Hamlet in the Park
It's that time of year again--Shakespeare's in the park! Last night I went to see Hamlet and totally enjoyed it. I've no idea what the reviews wll be like but if there's one thing I love it's funny!Hamlet and Michael Stuhlbarg is all about the funny. That makes it particularly hilarious that his uncle is Andre Baugher because the idea of him dealing with this kid as a stepson is just...funny.
But he definitely had some competition in scene-stealing from Sam Waterston. Okay, I adore SW in general but he was so adorable as Polonius I wanted to take him home and call him grandpa. It makes me wish Jack McCoy would walk into the courtroom one day on L&O and start crowing about tragical-comical-historical-pastoral!
The whole cast fit together really well, actually, which was nice. They particularly managed to constantly get laughs just from the way they said different characters names (I would try to explain that but you have to hear it in context.) My friend thought the beginning was a little shaky since it was very sort of stylized OTT--she thought it was very old school Hamlet, starting on a high note. But then, it does start on a high note. When Hamlet first arrived and started bawling all over the place I was worried but in the end that actually really fit since he was always swooping from one big emotion to another. He almost seemed more like his natural self when he was being mad, jumping around and randomly doing jigs all over the place.
I was trying to think of how to describe his performance and I found myself thinking this was what you might get if Sokka played Hamlet. He definitely kept my interest the whole time.
Oh, and with the duel it was wonderfully bloody. It reminded me of that scene in The Addams Family where Wednesday and Pugsley do the end scene and soak the whole audience in fake blood.
But he definitely had some competition in scene-stealing from Sam Waterston. Okay, I adore SW in general but he was so adorable as Polonius I wanted to take him home and call him grandpa. It makes me wish Jack McCoy would walk into the courtroom one day on L&O and start crowing about tragical-comical-historical-pastoral!
The whole cast fit together really well, actually, which was nice. They particularly managed to constantly get laughs just from the way they said different characters names (I would try to explain that but you have to hear it in context.) My friend thought the beginning was a little shaky since it was very sort of stylized OTT--she thought it was very old school Hamlet, starting on a high note. But then, it does start on a high note. When Hamlet first arrived and started bawling all over the place I was worried but in the end that actually really fit since he was always swooping from one big emotion to another. He almost seemed more like his natural self when he was being mad, jumping around and randomly doing jigs all over the place.
I was trying to think of how to describe his performance and I found myself thinking this was what you might get if Sokka played Hamlet. He definitely kept my interest the whole time.
Oh, and with the duel it was wonderfully bloody. It reminded me of that scene in The Addams Family where Wednesday and Pugsley do the end scene and soak the whole audience in fake blood.