Benedict Cumberbatch in "Hamlet"

[besleybean]

Hamlet isn't my fave, either. I'm seeing Hamlet because I missed Benedict in Frankenstein and I just want to see him on the stage!

[besleybean]

Wow. Can't wait to see it!

[Boton]

The first review I've seen.  Not much analysis (it's the Daily Mail, after all), but at least there are what appear to be several photos of the actual production.  Most of the article is actually a repeat of an earlier piece about the ticket queue.

 

"Hamlet in a hoodie."

 

  :D

 

November, when I can see this through NTL, is going to be fun.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Apparently it was Mummy's birthday yesterday....

 

So it was -- the big eight-oh.  What a wonderful present!

[J.P.]

This is quite good too.
 

There is a man. He is in a play. And everyone has utterly lost their shit. I mean wholesale, clambering over each other for first grab, taking surreptitious photos in the theatre, following him from the stage door to his car, madness.
Those fans, eh?
Nope, it’s the journalists.

Hamlet: Anatomy of a Cumberkerfuffle

BTW, I notice - again - that we are in the wrong thread. Didn't remember that there was a special thread on Hamlet.

[Arcadia]

This is quite good too....

Hamlet: Anatomy of a Cumberkerfuffle

 

BTW, I notice - again - that we are in the wrong thread. Didn't remember that there was a special thread on Hamlet.

Many thanks to Jenny (sfmpco) for reawakening this thread. I must admit I'd forgotten about it, and apparently so had a lot of people, because we've been posting a lot of Hamlet stuff over on the regular Cumberbatch News thread. If any of the other Moderators feel like moving that stuff over here where it belongs, that would be terrific, but I don't have the time right now to untangle everything.

 

Anyhow, if you're looking for Hamlet news, you might want to check out the Cumberbatch thread as well.

 

Not any more!! As some of you may have noticed, I decided I've been useless long enough, so I've done as suggested and moved most of the Hamlet news to this thread. I've left the bulk of the subsequent rant discussion of the term "Cumberbitches" in the Cumberbatch News thread.

 

Enjoy!

[sfmpco]

Curtain call at Hamlet today...

 

https://instagram.com/p/6Dv8WeigoR/

[Carol the Dabbler]

I don't recall seeing either of these posted:

 

Review of Hamlet on Radio Times.

 

What if Sherlock played Hamlet?

 

[sfmpco]

Little bit of nothing after Hamlet night 1.

 

http://www.people.com/article/benedict-cumberbatch-wife-sophie-hunter-hamlet-premiere-london

[Inge l-w]

Good Heavens, no! He went and did it again! Where are Chancellor Gorgon and General Chang when you need them: " You have not experienced Shakespeare until you have read him in the original Klingon"!

Even more to the point, to use Sherlock's words: "Unlike the nicely embellished fictions on your blog, John, real life is rarely so neat": take a look at King Christian VI of Denmark and Norway, whose councillor was Jorgen Rosenkrantz ( ring any bells?) and who was roughly contemporary with the time the play was written. And King Christian was of the family of Oldenburg, a local nobleman!

[sfmpco]

Lots of backlash about the early reviews done by the Times and the Daily Mail.

 

https://www.thestage.co.uk/opinion/2015/mark-shenton-times-picked-wrong-time-review-benedict-cumberbatchs-hamlet/?utm_content=buffereedf4&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

[Arcadia]

I have to admit, I didn't know plays had preview runs, although it makes sense.

[J.P.]

Twitter is buzzing with the reactions...

What a mess. What a shame. What a pity that it all turned into a "scandal".

 

Fame is not an advantage.

[Boton]

Twitter is buzzing with the reactions...

What a mess. What a shame. What a pity that it all turned into a "scandal".

 

Fame is not an advantage.

 

Well, ultimately, it could be a good thing.  By jumping the gun, this may have flushed out the negative reviews that were going to happen anyway.  (And I have no idea if the negative review was deserved or if it was the desire to appear smart by panning something that could appeal to the populace; I'll decide that when I see it in November through NTL.)

 

The "official" reviews then, which will come out during the play's actual run, will be the ones that are more likely to be remembered.  And even those will be quickly forgotten.  Can anyone other than an ardent theater buff really remember what the critics said about Branagh or Tennant?

[J.P.]

Yes. But I can imagine it's not very pleasant for the staff and actors.

Suddenly it's not about the play itself, but the media behaviour - and it is not how it should be.

 

Still the irony is bittersweet.

[Inge l-w]

That is why Twitter is not considered a worthwhile or even reputable social medium. Scandal-mongering, gossip and attempts at "citizen journalism" in paparazzi MO are just not on! As for the critics of every medium, the same saying applies to them as to science teachers: Those who can...

[J.P.]

The problem was not the Twitter but TheTimes and Daily Mail articles published on their websites. Don't really know the british media, but AFAIK DM is yellow press and The Times had a reputation of a serious newspaper. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[Inge l-w]

The Daily Mail was always a tabloid, and anyway the review wasn't bad, but the Times was bought by the Australian equivalent of Magnussen nearly two decades ago. I trust the Daily Telegraph, The Independent and only partly the Guardian these days. Murdoch has been implicated in too many scandals already, he is the prototype of : "I am in news, you moron!"

I so very much want this effort to be even a moderate success for him, because Benedict is not Sherlock, he and his fellow actors can and will be hurt in their feelings. Commercially it's not a problem, whatever the critics may say, it's a sell-out, but I would not, for the world, have his confidence in his talent shaken right before a film and the hoped-for S4.

[jadpdr]

I shall keep my fingers crossed and hope to watch it when it is released for the cinema in November, but the press is a very unstable thing , especially the old tabloids.

[J.P.]

This is a quite balanced unofficial review.

[Inge l-w]

Dear J.P., you inadvertently dropped a bomb on me! I never really liked Hamlet ( or Macbeth, or Titus Andronicus or Timon of Athens) , my favourites being Henry V, Richard III, As You Like it, The Tempest, Coriolanus, and The Merchant of Venice, but this reviewer says that Ciaran Hinds is not up to the level of Sir Patrick Stewart! That is a catastrophe in the making if you know the play, never mind Horatio and Polonius and an inadequate Ophelia!

[Boton]

I would not, for the world, have his confidence in his talent shaken right before a film and the hoped-for S4.

 

I agree in principle that I don't like to see someone get hurt.  But negative reviews are part of an actor's life.  If he has not yet figured out how to shake off a bad review without letting it carry over into subsequent projects, then he's not nearly the actor that we all seem to think he is.  And I don't think that's the case.

[J.P.]

 

Dear J.P., you inadvertently dropped a bomb on me!

 

Ouch, sorry, does it hurt much?

It's still preview. And it's the reviewer's personal opinion. So maybe it's not too bad.

[J.P.]

First official pictures

[T.o.b.y]

I have decided not to read any reviews. None at all. I also will try not to look at pictures. The only thing I am going to do is read the play again and then I want to go to that cinema with a completely open mind and see what I personally think before I compare that with what other people thought.

 

Personally, I think I'd be happiest if they just put Benedict Cumberbatch on a stage and had him recite Hamlet's lines. Heck, he wouldn't even have to memorize them, he could read them out of a book for all I care. I just want to hear those words in that voice.