Hi all - this is mainly from a press release I was sent (with a few additions and clarificationsby me.) Unfortnately I am already booked to attend shows at the Shaw Festival this weekend so I won't be able to go.
One of Broadway's legendary flops was the 1976 rock opera base on Hamlet.
Now this infamous musical by Cliff Jones will be presented as a staged concert for three exclusive performances in Toronto on July 25-26 at the Jane Mallett Theatre, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts.
Originally commissioned for C.B.C. Radio, KRONBORG: 1582 played at the Charlottetown Festival (Prince Edward Island) to critical acclaim in the summers of 1974 and '75, followed by a Canadian tour with Brent Carver as Hamlet and Beverly D’Angelo as Ophelia.
Renamed Rockabye Hamlet, and substantially revised under the direction of Gower Champion, it opened on Broadway at the Minskoff Theatre Feb 16, 1976, starring Larry Marshall, D'Angelo and Meat Loaf. It played a efw weeks of previews (which composer Jones says were ecstatically received by audeinces) then it opened to 7 out of 7 negative notices. ROCKABYE HAMLET closed a week later.
With new revisions by Jones and re-titled SOMETHING'S ROCKIN' IN DENMARK, the show then enjoyed a 14-month run in Los Angeles. The musical won twelve Dramalogue Awards (L.A.) and has since been successfully produced many times.
For this new concert staging of SOMETHING'S ROCKIN' IN DENMARK, Cliff Jones has adapted his script and score, taking the best of all previous productions. He will also direct the show, joined by Lona Davis as musical director and Mimi Woods Doherty as choreographer/assistant director. The cast of 18 features Ted Ambrose, Lisa Bell, Matthew A.C. Campbell, Trevor Covelli, Scott Freethy, Michael Harvey, Laura Higgs and Gerald Isaac.
SOMETHING'S ROCKIN' IN DENMARK plays Friday, July 25 at 8 p.m. and Saturday, July 26 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. The Jane Mallett Theatre, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, is located in downtown Toronto at 27 Front Street East. Tickets are $40 (lower orchestra) and $30 (upper orchestra) and may be reserved by calling the box office at 416-366-7723 or 1-800-708-6754, go online to www.stlc.com
Witness the Toronto re-birth of this wondrous, eclectic musical!
Cast albums are NOT "soundtracks." Live theatre does not use a "soundtrack." If it did, it wouldn't be live theatre!
I host a weekly one-hour radio program featuring cast album selections as well as songs by cabaret, jazz and theatre artists. The program, FRONT ROW CENTRE is heard Sundays 9 to 10 am and also Saturdays from 8 to 9 am (eastern times) on www.proudfm.com
I saw this show too long ago to specifically recall anything about it - except that it was crazy, entertaining and Beverly D'Angelo strangled herself on stage with her mike chord.
I've seen Cliff Jones' official website for the show, which is apparently now available for stock and amateur licensing. It's gone through so many titles it's not funny (Kronborg: 1582, Rockabye Hamlet, Something's Rockin' in Denmark, Hamlet: The Musical)...I'm guessing to avoid traveling flop collectors?
His basic viewpoint? It was a success everywhere but Broadway, so f*** New York critics! In other words, it's not coming back to a MAJOR stage any time in the near future.
"There is no problem so big that it cannot be run away from."
~ Charles M. Schulz
I had the great good fortune to see this workshopped very recently under Jones's direction, with some of the original cast and a host of new names. Despite only 3 weeks rehearsal and a necessarily bare-bones look, the result was extremely entertaining and offered far more promise on almost every level than many another over-produced contemporary competitor. Having never seen the Broadway version, I'm in no position to comment on how this greatly revamped version compares, although I can't help but think it must have come a long way since then and that its considerable interim success in LA was no fluke. Thus, in all, I'd say the workshop managed to make its point in spades, which is that - with proper backing, prep time, casting (to a person the performers I saw could step right in) and the right theatre - this thing's a diamond well out of the rough. And I doubt they went through all that trouble and expense with thoughts of dissing NYC as a possible venue.
*bump* I'm making friends on facebook with people involved with the original production of Rockabye Hamlet. Sure wish this amazing show got the attention it is due.
Rockabye Hamlet Returns to New York After 30 Years Astoria-based theater company Ophelia Theatre Group announced Feb 10th that the cult-classic Broadway rock-opera "Rockabye Hamlet" will be receiving its first NYC revival at the Broccoli Theater in Queens beginning May 9.
Featuring music and lyrics by Cliff Jones, Rockabye Hamlet has not been seen in NYC since its original Broadway run in 1976. Directed by Pep Speed and featuring music direction by Ryan Kimble, California-transplants OTG are excited to bring this distinctive rock opera to a new generation of theatergoers.
Synopsis: "It's the summer of 1971, and Haight-Ashbury's favorite theater troupe have just arrived on a Chevy van to share their unique take on Shakespeare's classic tale of love, loss, and finding your place in a world gone "rotten." After enjoying sell-out runs in Toronto, Montreal, New York and Los Angeles and winning eight international awards in the 1970's and 1980's, this legendary re-imagining of Hamlet has been revised and updated for the 21st Century. Filled with memorable rock grooves and a heart as big as its hair, Rockabye Hamlet is a cult and critical mega-hit not to be missed." Media Contact: John Hoffman, hoffman@opheliatheatre.com, (951) 285-6467
Creative Team
Director: Pep Speed Musical Director: Ryan Kimble Stage Manager: Tyler Winthrop Associate Director: Matt Crane Assistant Musical Director: Sean Andrews Scenic Designer: Harrison Lockhart Lighting Designer: Christina Watanabe Choreograher: Layla Dean Dance Captain: Brittney Moss Fight Choreographer: Chris Payseur Costume Coordinator: Michael Anthony
Cast
Kevin Reed Samantha Elizabeth Turlington Kevin Berger Blair Trunzo Abagail Ludrof Michael Grispin Landon Sutton Alison Klemp Dace McNally Kevin Ruiter Taryne Kellogg Erica Diederich Tessa Fairey Meredith Myers Buddy Pease
I saw the show every Saturday matinee that it played at the MInskoff Theater and it was so damned exciting... and every time I saw it the crowd went wild. (This was before the current perfunctory standing ovations and stomping and screaming that greets EVERY show that opens in NYC.)
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
~ Muhammad Ali