Solid Revival Gives ‘Lion’ a Lot of Bite

“Henry, I have a confession,” Eleanor of Aquitaine says to her husband, King Henry II. “I don’t much like our children.”

That line, from “The Lion in Winter,” always draws a laugh, and the laugh is always tempered by understanding--for the audience sees full well that Eleanor and Henry’s greedy, duplicitous, rage-filled children are exactly what Mommy and Daddy have made them.

James Goldman’s 1966 play does a particularly good job of reminding us that the family is the cradle of the world--that what children learn at home today determines what they will make of the Earth tomorrow. Its lessons, delivered in one priceless witticism after another, go a long way toward explaining why this show is so endlessly revived, and why the 1968 Katharine Hepburn-Peter O’Toole movie version still makes for mighty fun viewing.

The current revival comes courtesy of McCoy Rigby Entertainment at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, and it’s a solid, entertaining production, directed by Richard Seyd and starring a fine pair of Southland actors, Mariette Hartley and Tony Amendola, as Eleanor and Henry.

The show didn’t register as powerfully as it could have at Saturday’s opening, however. Perhaps it was the opening-night jitters that caused liquid to slosh out of wine goblets and swords to clatter clumsily to the floor. Perhaps it was the fact that the actors playing the three sons looked so unlike one another as to unintentionally prove Henry’s accusations of Eleanor’s monstrous infidelity.

Or, perhaps, it was that, fine as Goldman’s script is, it has been staged one too many times, and, skilled as this production is, it does little to distinguish itself from the others.

The year is 1183, and Henry II has amassed a kingdom that includes England and almost all of what is now western France, as well as Ireland, Scotland and Wales. His family is jealous of his absolute power, however, and Eleanor and most of his sons have already gone to war against him. At a tense family Christmas reunion, Henry and Eleanor squabble over which son will inherit the throne.

Hartley is shrewd, rude and imperious; yet, at telling moments, a worried look creeps onto her face and a nervous hand rubs her chin. Her Eleanor is a rich, complex and very human character. So, too, is Amendola’s Henry, who--though prone to swagger and bluster--can be reduced to frustrated wails.

Despite their physical miscasting, the sons also impress, particularly Jamison Jones as the haughty, quicksilver man-child who fully lives up to the nickname of Richard the Lion-Hearted.

In John Iacovelli’s set design, the stone walls of Henry’s castle are as gray and cold as the characters’ souls. The atmosphere is further chilled by Martin Aronstein’s icy lighting, with Shigeru Yaji’s richly colored, sumptuously brocaded costumes providing the only warmth.

* “The Lion in Winter,” La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, 14900 La Mirada Blvd. Tuesdays-Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 2:30 and 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Ends Nov. 22. $34. (562) 944-9801 or (714) 994-6310. Running time: 2 hours, 35 minutes.

Mariette Hartley: Eleanor

Tony Amendola: Henry

Jamison Jones: Richard

Matthew Boston: Geoffrey

Adam Gordon: John

Justine Boyriven: Alais

Michael DeGood: Philip

A La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts and McCoy Rigby Entertainment production. Written by James Goldman. Directed by Richard Seyd. Set: John Iacovelli. Costumes: Shigeru Yaji. Lights: Martin Aronstein. Sound: Julie Ferrin. Stage manager: Elsbeth M. Collins.