By David Gordon , Entertainment Editor
On the heels of its successful Broadway mounting of Schiller’s “Mary Stuart,” London’s Donmar Warehouse is back at the Broadhurst Theatre, this time with “Hamlet,” starring Jude Law as Shakespeare’s titular Melancholy (or in this case, Violently Temperamental) Dane.
Michael Grandage’s production was the fourth and final entry in the Donmar’s experimental West End season at Wyndham’s Theatre, which also featured the Grandage-helmed “Ivanov” (with Kenneth Branagh), “Twelfth Night” (with Derek Jacobi) and “Madame de Sade,” (with Judi Dench). Though their names were listed in alphabetical order with their respective casts, the scowling faces of the named stars, served as the advertising and marketing campaigns. That this production rubs off as “The Jude Law Show,” is no surprise.
Law is front-and-center from the moment the curtain rises, crouching in a spotlight, (shadowy, evocative lighting is by Neil Austin), the wind whistling around him. If there is any doubt that he is the star, all you need to do is watch how the entire rest of the company has been directed so as not to overshadow him.
Perhaps that is the reason why Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s Ophelia, John MacMillan as Rosencrantz and Harry Atwell’s Guildenstern don’t seem to register. Perhaps that’s also why Kevin R. McNally’s Claudius is so affable, to overshadow Law’s angriness. Geraldine James does as best as one can with the character Gertrude, Ron Cook does very nicely as both Polonius and the 1st Gravedigger, but it is Peter Eyre, as the Ghost and Player King, who stands out in the supporting players.
And what of Law? Well, his casting is not an embarrassment by any stretch of the imagination. His Hamlet is a hormonal, petulant teenager, angry and sarcastic, pitting the greater part of his volatile temper at his new father, like most children would. He is simply captivating as he gesticulates his way through the role, delivering the famous soliloquies “trippingly on the tongue.”
This chic, modern, black-and-white production contains a number of pretty stage pictures, thanks to designer Christopher Oram and director Grandage. There’s a bright red carpet on a monochromatic set. The Hamlet/Gertrude bedroom scene is set from the perspective of Polonius, behind a gauzy curtain. The prettiest, though, is “To be or not to be,” during a passing snowfall.
Was New York crying out for a revival of “Hamlet?” No, not really, but this production is, by many accounts, the strongest in a long while (revivals by the Public Theater and the Wooster Group were generally reviled). Grandage’s staging is clear and accessible, concise and briskly paced (though there are a few dull spots towards the end of the 3-hour-20-minute running time). But it seems that most of his concentration was placed on the real reason why this production came to New York, the star.