Henry Viii

The set for the Royal Shakespeare Company production of Henry VIII, on view through Sunday at the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theatre, isn't much to look at, merely an open stage backed by a large portal inscribed with the legend "All Is True" - which happens to be both the play's subtitle and a reasonably accurate characterization of its content. Now and then, however, the portal gates swing open in a blaze of gold to disgorge the king or some other exalted personage, advancing toward the audience in a swirl of pomp.

For The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), Charles Laughton earned stardom - and an Oscar. As the libertine king who beheads his second wife, Anne Boleyn (Merle Oberon), and acquires four more, Laughton carries on with saucy wit. How many actors can profess love, arrange said love object's decapitation and post the banns for his third marriage all in a blink of a heavy-lidded eye? Laughton's real-life spouse, Elsa Lanchester, makes a coyly amusing Anne of Cleves. Henry VIII is co-billed with As You Like It (1936)

In a sport once played by kings, most notably Henry VIII of England, Wayne Davies yesterday extended his reign as the world's court tennis champion to a fifth successive year. Davies, head pro at the New York Racquet and Tennis Club, won two of three sets yesterday at the New York club to complete his three-day title defense against Lachland Deuchar of London. Davies was the first player to win seven sets, defeating Deuchar in the challenge series, 7 sets to 4.

The Sir Thomas More that playwright Robert Bolt creates in his powerful play A Man for All Seasons is the person all of us at one time or another in the course of our petty lives have dreamed of being. Here is as a man who stood on principle, who followed the dictates of his conscience to the point of defying a king so determinedly that he went to his execution rather than recant. He was a chancellor of England who resigned rather than help Henry VIII get church approval for divorcing his first wife and who then refused to sign an oath affirming Henry's supremacy over the Church of England.

Right now, right this very nanosecond, we've arrived at a watershed moment in history. Not in culture. Not in politics, obviously. But in gossip. Sheer, adulterated gossip. We're talking Sly Stallone and Cornelia Guest. We're talking Barbra Streisand and Don Johnson. We're talking Molly Ringwald and Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz. We're talking - oh, no! - Couples From Hell. They aren't like other couples. They're like no one you live near or work with or are even distantly related to. These aren't matches made in Pennsylvania or New Jersey or even northern New Jersey.

It has been reported by the Chicago Tribune that our city has gone "gaga" over the visit of Princess Diana. Other news outlets have described it as widespread giddiness, hysteria and other forms of heart-pounding, wide-eyed excitement. I won't argue with this analysis, because we all know that the popular news media are seldom anything but cool-headed, accurate and precise. But I must have a tepid-blooded, unexcitable circle of acquaintances and readers, since I haven't found one who has shown any symptoms of Dianamania.

Elsa Lanchester, the elfin actress who portrayed "The Bride of Frankenstein," and who was paired with husband Charles Laughton in 1930s films like "The Private Life of Henry VIII" and "Rembrandt," died yesterday. She was 84. Lanchester died of bronchiopneumonia at the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, said hospital spokeswoman Jean Ferris. Incapacitated by heart problems since suffering a stroke in 1984, Lanchester was admitted to the hospital Dec. 17, Ferris said.

Frank Langella's shift from Richard Nixon (he won a 2007 Tony for Frost/Nixon) to Thomas More, the man Samuel Johnson called "the person of greatest virtue these islands ever produced" is quite a demonstration of theatrical as well as moral range. Robert Bolt's 1960 A Man for All Seasons is a play about virtue; the problem - met handsomely in this Broadway revival directed by Doug Hughes - is how to portray such a virtuous person without making him seem self-righteous, how to make us admire his decision to die rather than to compromise his conscience.

IT'S OFFICIAL, the Grand Ole Opry needs a sense of humor. A small Mobile, Ala., theater troupe has got a much-needed hit with its original musical, "Henry the 8th at the Grand Ole Opry. " The show makes Henry VIII the king of country music. It's set in a barn, with a stage announcer and sponsor advertisements like those on the "Grand Ole Opry. " Henry's six wives tell his story through lyrics set to the music of country songs, including the hits "Hey Good Lookin'," "I Fall to Pieces," "Stand By Your Man" and "Help Me Make It Through the Night.

"Soft and gentle as a whisper" his brogue. So said the Irish Times admiringly a year or so ago. But Dermott Clifford, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cashel and Emly, was anything but whispery in the wake of the Irish electorate's overwhelming repudiation of divorce June 28. And Dublin's pro-divorce press, the Irish Times included, was anything but admiring as Clifford blasted The Irish Independent for "straining so much for divorce that it developed...

