Review: I HATE HAMLET Is Full of Laughs at Elmwood Playhouse

Let’s get right to it. I loved “I Hate Hamlet.” The Paul Rudnick-authored jewel of a comedy struts its time upon the stage of Elmwood Playhouse in Nyack, N.Y., through Oct. 10.

I clearly was not alone in my approval, judging from the laughter during and the standing O, as the players took their bows.

One of the other approvers was sitting with me, my friend Chris Walsh. True, he’s not necessarily typical of the audience members who were among us. Do any of them have a shrine to Shakespeare in their home? Chris does. Have any of them cried at the Bard’s graveside in Stratford-Upon-Avon? Chris has.

So when Chris says, “I very much enjoyed the play,” it is high praise from a hard-core Shakespeare fanboy.

There’s a lot to enjoy in this fanciful and amusingly fraught tale that has the ghost of acting legend John Barrymore (Jason Summers) mentoring a prominent TV sitcom actor of dubious talent, Andrew Rally (Christian Frahme), in how to play Hamlet.

Rally wants to be taken seriously as an actor, yet he is deathly afraid of the intimidating role, while Barrymore is dead, period. Following a theatrical tradition, the immortal thespian will be stuck in time, unable to return from whence he came, if he fails to convince his flop-sweaty protégé to play the role, which, for Barrymore’s purposes at least, is a consummation devoutly to be wished. The stakes for both actors are as high as a head on a pike. One wants to return to being peacefully dead, while the other wants to survive his performance.   

In the hands of a master humorist like Mr. Rudnick, we are treated to what might be called a rom-com with real heart and brains. He delights in both poking fun at the egocentric profession of acting and also respecting the trials and tribulations that attend practitioners of its craft.

The playwright has his caustic way with show business people in general, including agents and producers, personified by Gary Peter Lefkowitz (John de Guzman), Andrew’s crass act of a money-hungry sitcom director who is the Hollywood-besotted devil on Andrew’s shoulder, imploring him to stick to the “beachfront” lifestyle of TV fame, while Barrymore is the opposite shoulder’s angel, speaking up for the purity and dignity of the theater.

Rudnick is juxtaposing the commercialism of TV and all that moolah for actors compared with the artistry of stage performance in front of a live audience, and all that nerve-wracking pressure – with the reward of exhilaration when everything clicks and the audience enthusiastically shows its approval. So what if you’re performing in a space with folding chairs that, after folding from the waist to bow, the actors have to fold themselves.

There is no question the show takes wing on the deliciously grand entrance of Jason Summers as Barrymore. Mr. Summers is thoroughly engaging and mesmerizing, holding us in his thrall, and declaiming in a high-toned, clipped British accent, as he swans and seemingly floats fluidly about the stage as if he owns the show, because he clearly does. 

In the hands of Christian Frahme, Andrew’s humility and anxiety prove a fine and effective counterpoint to the Barrymore bravado. We feel for Andrew and his predicament while also hoping he succeeds in his adventure upon the wicked stage. The swordplay between him and Barrymore that ends Act I is impressively and believably enacted, well worthy of kudos to both actors as well as to fight choreographer Ari Mack.

As brash motormouth Gary, Mr. de Guzman, who evoked for me Saturday Night Live alumnus Jon Lovitz (as well as comedian Patton Oswalt), flits around the stage and gesticulates like a whirling dervish whose energy never flags, which is a hallmark of the whole cast, thanks to their spirited performances and to excellent guidance of director Kathleen Mahan, who clearly is in control of the fast-moving proceedings to which we are treated. When a play ends before you expect it to, you can thank the director for the brisk, crisp pacing.

The versatile Tina D’Amato, whose character work across many local stages is among the most precise and memorable that I’ve seen in this region, does a lovely turn as Lillian, a feisty German who manages Andrew and who goes back a long way with Barrymore. She and Summers exude palpable chemistry as they recall with yearning and the physical intimacy of a slow dance their one-night stand of yore. The scene is beautifully played, with credit for its poignancy also due director Kathleen Mahan.

In this scene, and throughout the play, the use of virtually continuous musical underscoring contributes to the cinematic feel of the polished production.

In a slightly randy subplot worthy of a sitcom, Siobhan Noonan is a wonderfully fair-haired and flighty Deirdre, Andrew’s actress girlfriend who keeps his carnal impulses at bay because she needs to be 100% certain that, when the time is right, Andrew is the right life partner for her. 

In addition to his laugh-inducing Hollywood take-downs, Mr. Rudnick sets his withering gaze upon the real estate profession, represented here by the boldly demonstrative and ever-delightful Allison Costello as Andrew’s realtor, Felicia, who does seances on the side. It is Felicia who summons the ghostly Barrymore to Andrew’s Manhattan apartment, which Andrew chose precisely because it is the former home of his idol, Barrymore.

A word about the period costumes, spot-on as ever in the masterly hands of Costume Designer Janet Fenton. She told me that Mr. Summers’ Barrymore look and Ms. Noonan’s Ophelia look were created using pieces in Elmwood’s extensive costume collection. “The plisse’ Siobhan wears I had made years ago for a production of The Lion in Winter,” said Ms. Fenton.  “The Hamlet doublet and pumpkin pants with cod piece I designed, drafted and constructed from a variety of fabrics and trims I found at Elmwood or purchased.”

That’s just another of the many reasons why, when it comes to production values in local theater, Elmwood Playhouse, now in its 80th season (as board president Derek Tarson told the audience), is constantly a cut above.  

As much as Rudnick can yuk it up with the best of them -- his comedic style might in part be described as “if Neil Simon delivered his zingers with sleight-of-hand subtlety and wily grace” – he’s not averse to respecting reality, in this case by having Andrew’s limited acting chops as Hamlet yield predictable results.

No Hollywood ending here for Andrew’s New York stage debut. A triumphant performance as the great Dane was, alas and alack, is not to be.         

Pictured: Jason Summers (left) as John Barrymore crosses blades with Christian Frahme as Andrew Rally. Photo by Steve Schnur

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