Hey Jude
Hey Jude
#1Hey Jude
Posted: 6/11/09 at 7:48pm
Saw Jude Law as "Hamlet" at Wyndhams tonight (from the front row no less). Man, he was good. Much better, in my opinion, than David Tennant earlier this year. Compared to Law, Tennant seemed to play many lines for laughs, his performance now seems almost flippant. Law, however, was much more intense, very real and believable, never hammy.
As with the other four productions in the Donmar West End season the set and staging was extremely minimal but with outstanding lighting design. I often prefer these simplified productions - they let the text and acting take centre-stage, as it were.
MamasDoin'Fine
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/28/08
#2re: Hey Jude
Posted: 6/11/09 at 7:51pm
You are saying exactly what I've been hearing all week from my friends who have seen it. Tennant is shadowed by Law is the general feeling.
Front row for Jude Law WOW
#2re: Hey Jude
Posted: 6/11/09 at 7:51pm
Did you see Edward Bennett, or just David Tennant? I must say I preferred the more emotional, less detached take of Bennett, although I did appreciate the self-destructive mania that Tennant brought so well to the role.
BUT HOW WAS HORATIO? No one will tell me, and it's important to me in any production of Hamlet that either Horatio or Claudius is awesome. 
#3re: Hey Jude
Posted: 6/12/09 at 6:45pm
I didn't see Edward Bennett, just David Tennant (who, the more I think about it, played it just like Doctor Who).
Horatio, in the Donmar production, Matt Ryan, was pretty good, quite a brooding performance. Claudius, Kevin R McNally, was okay but not a patch on Patrick Stewart. Frankly, they were all blown off stage by Jude Law.
The "closet" scene was particularly effective - done in a way I hadn't seen before.
#4re: Hey Jude
Posted: 6/12/09 at 6:50pmim gonna wait for a rainy wednesday in July and go and get returns...i was unsure about the production, especially after hearing some bad things about how the show was cast and the behaviour of Mr Law before the production hit the stage, but i think i might give it a chance..day tickets here i come!
MamasDoin'Fine
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/28/08
#5re: Hey Jude
Posted: 6/12/09 at 8:26pm
it would have to be a very wet day before you get me into a Shake your spear production.
You'll catch me, with SADM2, at a matinee of 'Priscilla' before we walk in the doors of the Wyndams!
#6re: Hey Jude
Posted: 6/12/09 at 8:46pmOh Mama, I forgot to mention the scene where Hamlet, having gone completely mad, dresses up as a cupcake and dances around to "MacArthur Park"!
#8re: Hey Jude
Posted: 12/11/14 at 7:10am
I'm not starting a new thread just for this. So, I didn't realize Jude Law had a new film - Dom Hemmingway - out earlier this year. Got mixed reviews, it seems. But given that film is a visual medium, I think it's important to acknowledge that Jude Law looks amazing with a little extra weight. I look forward to watching this film in Ultra HD.
