The Lion in Winter Audiobook By James Goldman cover art

The Lion in Winter

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The Lion in Winter

By: James Goldman
Narrated by: Alfred Molina, Kathleen Chalfant, Full Cast
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Insecure siblings fighting for their parents' attention; bickering spouses who can't stand to be together or apart; adultery and sexual experimentation; even the struggle to balance work and family. These are themes as much at home in our time as they were in the twelfth century. In James Goldman's classic play The Lion in Winter, domestic turmoil rises to an art form.

Keenly self-aware and motivated as much by spite as by any sense of duty, Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine maneuver against each other to position their favorite son in line for succession. By imagining the inner lives of Henry, Eleanor, and their sons, John, Geoffrey, and Richard, Goldman created the quintessential drama of family strife and competing ambitions, a work that gives visceral, modern-day relevance to the intrigues of Angevin England.Combining keen historical and psychological insight with delicious, mordant wit, the stage play has become a touchstone of today's theater scene, and Goldman's screenplay for the 1968 film adaptation won him an Academy Award.

(P)2005 L.A. Theatre Works. All Rights Reserved. Ancient, Classical & Medieval Literature Drama Genre Fiction Literary Fiction United States World Literature Fiction Classics

Critic reviews

"[A] classic tale of deep family dysfunction and Machiavelli-level intrigue....Witty and wrenching, full of dagger-sharp quips and veiled motives." (The Boston Globe)

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Where does The Lion in Winter (Dramatized) rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This dramatization of the play was well done, made me wish I were seeing it rather than just hearing it.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Lion in Winter (Dramatized)?

There were several witty quotes, my favorite being "I'm villifying you for God's sake, pay attention."

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The different actors helped to give each character depth, and brought some of the history into the story.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

And you thought your family was bad!

Any additional comments?

Dramatization is not my favorite medium, but this was well done.

Clever and Witty

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great. story...Peter. O'Toole and Katherine Hepburn cannot be replaced however. Still a great yarn however

Magnificent

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This is a live recording of a play starring Alfred Molina, And a bunch of other theatrical heavyweights. The play tells the story of king Henry trying to determine who will be the successor to his throne. The play tells the story of king Henry trying to determine who will be the successor to his throneThe play tells the story of king Henry trying to determine who will be the successor to his throne. The dialogue is snappy and sizzling in the characters are evil, soulless and fun.

Masterful! Alfred Molina at his best.

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it's Charming witty dramatic comedic and Rife with memorable lines. one of my favorites is quote love in a world where Carpenters get Resurrected anything's possible. in my theatrical life I've had the opportunity to play Geoffrey twice and Henry once. it's a play that I will go out of my way to see at every opportunity.

one of the best plays ever.

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Once you’ve seen Peter O’Toole and Katherine Hepburn do it the way it should be done, anything else necessarily pales in comparison. Most of the lines feel rushed, and the audience laughter is a bit off-putting. Yes, some of the lines are humorous, but the general overall seriousness of the story makes it seem out of place.

It’s good, but

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I love this play. My favorite adaptation is the one with Katherine Hepburn. All the actors in that adaptation are wonderful. I love the wittedness of the lines and the setting. In a violent time, Henry has discovered peace, but he won’t be able to hold it together. After he dies, Richard is made king but spends all his time in the holy land, fighting and leaves John to reign. And john is even a worse leader than trump is. So Henry’s kingdom is gradually lost, bit by bit. You wonder if any of them love each other or only power. The legend has it that eleanor offered rosemund a choice. Either poison or a knife .

Lion in winter

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Amazing performances by the whole cast. Molina shines as Henry and the sparkling dialogue is delivered expertly.

What a treat to listen to - highly recommended

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The Lion In Winter is a good but strange play. Comedy and drama, well done pathos and witty repartee, flip back and forth every few minutes. It seems to consciously run on mood whiplash. The play is packed with excellent and memorable dialogue, but to its own detriment. The constant need to be oh-so-clever saps any building emotional pressure. As the original title is “The Lion In Winter: A Comedy In Two Acts”, I suppose that was intentional, though I feel it was a mistake. Still, it’s very entertaining, if a bit more lightweight than it need be.

I think the best performance here was Chalfant as Eleanor. I felt that she approached Hepburn’s acting in the 1968 film. Molina would be my second pick for his solid but toned-down Henry II. The rest did their jobs well enough. Laurel Moglen’s Alais is one of those top-and-bottom things: top, because she nailed the character; bottom, because Alais is so weepily cringe that I wanted to pull earbuds whenever she started talking.

The only thing wrong with this production is that it’s not the film. It can’t possibly BE the film. The film had a legendary cast acting the scenes separately with the best takes making it into the final product. No set of theatre actors, doing it all in one go, is going to out-perform that, and for Molina’s sake I’m glad he didn’t try. If he spent ninety minutes screaming like O’Toole, he’d have a stroke and die.

Both this play and the film cover the same material, but the film is better acted and can be rented a few bucks cheaper. No slight to this production, but unless you need it in pure audio format, I’d watch the film.

Solid Reading, buuuut….

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I had thought that this play was so well-written that any reading would be wonderful.... I was wrong. This recording cannot begin to compare to Peter O'Toole's and Katherine Hepburn's Henry and Eleanor. What particularly hurt this recording was Eleanor's timing - so much was missed.

Falls flat

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