Broadway's commercial attempts at Shakespeare

Jude Law's 'Hamlet' is looking good

By ROBERT HOFLER

By ROBERT HOFLER

Something smells sweet in the state of Denmark.

The Jude Law "Hamlet," set to open Oct. 6 on Broadway, grossed an encouraging $236,145 in its first two previews. It’s safe to say that since this London transfer opened to upbeat reviews at the Donmar Warehouse, those two New York perfs did not include many ambulance chasers in search of a movie star’s onstage car crash.

Just down the street, the star turns of Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman in "A Steady Rain" brought in $767,663 over the show’s first five previews this month. But a more apt comparison for Law’s "Hamlet" would be drawn from the family of past Bard productions on Broadway. In 2005, the Denzel Washington iteration of "Julius Caesar" did $545,149 for its first eight previews, while nine years ago the Kelsey Grammer "Macbeth" did a non-inflation adjusted but still abysmal $99,156 for five previews and closed after only 13 perfs.

Grammer’s TV fans apparently did not want to see the Bard, and the Bard’s fans didn’t want to see Frasier. Less-than-stellar reviews and a lack of any Tony noms, however, did not prevent Washington’s return to the boards from being a big legit event, and his "Julius Caesar," after a limited run of 81 perfs, turned a profit. So did the 2008 production of the Patrick Stewart "Macbeth," after only 52 perfs. (After rave reviews at BAM and Chichester, the Stewart "Macbeth" did $176,718 for its first three previews on Broadway.)

Over the past decade, these four stagings mark Broadway’s only commercial attempts to bring Shakespeare to the legit masses. That’s not many offerings, given the fact that two out of three B.O. winners is much better odds than what Broadway usually gives producers.

The Law "Hamlet," though, looks on track to make it three out of four.

First off, the $2.5 million-ish production features a movie star whose onscreen persona is in synch with the moody, sexy, tragic character.

Second, it has the imprimatur of being a British class act, and snob appeal goes a long ways on Broadway, especially among the homegrown Anglophilic crix.

And third, lead producer Arielle Tepper Madover isn’t starting from scratch with this "Hamlet" the way producers did with the Washington "Julius Caesar" and the Grammer "Macbeth."

"We’ve brought over all the (Donmar) actors. (Director) Michael Grandage didn’t have time in his schedule to rehearse," says Tepper Madover, who claims that importing 20 thesps from the U.K. does make economic sense despite all those per diems and housing payments. "It totally works because you’re not paying rehearsal costs," she adds.

Having begun previews Sept. 12, "Hamlet" has a preview sked of nearly four weeks. Tepper Madover says the company doesn’t need the practice -- "they’re ready to go after 12 weeks at the Donmar" -- but the busy autumn sked and the Jewish holidays necessitated a longer preview period than originally anticipated.

The Washington "Julius Caesar" went with a lean four-week rehearsal followed by a four-week preview before the crix arrived.

But some artistic directors in the nonprofit sector say that’s generally not enough time.

"We usually do an extra week of rehearsal on Shakespeare. We will do five to six weeks, where four to five is normal," says the Public Theater’s Oskar Eustis. The extra time paid off this summer with the org’s staging of "Twelfth Night," starring Anne Hathaway, which the crix adored.

For the much-acclaimed "Henry IV" double-header, starring Kevin Kline in 2003, Lincoln Center Theater’s Andre Bishop recalls the schedule being "six weeks in the rehearsal room, two weeks of tech and a month of previews."

But commercial productions of limited engagements just can’t afford that kind of rehearsal time. Hence the penchant to transfer, a la the Law "Hamlet."

Homegrown productions of Shakespeare simply may need more time."The sad thing about the American theater is that most actors, outside of the Shakespeare Festival, just don’t get a chance to do Shakespeare that often," says Eustis, "and they aren’t as at ease with their Shakespeare lyrics as our British colleagues."

To that end, Eustis made vocal coaches available to his "Twelfth Night" actors as soon as they were cast, in some cases six months before rehearsals commenced.

And while having great actors is nice, they also have to be stars if any commercial producer is going to mount a Shakespeare play around them on Broadway.

Otherwise, "why would you want to?" says Carole Shorenstein Hays, lead producer of "Julius Caesar." "Art and commerce have to wed. It’s why it’s called showbiz."

Art aside, 20-actor ensembles represent a key challenge of mounting Shakespeare productions. On Broadway, that’s a weekly minimum nut of $32,000. And with 12 weeks being the usual performance sked, recoupment doesn’t allow for the usual snags of illness, strikes, winter storms, etc. The 1943 Paul Robeson "Othello," which clocked 296 perfs, remains the longest-running production of Shakespeare in Broadway history.

As for the art, it’s usually the excuse the stars give for bellying up to the Bard, although in truth most headliners supplement their lowball weekly salary with a percentage of the gross and/or profits.

Of the recent movie stars to essay the Bard on a Gotham stage, Hathaway is one of the few who can truly make "for the art" claim in doing "Twelfth Night." Under the League of Resident Theaters contract, under which Hathaway performed, Shakespeare in the Park thesps earn just $750 a week.