Annette Bening, Jessica Hecht & Jessica Collins Will Join John Lithgow in Shakespeare in the Park's King Lear

The speculation was true! Annette Bening, along with Jessica Hecht and Jessica Collins, will play the daughters of the previously announced John Lithgow in the Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park production of King Lear. Tony winner Daniel Sullivan will direct the Shakespeare classic about a King who loses everything after disowning his favorite daughter. The play will run from July 22 through August 17 at the Delacorte Theater with opening night set for August 5.

Bening earned a Tony nod for her performance in Coastal Disturbances. She has also appeared on stage in Medea and The Female of the Species. She received Oscar nominations for her roles in the films The Kids Are All Right, Being Julia, American Beauty and The Grifters.

Hecht received a Tony nomination for her performance in the recent revival of A View From the Bridge. She has also appeared on Broadway in The Assembled Parties, Harvey, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Julius Caesar, After The Fall and The Last Night of Ballyhoo.

Collins’ stage credits include Les Liaisons Dangereuses on Broadway, as well as We Live Here and Manic Flight Recation.

In addition to Lithgow as Lear, Bening as Goneril, Hecht as Regan and Collins as Cordelia, the cast will include Jeremy Bobb as Oswald, Steven Boyer as Fool, Glenn Fleshler as Cornwall, Slate Holmgren as the King of France, Christopher Innvar as Albany, Chukwudi Iwuji as Edgar, Clarke Peters as Gloucester, Dale Place as Old Man and Curan, Jay O. Sanders as Kent and Eric Sheffer Stevens as Edmund. The non-equity ensemble will include Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Andrew Burnap, Christopher Ghaffari, Ryan-James Hatanaka, Matt Helm, Dave Klasko and Phillip Shinn.

King Lear will feature scenic design by John Lee Beatty, costume design by Susan Hilferty, lighting design by Jeff Croiter, sound design by ACME Sound Partners and original music by Dan Moses Schreier.