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Hamlet in Space: A Rock Opera
posted by Desdemona on Fri, Jul 7, 2006
in Irrelevance
I heard about this through a directing pal of mine on a separate e-mail discussion list:
Hamlet In Space. Oh, yes. As if the entire Shakespearean canon hasn't been subjected to enough degradation and mockery. Hamlet in Space is not only a "rock opera," but also a "concept album." I imagine it's what might have happened if the members of Pink Floyd and Andy Warhol flunked high school English together and then decided to vent their woes about it while on a severe LSD trip.
With the exception of the "in space" addition, the entire musical preserves Shakespare original text as lyrics--of course, taking the liberty to repeat certain refrains, as rock songs tend to do. With song titles like Suits of Woe, The Rest is Silence, and--of course--To Be Or Not To Be and Get Thee to a Nunnery, it's potentially so bad it could actually be good. Or at least funny. Or just plain bad, actually.
And, OF COURSE these people are German! Is there any culture that's more obsessed with deconstruction and post-post-modernism-slash-surrealism?
Do I hear Measure For Measure: The Musical in our future?
Comments
Oh those wacky Germans. Didn't they learn their lesson after Hamletmachine? As far as a Measure for Measure: The Musical goes . . . only if John Fisher writes and directs and Matthew Martin stars as Isabella. Until then, no dice.