HAMLET Reviews

[LimelightMike]

Posted: 10/6/09 at 2:18am

Post 'em here!

The acclaimed Donmar Warehouse dark and wintry production of Hamlet, under the direction of Michael Grandage, opens at Broadway's Broadhurst Theatre tonight, having begun preview performances at the venue on September 12th.

This newest incarnation comes to the Broadhurst Theatre following recent engagements in London and Kronberg Castle in Elsinore, the town in eastern Denmark, where the play is set. The Broadway cast features members of the London and Elsinore casts, with Jude Law in the title role.

Hamlet will play a limited 12-week engagement, to Dec. 6.

The absolute to cast and crew!

Best,
- Mike

[LearnToBounce]

Posted: 10/6/09 at 6:54pm

Variety is Negative:

"The castle at Elsinore, in director Michael Grandage's stolid "Hamlet," is a towering mausoleum. Designer Christopher Oram has built monolithic marbled walls pierced by lofty windows through which Neil Austin pours shards of dungeon-like light. The austere stage pictures are arresting, as is the presence of sinewy Jude Law in a series of skinny knits and rumpled raincoats in grim shades from gray through black. However, the cohesiveness of the production's mostly monochromatic visual scheme is not matched by similar consistency of concept or emotional depth. It's an accessible presentation, but rarely exciting and even less often moving."

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117941322.html?categoryid=33&cs=1

[LearnToBounce]

Posted: 10/6/09 at 7:30pm

The Associated Press is Positive:

"He rants. He rails. He seizes Shakespeare's most famous play by its well-known soliloquies and doesn't let go. The actor's turbocharged performance as the anguished Danish prince is not particularly subtle, but it's well-spoken and clear. And eminently watchable.

Sort of like the rest of the stylish Donmar Warehouse production of "Hamlet," which arrived Tuesday on Broadway after engagements in London and Denmark's Kronborg Castle in Elsinore (the setting of the play)."

http://cbs4denver.com/wireapentertainment/A.well.spoken.2.1231915.html

[LearnToBounce]

Posted: 10/6/09 at 7:33pm

Backstage is Negative:

"The Donmar Warehouse production of "Hamlet" opens with a spotlight on Jude Law, crouching and anguished in darkness. It's a striking image, created by Neil Austin's imaginative lighting and enhanced by the haunting music of Adam Cork. Unfortunately, it's also a metaphor for Michael Grandage's unbalanced staging: a brilliant star surrounded by bleak nothingness. While Law gives a muscular, intelligent performance in the most challenging role in world literature, the supporting cast and the director's concept barely register.

That's a shame, because Law is a Hamlet to remember, bringing exciting physical life to each line and gesture. This dynamic film star proves he's more than just a pretty face as he invests Hamlet's quest for revenge with an intellectual vigor and an athletic attack."

http://www.backstage.com/bso/reviews-ny-theatre-broadway/ny-review-hamlet-1004019068.story

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 10/6/09 at 7:35pm

Variety hit the nail on the head.

[LearnToBounce]

Posted: 10/6/09 at 10:02pm

The Village Voice is Very Negative:

"Jude Law is an exciting and valuable actor. He brings a tremendous vital energy to the role of Hamlet, his choppy speech rhythms engaging in what sometimes seems like hand-to-hand combat with Shakespeare's metrics... In a real production, he could be one of the great Hamlets, but the sorry news is that Michael Grandage's dismaying, affectless plod-through, which features the dullest supporting cast I have ever seen in any Broadway production of anything, has no more to do with Shakespeare's Hamlet than a paint-by-numbers kit has to do with Rembrandt."

http://www.villagevoice.com/2009-10-06/theater/superior-donuts-peddles-stale-product-one-of-mamet-s-two-unrelated-plays-relates-hamlet-s-only-word-is-law/

[LearnToBounce]

Posted: 10/6/09 at 10:07pm

USA Today gives the show 4 Stars out of 4:

"Directors have taken all kinds of liberties with Shakespeare through the years, with widely ranging results. The last Broadway production of Macbeth, in 2008, set the Scottish play in an unnamed Stalinist state. In a recent off-Broadway staging of Othello, the actors chatted on cellphones.

Michael Grandage, the artistic director of London's Donmar Warehouse, saw no need for such creative indulgences in tackling another iconic tragedy.

Grandage's Hamlet... which opened Tuesday at the Broadhurst Theatre, is pure enough to satisfy the most reactionary scholar. It's also as brave, beautiful and robustly exciting a reading of this play as you're likely to see."

http://www.usatoday.com/life/theater/reviews/2009-10-06-hamlet_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

[LearnToBounce]

Posted: 10/6/09 at 10:12pm

The New York Daily News gives the show 4 1/2 Stars out of 5:

"In a bright stroke, Hamlet declares his rancor for the marriage of his mother, Gertrude (Geraldine James, elegant, even in death) to his uncle Claudius (Kevin R. McNally) with some hostile redecoration. Who knew the dour Dane could be so amusing, if briefly?

