The Public Theater presents William Shakespeare's King Lear, directed by Tony Award-winner James Lapine and starring Kevin Kline in the title role.

A Juilliard graduate, Kevin Kline made his Broadway debut playing Vershinin in Anton Chekhov's The Three Sisters for John Houseman's The Acting Company, of which he is a founding member. His other Broadway credits include Hal Prince's On the Twentieth Century, for which he won both a Tony and a Drama Desk Award; Michael Weller's Loose Ends; Shaw's Arms and the Man directed by John Malkovich; Gerald Gutierrez's production of Chekhov's Ivanov at Lincoln Center; and Lincoln Center Theater's production of Shakespeare's Henry IV, for which he received rave reviews and a Drama Desk award for his performance as Falstaff. Kevin Kline is the first American actor to receive the Sir John Gielgud Golden Quill Award and was recently inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame.

James Lapine is regarded as one of the preeminent artists working in the contemporary theater today. For The Public Theater, Mr. Lapine directed A Midsummer Night's Dream; The Winter's Tale; David Henry Hwang's Golden Child, which transferred to Broadway; and most recently The Public Sings: A 50th Anniversary Celebration at City Center. Other credits include Sunday in the Park with George; Into the Woods; Passion; March of the Falsettos; Falsettoland; Falsettos; The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee; Amour; The Diary of Anne Frank; and Dirty Blonde. He wrote the book and directed Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which premiered in Berlin in 1999 and ran for three years. As a playwright, he has written Table Settings (George Oppenheimer Award); Twelve Dreams (nominated for Hull, Warner Award); Luck, Pluck and Virtue; The Moment When; Fran's Bed; and Mrs. Miller Does Her Thing.