Catherine Bennett resumes the weekly look at the performing arts world, with the sad end of Jerusalem, the luck of a cabbie, and French revolt. Do you hear the people sing?
Adam Alcock reviews Nigel Kennedy playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons and his own Four Elements at York Opera House.
Catherine Bennett highlights the trends in the performing arts world today.
Jonathan Cridford reviews 'Ghosts', one of the Freshers' plays for this year.
The Drama Barn was packed out for this one-night-only performance of Hamlet: The Musical, and I must admit I had my concerns about whether or not the re-working of Shakespeare’s tragedy was worth sitting on the floor for an hour. I was also a little dubious about watching Hamlet with added jazz hands – (“what do you do to Hamlet?! Turn it into a funk fest? I'd go the Euro pop route...”) but I needn’t have worried – this more than surpassed all expectations.
Kicking off with a cover of 'Good Morning Baltimore' (“Welcome to Elsinore”) this was a witty re-imagining of classic Shakespeare, made accessible for those who can’t sit through the epic four hours of monologues that is actual Hamlet. Highlights include Ophelia being warned off the mad-or-possibly-not Hamlet as he’s 'Womanizer', the ghost of the former king being described as 'Something Kinda Ooh', and of course 'Bohemian Rhapsody' (“But this is fictional – FICTIONAL!!”).
Although the voices weren’t the strongest, this was a brave effort with many a hearty chuckle from the audience. Clever use of props (the skull hand puppets were a favourite) and some funny in-jokes made this a memorable performance. Still, had you not read the play beforehand it’s unlikely you would have known what was going on, but for those who have, it was welcome relief from the brooding indecisiveness of Shakespeare’s troubled hero. Luckily that aspect of Hamlet’s character was neatly dealt with in the song “I don’t know how to kill him”, a most amusing take on the Jesus Christ Superstar original. A last appearance from Fortinbras doing Sinatra’s 'My Way' explaining that Denmark is “now part of Noooorwaaaaaay” sealed the deal – this was a quality piece of student theatre.
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