BERNHARDT/HAMLET Previews — Page 3

Saw an early preview and forgot to post about it.

Forget the poor writing: this is just a play that just has absolutely no focus or aim. Scene after scene goes by and you wonder what the hell the reason was for Rebeck to sit down and write this thing. I almost feel bad for the great Sarah Bernhardt that Rebeck decided to use her legacy (and what could have been a riveting story focusing intensely on her challenges in taking on the role of Hamlet) just to critique and criticize Shakespeare. It's fine to critique the Bard, but if the best parts of your play are snippets pulled from his works... then maybe don't.

On the bright side, Janet McTeer is indeed delightful and excellently elevates the text. She's a magnetic performer. The rest of the cast is delivering solid performances as well.

The scenic design is beautiful. Very reminiscent of the Higgins townhouse set up north at the Vivian Beaumont.

McTeer and the set, however, couldn't stop me from thinking about how much I would've rather seen an actual Shakespeare play.

I’m going to echo most of the other posters here with my thoughts on this one. The director’s notes totes that this is the first-ever commissioned original work that Roundabout has done on Broadway. After seeing this, I couldn’t help but asking, “this was the best thing they could get?”...

Janet McTeer is great, but her performance is not enough to elevate the subpar writing. That being said, I don’t fault her at all as there is only so much a performer (even one as talented as McTeer) can do with poor writing. The constant critiquing of Shakespeare’s poetic language in his plays felt out of place. The supporting cast was fine with no standouts.

The set reminded me a lot of the set for Act One at the Beaumont a few seasons ago. The revolve is used very nicely. The set was definitely the highlight of the show for me.

All in all, this left me pretty cold and even a little frustrated. It’s nowhere near as bad Straight White Men (the only other new play that has opened so far this season), but I’m really hoping for more from this season’s other upcoming new plays than what these two had to offer.

---

She did yesterday

Snoozy McSnoozerson. I left at intermission.

Saw Wednesday night's performance. Interesting revolving set and some nice costumes. But it hardly qualifies as a play. It is a series of scenes, all involving Sarah Bernhardt. No drama, weak humor, excellent performance by Dylan Baker (his one scene from Hamlet is the only time I was at all interested). A tremendous reliance on the audience knowing who Sarah is, what Hamlet is, what Cyrano is. I adore Janet McTeer but she seems trapped in this vehicle, and seems to be working too hard to be an actress portraying an actress. Glad I had a ticket through TDF. Would not have spent a penny more to be there. I always stay till the end - even when it seems to be more of the same. Don't expect Act Two to be better than Act One.



I agree with an earlier post that suggested a single 100 minute play might have been better. Or at least shorter. There was a lot of padding in Act One that did nothing more than show Rebeck has read some discussions of Hamlet's age.

McTeer is a goddess and Harner is one of my favorites, but oh! How I dread having to sit through this ... well, the costumes look nice.

This once again shows me that I'm really not a Rebeck fan. Unfocused, beige writing. Just boring and flat. The design is beautiful and the cast does their best, but it's just not a very good play.

rg7759 said: "im surprised by this thread. maybe i was helped by having a very basic knowledge of back story, but i sat up in the very top at the 4th preview and wasnt bored at all. better writing than most new crap. yes shes great, but the rest is pretty good too. not eveything can be hamilton"

I don't think that anyone on this board went into this play expecting Hamilton, but what was delivered in terms of playwriting left a hell of a lot to be desired in my opinion. And this is coming from someone who went in with low expectations.

---

I saw yesterday's matinee and had the same sorts of questions as TooManyLegs. I don't know what language(s) the real-life characters used, but it seems like the audience has to take the fictional Bernhardt, Rostand, et al., as English speakers (and writers) for purposes of the play. Otherwise, they would seemingly just be arguing the merits of a particular French translation of Hamlet, and the discussion of iambic vs. non-iambic, poetry vs. prose, etc., would hardly be of interest.

In any event, I thought the show as a whole was well-acted and had plenty of nice moments -- but, as others have suggested, it came across as a rough draft that needs considerably more work. Plus, it suffered (in my view) from a sometimes cliched approach to biographical fiction -- I found particularly annoying the scene where one of the characters has to announce to another how much everyone loves and is inspired by Bernhardt.

Although my own opinion was mixed, much of the audience seemed to like the show more -- there was fairly frequent laughter, considerable applause after one or two scenes, and a mostly enthusiastic ovation at the end.

wonkit said: "This thread is actually more interesting than the play itself."

You're right about that, wonkit.

According to http://theshakespeareblog.com/2015/09/the-divine-sarah-bernhardts-hamlet/ , Bernhardt played Hamlet in French, even when she performed it in Stratford, to the annoyance of the Birmingham Post, which said that the prose of the French version “seemed out of character in the poet’s Birthplace".

Updated On: 9/16/18 at 11:09 PM

My main problem was that Rebeck cheated by quoting long sections of Hamlet and Cyrano to pad out the running time. McTeer had some great one-liners, but the story was very thin with little resolution.

Another of the show's bright spots was sarcastic critic Paxton Whitehead- but according to Playbill he's departed the show for health reasons (replaced by understudy Tony Carlin). Too bad, hope he recovers soon http://www.playbill.com/article/tony-carlin-steps-into-bernhardt-hamlet-replacing-paxton-whitehead

A lot of people are mentioning that the play needed some trimming, but I saw it on Saturday and thought the pace, flow and length was perfect for what Rebeck was trying to get across. Janet McTeer really nailed Sarah Bernhardt and the rest of the cast was really great too. I was a big fan of the production.

I saw it this weekend and pretty much agree with everyone else's assessment. McTeer and cast are great despite the material but the play is too long and too unfocused. It's like Rebeck threw in everything she knew about Bernhardt and nobody edited her. The Cyrano stuff was especially egregious. (I also didn't think we needed to see her son. He just reiterated what we already knew.)

---