ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, June 8, 1996 TAG: 9606090018
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: THEATER REVIEW
SOURCE: KATHERINE REED STAFF WRITER
Here's a premise with promise: A television actor moves into a New York loft apartment to prepare for the role of Hamlet in a Shakespeare in the Park production. Turns out, the apartment was once the haunt of a much more famous Hamlet - John Barrymore.
Turns out, it's still his haunt.
And, it turns out, Barrymore - the ghost - needs the young TV actor, Andrew Rally, to perform the role before the famous actor can go on to his eternal rest. Andrew's girlfriend, Deirdre, needs the aphrodisiac of seeing Andrew do Hamlet before she'll let Andrew do what it is he so desperately wants to do.
And that's Deirdre, of course.
The problem is, Andrew doesn't want to take on Hamlet. He just wants to go back to L.A., snap up a lucrative offer for another TV series and leave the challenge of Hamlet to the "real" actors.
So it is Barrymore's seduction and education of young Andrew - a "cosmic leap at redemption" - that is the focus of this entertaining play, the current Showtimers production, which opened Thursday.
Directed by Michael Mansfield, who also plays the smooth-talking, steady-drinking Barrymore, this "I Hate Hamlet" brings together some of the best of Showtimers' regulars and newer faces. Best of all, it gives Richard Kirkwood - who plays Andrew - lots of space in which to be funny, and he doesn't waste a bit of it.
What I like about Kirkwood is his understatedness. He's a perfect foil for Mansfield's super-hammy - but very human - Barrymore, who says in his own defense, "I don't overact: I simply possess the emotional resources of 10 men."
Ooh-la-la.
Susan Pugh Widdowson, who made an impressive debut in "The Passion of Dracula," is good again as the flighty, romantic Deirdre. And Mary Jean Redon Levin, who was terrific in "The Shadow Box," demonstrates crack comic timing as the Manhattan realtor Felicia, who also fancies herself a psychic.
Dorothy B. Johnston is Lillian Troy, Andrew's agent and one of Barrymore's conquests; Michael Galvin is the super-slick producer Gary Peter Lefkowitz.
It's really a lot of fun to watch this play pick up steam; it helps that it's well-written (by Paul Rudnick) and pokes a little fun at Shakespeare, while honoring the majesty and mystery of the work.
Best of all, it serves as a reminder - and an invitation - not to spend too much time in front of the television, which could never, ever in a million years match the power - or pleasure - of seeing a good play, performed well.
"I Hate Hamlet," June 6-16, at Showtimers Studio, 774-2660.|
LENGTH: Medium: 54 linesby CNB