I HATE HAMLET Closes At Northern Stage 2/7

Whether you're a die-hard Shakespeare lover or you've never understood a word he's written, you'll have a rollicking good time at I Hate Hamlet, the hilarious, action-packed comedy by Paul Rudnick at Northern Stage. The show will play its final performance on February 7.

Audiences will quickly identify with our hero, Andrew Rally, who faces a classic choice: Should he take the easy, comfortable, safe path or should he take a chance and stretch? Can he trust himself enough to plunge into uncharted waters? A successful television actor, he's been offered a chance to play the role of Hamlet in New York's Central Park. Meanwhile, the offer of a new, possibly lucrative TV series beckons from the West Coast. Does he choose art or commerce? Combine that with romance, swordplay and a séance that produces an unlikely "spritual" advisor, and the laughs come fast and furious.

An enchanting ghost story with plenty of comedy, romantic entanglements and even a swashbuckling duel, I Hate Hamlet serves as a love letter to the world of theater and all of its inhabitants as it pokes fun at the run-up to a performance of the Shakespeare classic. Or, as the author says, "I Hate Hamlet celebrates the theater, in all its artifice and happy dementia."

Northern Stage's production of I Hate Hamlet is sponsored by Wells Fargo Advisors and the River Valley Club.

About the Cast
Broadway veteran Felicity LaFortune returns to Northern Stage, this time in a devastating comic turn, following her stunning performances in last season's Deathtrap and The Glass Menagerie. Her Broadway appearances include Edward Albee's The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? as well as Tom Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia and the acclaimed The Light in the Piazza. Thom Miller stars as Andrew Rally; the versatile actor added a chilling dramatic performance as young playwright Clifford Anderson in Deathtrap, portrayed the rakish drifter Gerry Evans, and sparkled in the comedy Moon Over Buffalo. Also returning are Jillian Louis, the dizzy, gum-smacking secretary from Laughter on the 23rd Floor, who plays Rally's ambitious (and frustratingly virtuous) girlfriend Deirdre; Richard Waterhouse, an L.A. acting coach, who also appeared here in Deathtrap; and Robert Boardman, last seen here in The Crucible and the comedy Lend Me A Tenor, this time as the ghost of legendary actor John Barrymore. Newcomer Melissa Teitel, a Pittsburgh native who has appeared at the New York Fringe Festival, rounds out the cast as a pushy real-estate agent.

About the Play
Andrew Rally, a modestly talented television actor, has made a name for himself with a popular television series and a banal commercial for breakfast cereal. With his series cancelled, he moves to New York. Expecting a bright, modern apartment, he finds instead that Felicia, his real estate agent, has set him up with a spooky Victorian place that once belonged to legendary actor and carouser John Barrymore. Even the furniture, covered in sheets, seems ghostly.

Andrew must decide whether to accept the role of Hamlet for a Shakespeare in the Park production. His horrified talent agent dangles a multi-million-dollar television deal, while his blissfully romantic girlfriend insists that he take on the Bard, in the hope that she can play the doomed Ophelia. Felicia decides to conduct a candlelight séance in an attempt to contact Barrymore's ghost. The séance appears to reach only the real estate agent's mother; then, accompanied by the requisite thunder and lightning, Barrymore appears to Andrew, dressed as Hamlet. He swaggers about, champagne in hand, insisting that Andrew take on the theatrical role. However, there's a problem: Andrew hates Hamlet. He insists that he is not up to the task. The persuasive Barrymore convinces him to accept the challenge, aided by a dramatic sword fight between the two.

I Hate Hamlet, like many great plays, began with a real-life event. Author Paul Rudnick was apartment hunting in Manhattan when he came across a small but uniquely appointed apartment atop an old townhouse just off Washington Square. Told that it once belonged to the legendary actor John Barrymore-and that his agent had had a dalliance there with Barrymore's son-in-law-the karma was just too good to pass up.

Sensing an opening for a good story, Rudnick began to write a novel about one Andrew Rally, the star of a silly medical drama who is offered a chance to play Hamlet. The novel evolved into a play, with Rudnick's Gothic digs-complete with staiNed Glass installed by Barrymore and a hidden staircase leading up to a romantic rooftop deck-faithfully reproduced in the script (and in Northern Stage's set).

The play was workshopped at Skidmore College in Saratoga, NY by Albany's Capital Repertory Theatre along with the Jujamcyn organization. When the producers decided to finance a Broadway run, the show transferred to the Walter Kerr Theatre in March 1991; the cast included Evan Handler as Rally, Jane Adams, Adam Arkin, and Celeste Holm as Rally's agent, the fading actress Lillian Troy. The team knew they needed a larger-than-life personality to play the ghost of John Barrymore; they found him in Scottish actor Nicol Williamson. They'd heard stories of his previous escapades, including slapping a fellow actor during the curtain call, accusing him of attracting too much attention. Despite this, they hired Williamson, who wound up fully living up to his reputation. He made enemies of his fellow actors with his high-handedness, he gave derisive directions to actors on stage during performances (he reportedly said to Handler and Adams, "Put some life into it! Use your head! Give it more life!"), he drifted off the stage when his character was supposed to be eavesdropping on conversations, and one night he took a half-hearted swing at Rudnick.

