Broadway Features and Reviews
Jude Law HAMLET Broadway's Hot Ticket
By Broadway Magazine Staff
Jude Law is coming to Broadway as Hamlet. In a new Broadway season that is already blinding bright with stars, the announcement of Mr. Law as Shakespeare's Dane has instantly become the "must-see" production in a season of "must-see" productions.
The production did not awe The New York Times' critic Ben Brantley when he saw it, but that is unlikely to slow the momentum for this lion of a show. Critical reception in London was actually favorable to both the production and the performance by Jude Law as Hamlet. With stars like Daniel Craig, Hugh Jackman, Julia Stiles, Kate Blanchett (in Streetcar Named Desire at BAM in November), and new stars and productions announced daily, this Broadway season could be one of the most thrilling ever. Samples of the London critics' reactions to Jude Law's Hamlet below. Performances start September 12, with opening night set for October 6. Hamlet Tickets for the 12 week run are likely to go quickly.
"Well, he's not bad. In fact, he's really good. Law's Hamlet is all coiled, feline energy - he paces the stage like a caged animal, trapped in his indecision. It's not a romantic portrayal - the scenes with Ophelia are probably the least successful - but it's ferocious, and funny." - Elizabeth Renzetti. Globe and Mail
"Law must be one of the angriest Hamlets ever, when he exclaims 'now could I drink hot blood', you wonder what he could have been feasting on before now." - Maxwell Cooter, What's On Stage
"But Law's Hamlet has the right inwardness and self-awareness. People who come to patronise him as a movie star essaying the great Dane will be in for a shock." - Michael Billington, The Gaurdian
"He is a Hamlet who knows pretty clearly what he wants and he moves around the stage with lovely agility." - Quintin Letts, Daily Mail
"His verse-speaking is immaculate and his charisma comes powering out from below the pock-marked columns, black walls and towering gates of Christopher Oram's grim set... " Benedict Nightengale, The Times
"Jude is fine, it's just that he's not all that interesting when you do hear him. For a start he's not funny, which is sad given he's playing the wittiest tragic hero ever written." - Michael Coveny, The Telegraph
"He delivered the play's big lines with ease, despite being made to shiver in a snow storm for his "To be or not to be" speech." - Caroline Briggs, BBC News
"The knives (or indeed bodkins) were out for Law from the moment it was announced that he was taking on the title role. Now they can be sheathed. For as the scholar-soldier-prince Law's performance is detailed and powerful." - Henry Hitchings, Evening Standard
"Law's boyish Hamlet is often on the brink of tears, but there is also no mistaking the intelligence of his mind or the nobility of his heart as he confides in the audience in soliloquies that allow us to follow every fleeting thought, every quicksilver change of mood." - Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph
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