Frank Langella's shift from Richard Nixon (he won a 2007 Tony for Frost/Nixon) to Thomas More, the man Samuel Johnson called "the person of greatest virtue these islands ever produced" is quite a demonstration of theatrical as well as moral range. Robert Bolt's 1960 A Man for All Seasons is a play about virtue; the problem - met handsomely in this Broadway revival directed by Doug Hughes - is how to portray such a virtuous person without making him seem self-righteous, how to make us admire his decision to die rather than to compromise his conscience.

Conventional wisdom on Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII and mother of Elizabeth I, generally focuses on three points. That she persuaded Henry to break with the Vatican so he could divorce Catherine of Aragon and marry her. That by withholding her sexual favors she won the crown. And that by not delivering Henry a male heir she lost her head. Of that other Boleyn girl, Mary, Anne's sister, less is known. Most historians agree that she was Henry's mistress and some say that she was likewise involved with the French monarch Francois I. Lack of available facts makes it easier to reclaim Mary as a heroine who owns her own sexuality and her own heart.

IT'S OFFICIAL, the Grand Ole Opry needs a sense of humor. A small Mobile, Ala., theater troupe has got a much-needed hit with its original musical, "Henry the 8th at the Grand Ole Opry. " The show makes Henry VIII the king of country music. It's set in a barn, with a stage announcer and sponsor advertisements like those on the "Grand Ole Opry. " Henry's six wives tell his story through lyrics set to the music of country songs, including the hits "Hey Good Lookin'," "I Fall to Pieces," "Stand By Your Man" and "Help Me Make It Through the Night.

The set for the Royal Shakespeare Company production of Henry VIII, on view through Sunday at the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theatre, isn't much to look at, merely an open stage backed by a large portal inscribed with the legend "All Is True" - which happens to be both the play's subtitle and a reasonably accurate characterization of its content. Now and then, however, the portal gates swing open in a blaze of gold to disgorge the king or some other exalted personage, advancing toward the audience in a swirl of pomp.

It has been reported by the Chicago Tribune that our city has gone "gaga" over the visit of Princess Diana. Other news outlets have described it as widespread giddiness, hysteria and other forms of heart-pounding, wide-eyed excitement. I won't argue with this analysis, because we all know that the popular news media are seldom anything but cool-headed, accurate and precise. But I must have a tepid-blooded, unexcitable circle of acquaintances and readers, since I haven't found one who has shown any symptoms of Dianamania.

In a sport once played by kings, most notably Henry VIII of England, Wayne Davies yesterday extended his reign as the world's court tennis champion to a fifth successive year. Davies, head pro at the New York Racquet and Tennis Club, won two of three sets yesterday at the New York club to complete his three-day title defense against Lachland Deuchar of London. Davies was the first player to win seven sets, defeating Deuchar in the challenge series, 7 sets to 4.

Right now, right this very nanosecond, we've arrived at a watershed moment in history. Not in culture. Not in politics, obviously. But in gossip. Sheer, adulterated gossip. We're talking Sly Stallone and Cornelia Guest. We're talking Barbra Streisand and Don Johnson. We're talking Molly Ringwald and Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz. We're talking - oh, no! - Couples From Hell. They aren't like other couples. They're like no one you live near or work with or are even distantly related to. These aren't matches made in Pennsylvania or New Jersey or even northern New Jersey.

To lift one's eyes (and spirits) for a moment from the summit, hear this. A Cambridge, Mass., research organization weighs in with the most startling datum. It is that men and women who live together before marriage (judging from a Swedish sample) have a higher divorce rate than men and women who do not. By 80 percent. The only inference given over the news broadcast as to why this should be so is that perhaps those couples who did not cohabit before marriage held the institution in greater respect.

The Sir Thomas More that playwright Robert Bolt creates in his powerful play A Man for All Seasons is the person all of us at one time or another in the course of our petty lives have dreamed of being. Here is as a man who stood on principle, who followed the dictates of his conscience to the point of defying a king so determinedly that he went to his execution rather than recant. He was a chancellor of England who resigned rather than help Henry VIII get church approval for divorcing his first wife and who then refused to sign an oath affirming Henry's supremacy over the Church of England.

Elsa Lanchester, the elfin actress who portrayed "The Bride of Frankenstein," and who was paired with husband Charles Laughton in 1930s films like "The Private Life of Henry VIII" and "Rembrandt," died yesterday. She was 84. Lanchester died of bronchiopneumonia at the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, said hospital spokeswoman Jean Ferris. Incapacitated by heart problems since suffering a stroke in 1984, Lanchester was admitted to the hospital Dec. 17, Ferris said.