`Hello Hamlet' overturns Shakespearean norms
The funeral baked meats do coldly furnish forth the marriage banquet in the Wiess College production Hello Hamlet by George Greanias.
The funeral is that of an earnestly sober Shakespeare performance. The marriage is a three-way affair between Hamlet , Broadway and unfettered foolishness in a one-night ceremony of tasteless travesty, I mean tragedy.
Directed by Wiess Master Paula Hutchinson, this takeoff on Shakespeare's tale of great Danes turns heroism on its head.
Hamlet, in the original play, is over-intellectual to the point of paralysis and pathologically depressed in true heroic style.
Not only is the rewritten Hamlet as intellectual and cold-footed as the original, but he also has the audacity to be blithe and untroubled by his mother's hasty marriage to her dead husband's brother.
Fortunately, this new husband, Claudius, is able to convince Hamlet to be overwrought with grief, pointing out, "A hero is always better if he's got a tragic flaw."
The most outstanding feature of this production is the professional-quality choreography by Joy Winkler and Margaret Sledge. The cast's motions sparkle with originality in setting off the text and providing interaction among characters.
The ingeniously designed set, a castle interior including a large staircase, balcony and trapdoor grave, allows a great diversity in the dance numbers.
Jon Gala plays a thoroughly likable Hamlet, his open features perfectly suiting the young prince's easygoing contentedness.
In less populated scenes, Gala seems restrained and hesitant to climb fully into character, but he is more convincing when more characters are on stage. His especially strong scenes are as a girl-shy, awkward adolescent fending off the seductive, doggedly determined Ophelia (Catherine McIntosh).
Claudius (Josh Warren) and Gertrude (Katie Myer) play well off each other. Myer portrays Gertrude as sweetly sunny, full of spunk and occasionally melodramatic. Her uplifiting acting prevents Warren's sober Claudius from getting stale.
John Hunter's portrayal of Polonius, King Claudius' washed-up advisor, is completely captivating and fresh. Hunter's interpretation of the swaggering, comic drunk seems inspired by none other than Popeye the Sailorman, whose croaking voice, perpetual wink and cartoonishly long face are all hilariously apt.
Marcellus (Marco Rimassa) is fearsome as Hamlet's ghost-seeing old friend. Horatio (Justin Gullinsrud), nervously effeminate in the first act, turns drag queen in the second.
Rosencrantz (Andy Clark) and Guildenstern (Tom Biscaglia) provide some of the best singing and dancing in the show. Laertes (Dave Jones) is almost Machiavellian as Ophelia's brother and would-be avenger.
Hello Hamlet is littered with bad puns, bad jokes and misplaced Shakespeare references. "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow -- that's all you ever say," complains Ophelia, echoing Macbeth's despairing monologue in her plea that Hamlet marry her. So finally, Hamlet agrees to elope with her, a la Romeo and Juliet .
Songs include the rather obvious "Hello Hamlet" ("Hello Dolly"), "Elsinore" ("Camelot"), "He'd Be Plotting Assassinations" ("Reviewing the Situation," from Oliver! ) and the unbeatable tune, the "Hyper-traumic paraplectic-multiple psychosis,"("Supercalifragilisticexpi-alidotious," from Mary Poppins ), the dismaying diagnosis of an Ophelia gone crackers. Music director Joseph Abraham puts together a smashing performance of this parade of spoofs.
After seeing Hello Hamlet once, you will never again be able to hear Lady Macbeth intone, "Out, damn spot," without remembering her dog peeing on the carpet. So get your nose out of the 16th century and go see this tragedy of travesty.
Hello Hamlet will be performed in the Wiess Commons. It runs from March 21-23 and 27-29 at 8 p.m. and on March 22 at 7:30 p.m.
This item appeared in the Arts & Entertainment section of the March 22, 1996 issue.
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