in this suit...on that surf board...in the middle of the lagoon

i love the guy, but he looks like a huge tool

I can't find the link but I remember there was some cringe-worthy movie (or it may have been on one of those movie fundraising sites) called 'Alive' which used the alive story as its plot. This sounds on a par with that.

I'm sure one of the actors is a huge Pearl Jam fan and told the "boss" that if they do a Pearl Jam themed show all the nuts will come out and attend.

while i'm not going, and still highly skeptical that this would be any good, Ten is actually a pretty good selection of songs to tie into Hamlet.

however, seeing them turned into showtunes would be awful

Yeah, I'm totally going to this.

For those of you nearby who chose not to attend this show, you have chosen wisely:




For those of you masochistic enough to want more, here's the rest:

Spoiler: show

Ophelia is linked to Oceans.

from only watching the first youtube, i think it could work better if the singing was better.

Oh god.

Well, thats it for me.

Totally wrong about the black guys, though.

i only made it through 90 seconds but that made my night. thanks for uploading.

This thing is a glorious mess, to be sure. But there are some nice moments. The show works best when it doesn't take itself too seriously, or when it isn't trying to do a by-the-numbers, Shakespeare-for-Dummies translation from Elizabethan English to Modern American.

When the writer embraces the Latino-American slang and just writes a story that resembles Hamlet, it works much better. I wish this was more like West Side Story - a story clearly based on and/or inspired by a Shakespeare play with some music added, rather than a half Shakespearian text/half modern translation of a Shakspeare play with some Peal Jam shoved in from time to time.

Using the spoken line buried in Once, "You think I've got my eyes closed, but I've been looking at you the whole fucking time" as a plot mechanism is particularly inspired, I think. However, that's countered by the absurd use of Alive. Why is Alive in this play? Alive has a clearly outlined story that it's telling. Trying to shove that into Hamlet is like shoving The Godfather into How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days. It doesn't make any sense. I know Alive is a Pearl Jam staple, but this is Hamlet, not Pearl Jam.

The Gravedigger scene, on the other hand, is outstanding. Replacing the story of Yorick with the story of Jeremy was really affective. And this is one of the rare songs where you have multiple singers. Having Hamlet and Gravedigger share this song, making a dialogue out of it, works really well:

Hamlet: Who belonged to this skull?
Gravedigger: I'll give you a hint... (que music)... At home, drawing pictures of mountain tops, with him on top.

He goes on to sing the entire first verse and chorus. Then Jeremy gets the second verse:

Jeremy: Clearly, I remember, picking on the boy...

This was probably my favorite scene in the entire show. I also liked the use of Oceans (Hamlet and Ophelia alone and in love) and State Of Love And Trust (as a sort of prologue).

I do wonder why they kept it contained to songs from Ten, though. Seems to me Claudius (Claude in this version) singing Sometimes as he prays for forgiveness, which prevents Hamlet from taking his life, or Ophelia singing Wash in the throes of her dark madness would have been really nice textures. Instead Ophelia sings Black, which doesn't work anywhere near as well. Partly because of the pronoun changes in the lyrics (minor issue) but mostly because the actress has this tick where she's constantly clawing at her own flesh. Wash would have amplified that. We somehow manage to lose sympathy for her as she sings Black like a crazy, goth, junior high school girl with a crush on the coolest boy in class. Black becomes trite.

Black should have been sung by Hamlet after Ophelia's death. And Release should have been song, not as the finale, but in place of (or after) the "to be or not to be" scene, where Hamlet is questioning everything and begging his ghostly father for help. I also think Animal in the "get the to a nunnery" scene would have been a nice touch as well.

The playbill lists Even Flow, but it must have been cut. Because I sure didn't hear it. Either it isn't there, or I was so turned off by the show at that point that I just let my mind wonder past it. And that's a shame because giving the ensemble a few more songs to sing about Hamlet would have been nice.

Hamlet sings most of this thing, and the actor doesn't have the voice nor the emotion to do the songs justice. Ten has giant songs, full of passion and explosions. No one seems up to the task of taking on those songs, except the guy playing Gravedigger, who rocks the holy soul out of Jeremy. More of that guy, please.

The show is awkward and stilted at times. Standing on stage in a three-quarter stance, slightly hunched over, and pointing at your chest with your thumb is not choreography. But the space was prohibitive, small, altogether too intimate for either Hamlet or Pearl Jam. There was no live band - again, no space for one. But the show is fun at times. The cast seems like they're having a good time. I laughed out loud a few times and I didn't check my watch more than twice.

As a fan of both the play and Ten, I have to say, it's not a complete disaster. It's a grab bag. But wrong lyrics and terrible staging aside, at least they're taking some risks and doing something creative and unique. This thing could be really good with a tighter concept, a better selection of Pearl Jam songs, and competent performers who can handle the music.

"Help me from myself."

The director did not heed these wise words.

now this is offensive!