Finally, the last straw fell into place. During one performance (with Gregory Peck and Elaine Stritch among the audience members), Williamson actually struck co-star Handler with his sword. Handler left the stage and never returned. Williamson responded by looking around and saying, "Well, should I sing?" His understudy, Andrew Mutnick, completed the show that night and the rest of the run, which ended up being only 88 performances. The New York Post, always up for a good scandal, filled the front page with a photo of the two and the headline, "‘HAMLET' ACTOR STORMS OFF STAGE AFTER CO-STAR WHACKS HIM IN BUTT."

After the final performance Rudnick, trying to avoid Williamson, found himself confronted by the inebriated actor, who smiled and said, "You knew this was going to happen."

About the Author

Paul Rudnick was born in 1957 and grew up in Piscataway, NJ. Hehas written plays that have been produced both on and off Broadway and around the world. Recent works include The New Century at Lincoln Center Theatre and Regrets Only at Manhattan Theatre Club, starring Christine Baranski and George Grizzard. His other plays include Valhalla, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, and Jeffrey, for which he won an Obie, an Outer Critics Circle Award and the John Gassner Playwrighting Award. He has also written two novels, Social Disease and I'll Take It. His articles and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, Vogue, Vanity Fair and The New York Times. He has also served as Premiere Magazine's film critic, under the pseudonym of Libby Gelman-Waxner, whose collected columns have been published under the title If You Ask Me. His screenplays include Addams Family Values, the 2004 remake of The Stepford Wives, and the screen adaptation of Jeffrey and In & Out. He wrote the initial script for the film Sister Act before leaving the project; he chose to credit himself there as Joseph Howard.

About the Director
Catherine Doherty co-directed The Crucible and I Am My Own Wife and has directed The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Laughter on the 23rd Floor, The Year of Magical Thinking, Deathtrap, The Elephant Man, Driving Miss Daisy, Doubt, How the Other Half Loves, A Chorus Line, Moon Over Buffalo, Lend Me A Tenor, I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change!, Of Mice and Men, Private Lives and the staged reading of An Empty Plate at the Café du Grande Boeuf at Northern Stage. She previously directEd Stones In His Pockets and I Love You You're Perfect Now Change! at St. Michael's Playhouse. Before coming to Northern Stage, Catherine's credits include co-producing several Off-Broadway productions with Padua Playwrights and random.acts theatre co (of which she is a member). She was the assistant director and production stage manager of the Lincoln Center production of Normal Heart. Catherine has worked with numerous theater companies, including Paper Mill Playhouse (Milburn, NJ), The John F. Kennedy Center and Arena Stage. She is also on the advisory board of the Instant Theatre Company in Highlands, NC. While in Los Angeles, she worked in a variety of capacities with television networks CBS, ABC and Fox. Catherine holds an MFA in Performance from the University of Georgia and an MFA in Film Direction from the American Film Institute. Her short film, Family Portrait, received the prestigious Ida Lupino Award for Outstanding Film Direction from the Director's Guild of America, and she recently won two Telly Awards for video production at Northern Stage.

About Northern Stage

Northern Stage now stands as one of the most prestigious and fastest-growing regional theaters in New England. Founding Artistic Director Brooke Ciardelli brought the company to the Briggs Opera House in 1997; since then, Northern Stage has offered over 85 productions, including World Premieres such as The Shrew Tamer, Ovid: Tales of Myth & Magic and A Christmas Carol: The Musical. Other highlights include a staged reading of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? with Patrick Stewart and Lisa Harrow and a reading of Resurrection Blues, with the playwright, Pulitzer Prize winner Arthur Miller, in attendance. The company has twice been honored with Moss Hart Awards for Excellence in Theater from the New England Theatre Conference, for productions of To Kill A Mockingbird (1999), All My Sons (2004) and Les Misérables (2008), as well as an Addison Award for The Shrew Tamer (2004).

Community support has enabled the company to sell over 35,000 tickets in downtown White River Junction in the last year to enjoy entertaining and thought-provoking professional theater and theater education here at the crossroads of northern New England. They have also reached out to offer residencies and workshops at over a dozen area schools; initiated "Project Playwright," a literacy program for fifth and sixth graders; and launched NS Touring, which sends top productions to theaters throughout the world and brings international talents to the U.S.

For information or tickets, call 802-296-7000, e-mail boxoffice@northernstage.org, or log on to www.northernstage.org. The Box Office at the Briggs Opera House is open from 5:30-8:00 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 3:00-5:30 p.m. on Sunday during show weeks; tickets for all shows are available by phone or at the Northern Stage administrative office at 28 Gates Street, White River Junction, Monday-Friday from 10 am.-6 p.m. MasterCard and VISA are accepted.

For tickets and information, call 802-296-7000. Tickets are also available through the Northern Stage Web site, www.northernstage.org.

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