Globe Theater burned down during a performance), Henry VIII certainly won't convince anyone that it's top-drawer Shakespeare, but under Mary Zimmerman's efficient, often elegant direction the play, presented outdoors in Central Park's Delacorte Theater, at...