Monday, August 19, 2013

"Hamlet, Cha-Cha-Cha!" (Part II)

Hamlet, Cha-Cha-Cha! was performed live in Spring 2013, by the Central New York Playhouse in Syracuse, NY.  Having read the play, I could not miss the opportunity to see it done on stage.  It did not disappoint.

The company's venue is a converted store in a mall.  They do a great job of using the space, and they continue to improve it.  The set was minimal, but it served its purpose well.  Although the sound was a bit on the low end of the volume dial for the performance that I saw, the space is small enough to hear what is being said.  (I saw another production in the same space and there were no sound issues.)

The play itself was gloriously overacted.  To an extent, it fit the script.  The play is raucously hilarious, and the actors took it that way, doing a very good job.  Unfortunately, though, the playwright, Monk Ferris, wrote that the play should be performed straight so that the humor will work.  Overplaying it cut into the humor a bit.  I did laugh at many things, but probably not as many as I could have.

The play ran fairly closely to the script.  The scene involving Yorick was omitted, perhaps for time constraints.  One major change, though, was Horatio.  While he is characterized as "an amiable sponge," this production portrayed him as flamboyantly gay.  It was way over the top.  In fact, a new concluding scene was written, in which Horatio takes the crown of Denmark for himself.  He tries on the King's crown, but it does not fit.  Gertrude's crown fits perfectly, though, and thus Denmark has a new queen.  I did not find any need to rewrite the role, and I thought it actually detracted from the production.

Overall, the production was enjoyable.  It is an interesting and amusing take on Hamlet, and it is one worth seeing if it ever comes to a theatre near you.

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