The Maltz Jupiter Theatre never expected to start its season with Paul Rudnick’s puckish comedy, I Hate Hamlet, but such as the vagaries of COVID and construction. Still, when you think about it, what better way to welcome back its audience than with this tongue-in-cheek celebration of theater and of the man who wrote with such peculiar, stilted, yet soaring language – William Shakespeare.
I Hate Hamlet may be the only play inspired by an apartment rental. For when Rudnick moved into a Greenwich Village flat in the early 1990s, he discovered that it had once been occupied by John Barrymore, arguably the greatest stage Hamlet of all time. From that fact he concocted a tale of an L.A.-based television actor who relocates to New York, signs to play Hamlet in Central Park, a towering role for which he is woefully unskilled to perform. And when he threatens to quit before rehearsals even begin, he is visited by the ghost of Barrymore, who tries to bully and cajole him into changing his mind.
Rudnick’s Barrymore is a larger-than-life alcoholic womanizer, a complete cad who also happens to be able to sling the Bard’s iambic verse with clarity and passion. Taking on the role at The Benjamin School in Palm Beach Gardens – the Maltz’s one-time-only temporary home while the renovation of its expanded playhouse nears completion – is the estimable Tom Hewitt, the primary reason to see this production. With a plummy voice, a shock of ghostly white hair, a commanding stature and a swashbuckling way with a sword, he is a most persuasive Barrymore. After a slow opening scene packed with exposition, the play comes alive with Hewitt’s spectral entrance and is never particularly compelling when he is offstage.
Fortunately, most of I Hate Hamlet revolves around Barrymore and that TV actor Andrew Rally, star of the recently canceled L.A. Medical. He is played in full panic mode by Alex Walton, a good enough foil for Hewitt. He earns the audience’s empathy as Rally faces the challenge of spouting what his Hollywood director describes as “algebra on stage.” Walton carries much of the play, only to have the focus taken by Hewitt each time he arrives on the scene. Hewitt is dealt Rudnick’s best comic quips, but he also can switch gears and instruct Rally with a stirring recitation of Hamlet’s Advice to the Players.
Filling out the cast are Liz Shivener as Rally’s enthusiastic but virginal girlfriend, Natalie Cordone as his pushy New Yawk real estate broker and Jeanne Bemnett as his veteran agent, who once had a fling with Barrymore. While he may be giving the performance that director Bill Fennelly asked for, Patrick Halley is more annoying than necessary as Rally’s L.A. director who simply cannot fathom why anyone would choose the theater over more lucrative television.
Michael Schweikardt scenic design for Rally’s apartment is attractive and roomy, nicely lighted by Amanda Zieve with the occasional lightning bolt and otherworldly lamp flickers. Jupiter native Brittani Seach graduates from costume shop manager to designer with an aptly theatrical wardrobe, especially the tights and doublets for Barrymore and Rally.
Shakespeare-phobes need not worry about attending I Hate Hamlet. There is relatively little Elizabethan verbiage in Rudnick’s script. The Bard comes in for some good-natured ribbing, but never doubt that the play ultimately sides with Rally in his effort to take on the Melancholy Dane, no matter what those darned critics say.
I HATE HAMLET, Maltz Jupiter Theatre at The Benjamin School, 4857 Grandiflora Road, Palm Beach Gardens. Through Sunday, Feb. 20. $66-$91. 561-575-2223 or visit jupitertheatre.org.