75. Hamlet the Musical - Richmond Theatre

If going from the White Bear to the Rose, from the Bad Quarto to the Folio, had been a bit of a sudden departure – then Hamlet the Musical was a real shock. Thankfully of the best kind, as it managed to be fun, clever, grand, witty, ridiculous and silly in marvellous degrees. I feel almost ridiculous myself about how much I enjoyed this, but I was grinning from ear to ear for days afterwards and still find myself occasionally bursting into the Eurotastic showstopper ‘To Be or Not To Be’.


This was a bit of a This Is Your Theatrical Life for me as the small cast was teeming with familiar faces – David Burt (from The Kissing Dance), Mark Inscoe (from Salad Days), Jack Shalloo (another Kissing Dance alumni) and Gabriel Vick (worryingly I’ve seen him in Avenue Q, La Cage Aux Folles, The Great British Country Fete and Double Falsehood – I’m not stalking him honest, well... maybe a little bit). And it was greatly joyous to get to see them all again in such a wonderful production alongside the equally wonderful Virge Gilchrist and Jess Robinson.

Shalloo made an excellent Hamlet and I loved his moody, teenage Dane**, especially as I still haven’t quite managed to shake off Sam West’s description of the prince and I thought the characters turn to pop stardom was a masterstroke. Shalloo was also one of my favourites in The Kissing Dance, marrying an excellent voice to an emotionally expressive performance and a keen sense of comedy. I also really enjoyed Robinson’s turn as Ophelia, Rosencrantz and Horatio (I think I’ve seen as many female Horatio’s as male now). Though I wish she’d had a stronger closing number as Ophelia. Both though, were nearly upstaged by the superb Vick with one of the most entertaining Laertes I’ve ever seen and a string of equally entertaining roles.

‘To Be Or Not To Be’ is the obvious highlight of a strong, if not spectacular, score. I also really loved Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s number ‘Where Else, Elsinore’, both of Laertes tangos and the song Mark Inscoe opened the second half with, summing up everything that had already happened (I was very disappointed not to find it on the album). Really though what set this apart was not the music, but the sense of fun instilled in every moment and the marvellous attention to detail and silliness – after all how could anyone resist; a Hamlet where the duel is fought with herrings and the matter Hamlet is reading is ‘Regicide for Dummies’. A perfect night out.

** (It also leant an entertaining parallel to the man in his fifties sat in front of me, who appeared to be going through some bizarre teenage rebellion phase which meant he had to do the opposite of everything the staff/announcers told him. Including turning his phone on especially to faff around with it for ten minutes at the start of both halves).