He’s more sinned against than sinning — but the age-addled monarch can sure gather a mob.
Theatergoers lined up early to snag free tickets for “King Lear” starring John Lithgow in the title role and Annette Bening as his greedy and shrewd firstborn, Goneril.
At the front of the line for the tragedy premiering tonight at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park: Tom Robinson, who lives on the upper West Side not far from the theater. He queured up at 11 p.m. on Monday.
By 6:40 a.m. 87 people snaked behind him, seated on chairs, blankets and on the ground for the free tickets. An hour later, the line had more than tripled and continued to swell. Hundreds cooled their heels until noon when tickets are given out.
“King Lear” revivals are as frequent as summer rains, but for New Yorkers, the Shakespearean tale of a doddering monarch and his conniving daughters remains a must-see. Others admitted, however, that the fault was not in ourselves but in the play’s stars.
Jonathan Green, an “actor-screenwriter-playwright” who moved to New York from Kentucky three years ago, said he can’t wait to see Lithgow, a classically trained actor best known for the TV sitcom, “Third Rock from the Sun,” scale the thespian Everest.
Others said they’d stand on line for hours to see Bening make her return to the New York stage for the first time since “Coastal Disturbances” in the 1980s.
“Bening is going to be fierce,” said Holly Freeman, 59, a nurse visiting from Cincinnati.
Others said they didn’t care who was on stage. They just wanted to be part of this annual summer time ritual.
“I’d be here if you were playing Lear,” one man told me (note to self: take acting lessons). “But maybe I wouldn’t get on line this early.”
Free tickets are handed out at noon on a first-come basis in the Public Theater’s summertime ritual that’s thing going on for more than half a century.
“King Lear” runs through Aug. 17 at the Delacorte Theater. For information go to publictheater.org. jdziemianowicz@nydailynews.com
