As I come to the end of this trip, I now have a definitive list of my favorite shows. At the top sits Benjamin Button and, at a comfortable second, Hamlet: Hail to the Thief. When evaluating why these two musicals struck me so deeply, I have come to realize that the way they utilize music plays a humongous factor. Both of these works take well known pieces of literature, gut the aspects of the originals that are outdated and boring, and then they use music to rewrite (at least in some aspects) the story. Now I have already written about Benjamin Button, so I will keep my thoughts brief. It is a play that elongates a fairly short story, and adds music and new dialogue to create a fuller dialogue. On the contrary, Hamlet: Hail to the Thief approaches their use of music in a completely different fashion. Hamlet can be a very long and drawn out play (something I worried about when I heard there would be no intermission). This play chooses to use music as a tool to create a faster (better) pace. They also use music to tell parts of the story without having to use actual dialogue. It is also just a very obvious representation of the mental spiral of each character.
One of my favorite scenes of the entire play, a scene that demonstrates the use of music extremely well, is the scene in which Ophelia and Hamlet are alone together on stage (right after the first large musical number). The intimacy between their movements highlighted their adolescence, love and lust for each other, and the understanding and connectedness the two have with one another. In fact, this dance single handedly made this production my favorite portrayal of Ophelia and Hamlet’s relationship.
However, while this was one of my favorite shows, whoever decided to put one of the most heartbreaking, gut-wrenching artists as the soundtrack of one of Shakespeare’s most devastating works is a diabolical evil genius and they scare me (but like also let me kiss your brain).
Also, to the people that stole my ticket, sleep with one eye open.
Theatre in London U of A 