The company of players from London is filled with topnotch actors who deliver the text with bell-like clarity. Gugu Mbatha-Raw is lovely and touching as Ophelia, while Gwilym Lee makes a fiery Laertes. Ron Cook impresses twice, in a clever doubling of roles. He's endearing Polonius and the no-nonsense gravedigger who buries Ophelia.

Of course, every "Hamlet" rises or falls with its leading man, and Law holds you rapt in this new production. He may have been nude in his first Broadway show, back in 1995 in "Indiscretions," but he couldn't have been as revealing as he is now."

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music/2009/10/06/2009-10-06_jude_law_is_daringly_fresh_as_hamlet_stellar_directing_leaves_you_rapt.html

[adamgreer]

Posted: 10/6/09 at 10:14pm

These reviews are certainly all over the map.

[LearnToBounce]

Posted: 10/6/09 at 10:27pm

Ben Brantley is Mixed-to-Negative:

"...[Jude Law's] "Hamlet" generates little psychological tension, though. And it is remarkably lacking in the vivid, specific characterizations you expect of Shakespeare in performance. If the actors playing the villainous Claudius (Kevin R. McNally) and the pompous Polonius (Ron Cook), or the stalwart Horatio (Matt Ryan) and the aggrieved Laertes (Gwilym Lee), changed parts midway, I doubt anyone would care much. It's as if they were all Rosencrantzes and Guildensterns (played here, for the record, by John MacMillan and Harry Attwell).

Granted, Mr. Law doesn't give his fellow actors much in the way of interpersonal connection. When Polonius tells his daughter, Ophelia (the beautiful, unconvincing Gugu Mbatha-Raw), that Hamlet is 'out of thy star,' he could be speaking to anyone. This Hamlet occupies - nay, is - his own constellation, and his radiance is bestowed almost exclusively upon the audience.

Still, Mr. Law's undeniable charisma and gender-crossing sex appeal may captivate Broadway theatergoers who wouldn't normally attend productions of Shakespeare. (When I caught the show in London I was heartened by the sizable presence of teenagers who seemed truly enthralled by the performance.) And, by the way, the sleeves on which Hamlet wears his feelings are seriously chic."

http://theater2.nytimes.com/2009/10/07/theater/reviews/07hamlet.html

Updated On: 10/6/09 at 10:27 PM

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 10/6/09 at 10:57pm

Uh...what show did USA Today see?

[harper4]

Posted: 10/6/09 at 11:03pm

Oh hon, Its USA Today for christsakes. As long as there was a straight movie star in it and none of that liberal potty-mouth humor, they were gonna be all for it. I hate to say this, but I'm partly with Brantley and partly with Feingold on this one. Law was ok, but not even close to great. A totally misguided interpretation of the role (which I will forgive him for because apparently there was no director) and the worst. supporting. cast. ever.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 10/6/09 at 11:21pm

TheaterMania is Positive with a love letter to Law:

"Jude Law's portrayal of the melancholy Dane in director Michael Grandage's larger-than-life production of Hamlet, now at Broadway's Broadhurst Theatre, isn't just one of the best ever committed to the stage, it's also not your usual interpretation. In Law's hands, the grief the young man feels after the murder of his father has clearly planted in him an unquenchable anger, and that fury becomes his tragic flaw -- not his inability to take action. This Hamlet is so blindly intent on retaliation that he mistakenly catches the wrong victims in his traps, and, with heartbreaking irony, brings about his own demise.

...

Not one of the well-spoken cast falls short of delivering the text with impassioned lucidity. McNally's Claudius has the assured diction of a corporate head denying charges of corruption. Geraldine James as Gertrude is convincingly regal. Ron Cook plays Polonius as a determined, easily gulled bureaucrat and then affects a lower-class accent and twinkling eye as the figuratively and literally down-to-earth gravedigger. Peter Eyre, as the elder Hamlet's ghost, makes memorable his "Remember me" command to Hamlet, and later does lovely work as the Player King. The others -- including Gugu Mbatha-Raw as an unusually aware Ophelia and Matt Ryan as a loyal and warm-hearted Horatio -- acquit themselves well enough.

But ultimately, the star's the thing here. When Hamlet, speaking to Rosencrantz (John MacMillan) and Guildenstern (Harry Attwell), says, "What a piece of work is a man/How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty," the description applies not just to Hamlet, but to Law himself."
Full Review

[LearnToBounce]

Posted: 10/6/09 at 11:23pm

John Simon is Very Negative (giving the show 1 1/2 Stars out of 4):

"To all Jude Law fans, the Broadway revival of “Hamlet” starring him and courtesy of London’s Donmar Warehouse is genially recommended. Others it will surely disappoint. Were it a car, it would most likely be recalled as a defective model.

I perceive “Hamlet” as the tragedy of a thinking man propelled into demanding and dangerous action -- an interpretation that includes the benefit of allowing for the broadest range. Variety is possible and needed, the actor in the title role having to contend with a sea of troubles, given the number of speeches and lines that have become as worn with quoting as the heel of an old shoe.

Law’s interpretation, in accord with director Michael Grandage’s intent, is aimed at neophyte audiences lured to the play not only by the star but with the added promise of a thriller liberally sprinkled with yocks. This predicates frantic nonstop action as flashy, frequently jocular and unsubtle as possible, and the devil, or the more sophisticated theatergoer, take the hindmost."

