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Hamlet Hits Broadway: Jude Law Leads the Latest Broadway Adaptation to Mixed Results

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Hamlet (Law, right) has a conversation with his father’s ghost (Peter Eyre, left) in Broadway’s most recent adaptation of “Hamlet.” | Photo courtesy of Hamlet Broadway

Robert Mathis ’10
Staff Writer

Hamlet (Law, right) has a conversation with his father's ghost (Peter Eyre, left) in Broadway's most recent adaptation of "Hamlet." | Photo courtesy of Hamlet Broadway
Hamlet (Law, right) has a conversation with his father's ghost (Peter Eyre, left) in Broadway's most recent adaptation of "Hamlet." | Photo courtesy of Hamlet Broadway

O villainy! Who doth have the misjudgement or fortitude to slay the classic tale of “Hamlet” and entrust the immortal role to that foul beast Jude Law? To answer my own question in a more modern format of the English language, someone who knows what they’re doing.

William Shakespeare’s classic tale of murder and madness, “Hamlet,” has been recently revived in London’s West End and the cast of this production—including notable actor Jude Law in the title role—has begun a 12 week limited run at the Broadhurst Theater on Broadway.

Before I proceed, I think it’s fair that I establish two important points for those of you that need to brush up on your Shakespeare: one, the role of Hamlet is considered the ultimate challenge for a male actor, and two, “Hamlet” is frequently regarded as Shakespeare’s finest work. So if you’re going to put on a production of “Hamlet,” you’ve got quite a task ahead of you.

Let’s be honest: at first glance, one would expect that the whole project is riding on Jude Law’s charm.

The central gimmick of the play’s entire marketing campaign was not the fact that it’s a revival of “Hamlet,” but more like a new play entitled Jude Law as Hamlet. But I found that what translated onto the stage was not Jude Law, the perennial regular on People Magazine’s “Sexiest Men Alive” list, but Jude Law, the talented, versatile, and well–trained actor.

In fact, the whole production was a pleasantly surprising, captivating experience, with Law leading the pack to eventual victory.

In all honesty, there is little wrong with Law’s performance. Even coming down to his physicality and his choices of movement, his prior training in theater is obvious. It is ultimately his sheer boldness in the part of Hamlet, that won my favor.

He is not afraid to present a bit of a departure from the traditional Hamlet; he was certainly less compassionate and more sarcastic than past performances of the character. It all fell into place so majestically by the play’s close. When he lamented poor Yorrick, everybody else did as well.

This is not to neglect the rest of the talent in the production, thought it can be said that there was a broad range of talent. Ron Cook had moments where he completely stole the show from Law (and everybody else, for that matter,) as the part of Polonius, the chief counselor to the king. Also of note was Kevin R. McNally, better known as Gibbs from the “Pirates of the Caribbean” series, stepping into the role of King Claudius. His performance was not particularly strong, but he captured the part with dignity and presence.

Then we have the weaker performances, namely Gugu Mbatha–Raw in the role of Ophelia. She had a habit of drowning the energy on the stage. During one scene she had with Hamlet, I found myself not watching her perform, but trying to figure out how they made the snow in the background come down instead.

In fact, several of the casting decisions appeared flawed. Now, the performances don’t have to be revolutionary, but at the very least, some of them should have been more memorable.

Which leads me to my next point regarding the play: the success of the technical aspects, specifically the lighting and set design.

Under the direction of lighting designer Neil Austin, the play presented a wholly original and ingeniously effective method of marrying the lighting and the stage. The play was presented with an enormous castle set consisting of three walls with considerably large windows from the left and right sides—through which the lighting for the stage would pour into the room. Both worked to recreate Hamlet’s world and captivating the audience in the process.

Shakespeare tells us “Brevity is the soul of wit.” Perhaps the company should have adhered more to that belief. The biggest issue with this production is not necessarily the length, but the fact that portions of the play felt long.

The play did tend to deviate into the realms of boredom, perhaps by a lack of stronger casting. There was one scene where I felt my eyes slowly beginning to close as I prepared to fall asleep. Cuts have to be made when performing Shakespeare to keep the audience captivated, but despite the length of nearly three and a half hours, it should not have felt this long.

Nevertheless, I consider this relatively negligible. Director Michael Grandage’s interpretation of the classic drama Hamlet is not ideal, but it does showcase several notable performances as well as boast an incredibly successful performance in the technical aspect of the play. So, let’s return to our earlier points.

Yes, Jude Law surmounted the challenge. Yes, the play, in many ways, meets the quality of Shakespeare’s original text. And yes, the classic tale of a murder most foul is warmly welcomed back to Broadway, or at least by this young theater–goer.

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    SandyNov 14, 2009 at 2:23 pm

    I have to take exception to the comments about the play seeming too long. I saw it three times so far, two in London and one on Broadway. In all three performances that I attended the three and one-half hour performance passed like a quick hour and never became a chore to watch. Admittedly the show was centered strongly on Jude Law's performance because you simply cannot take your eyes off him since there is so much he is doing that is new and different and draws you in to this study of the complexities of the 'sweet prince'of Denmark. a young man with the ipetuous nature of a y9uhg man whoi faces a plot and a problem that attacks his entire future – how shoud he react? Dissappearing into a corner is totally inapropriate and he attepts to rectify whqat has happened to his family. Put in simpler terms it all plays out registering the hukanity Shakespear found in all his characters and especially i this oe.

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