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601098&sid=a3Nnb4H5fxn4

[LearnToBounce]

Posted: 10/6/09 at 11:26pm

Linda Winer is Mixed-to-Negative:

"Law and Shakespeare are present and clearly declaimed, which may well be enough for a Broadway smash. But director Michael Grandage, head of the estimable Donmar Warehouse, has done neither any favors with the routine supporting cast.

Despite Christopher Oram's hip black-and-drab clothes and tall minimalist sets, the production seems more assembled than built creatively around its main attraction. Despite the appearance of a high concept, the ideas behind it are stock, often delivered in the sort of an old-fashioned, master thespian British style that appears less committed to character than to the plummy beauty of the words."

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/theater/jude-law-is-no-mama-s-boy-as-hamlet-1.1502168

[lull89]

Posted: 10/6/09 at 11:28pm

Everyone's favorite, Word of Mouth is a Rave!

I like that they're impressed that they are actually performing it in Shakespearian English.

What a Piece of Work is Jude! Our Panelists Give Hamlet a Rave Updated On: 10/6/09 at 11:28 PM

[lull89]

Posted: 10/6/09 at 11:45pm

Entertainment Weekly gives it a B+:

"While the actor fully conveys the horror of Hamlet's condition and the anger he feels toward his uncle/stepfather Claudius (Kevin R. McNally), Law's Hamlet just isn't much of a ditherer.

But that's a mere quibble in a first-rate production notable for its refreshingly straightforward, understated approach to the text. Director Michael Grandage plays the Bard straight, with few embellishments aside from a striking lighting design and modern-dress costumes that could have been pulled from the racks at Banana Republic (mostly grays and blacks)

...

Grandage (and Law) don't swing for the fences with this Hamlet. But while the show may not be a revelation, it is certainly a hit. A very palpable hit. And with the baseball playoffs just around the corner, a stage hit of any sort is more than welcome."

Stage Review: Hamlet By Thom Geier Updated On: 10/6/09 at 11:45 PM

[perfectlymarvelous]

Posted: 10/6/09 at 11:49pm

"Everyone's favorite, Word of Mouth is a Rave!

I like that they're impressed that they are actually performing it in Shakespearian English."

Funny, too, how their favorite performances besides Jude Law were my least favorite performances...I thought Gugu Mbatha-Raw was awful.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 10/7/09 at 12:29am

I'm still excited to see it! But it does make me wonder why they decided to transfer it over in the first place. I don't really think LAW is the big of a draw at the moment.

[dshnookie]

Posted: 10/7/09 at 12:31am

In response to the Word of Mouth review,

I cant believe they lauded Geraldine James' "Gertrude" .. I found her to be the worst of the bunch and ESPECIALLY in that scene in her bedroom - lifeless and stone-like. Jude would've been better off talking to Polonius' lifeless corpse. I also didnt need the 2-minute recap of the plot .. it's Hamlet .. we [hopefully] already know.

After a line like "you're going to get the key to smoochy-ville from the Mayor", I cannot take these people seriously.

I'd love a show too if I got free tickets and wanted to continue getting them.

[blaxx]

Posted: 10/7/09 at 12:41am

Talk about dividing the critics!

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 10/7/09 at 12:46am

I miss Ken Mandelbaum.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 10/7/09 at 7:35am

Unrelated question -- does anyone know why Law is above the title on the marquee, but below the title on the title page of the Playbill?

[Auggie27]

Posted: 10/7/09 at 8:16am

It would easy to just say Brantley's review is predictably bitchy. His assault on the somber Prada-esque costumes is a critcal cliche. Rather like complaining that CATS overuses the leotard. (Really, dressing the melancholy dane in contemporary grays and neutrals -- that do not call undue attention or pull focus -- is hardly a hanging offense.)

But Brantley's determined to make sure that Law's performance isn't evaluated as an serious interpretation. It's built on the thesis that a film star needs the camera to find nuance. Whatever one thinks of this performance, that's twaddle. This is a legit approach. Love it or hate it, it is clearly thought out, intelligent, and whether it's sufficiently brooding, it's theatrically alive. Brantley completely ignores Law's ability to pull the Broadhurst audience in and keep us fully engaged. His athleticism, rather than a mere technical trick, is part of Law's view of Hamlet's torture; he acts out rather than ruminates. Why the hell not? Though I wish the rest of the company were as persuasive, or compelling to listen to, I've never seen a HAMLET audience listen so carefully.

Updated On: 10/7/09 at 08:16 AM

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 10/7/09 at 8:42am

I noticed that, so far, no one has posted the Post review -- she gave it three out of a possible four and, in general, I agreed with her thoughts.

Well, so far, this has been the most talked-about show this season -- people seem to love it or hate it and there doesn't seem to a happy medium between the two. Me, I loved Law, had mixed feelings about the others, and liked the sets/costumes/lighting. It's still fine to have some Shakespeare on the Broadway boards and it certain wasn't the fiasco like the Harrison Macbeth or Denzel Washington Julius Caesar.