HAMLET AND CHEESE

By FRANK SCHECK

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Rating:

June 18, 2008

THE most interesting Hamlets convey an air of mystery, of ambiguity, that keeps us guessing: Just how crazy is he?

Sadly, there's no such mystery in Michael Stuhlbarg's turn as the melancholy Dane in the new Shakespeare in the Park production. Wailing loudly and beating his breast throughout, this is a Hamlet who's clearly gone around the bend.

Stuhlbarg is a talented actor who scored a Tony nod as the slow-witted brother in "The Pillowman" a couple of seasons ago. One hoped he'd knock the ball out of the park for this one, since he's obviously prepared for it, losing as many as 30 pounds for the role.

But his interpretation is far too fussy and mannered, sometimes bordering on the bizarre. In the famed "Get thee to a nunnery" speech, he makes his point by applying what looks like the Heimlich maneuver to a stunned Ophelia.

Director Oskar Eustis' modern-dress production is otherwise fairly straightforward, if inconsistent. Lauren Ambrose, who made such a luminous Juliet last summer, is an effective Ophelia, though her mad scene is marred by what looks like a sudden transformation into Courtney Love, complete with spiky hair and army boots.

Andre Braugher's Claudius reveals little of the actor's trademark intensity, and the normally reliable Margaret Colin is a bland Gertrude.

Far more enjoyable is Sam Waterston's folksy comic turn as Polonius. It's a pleasure to see the veteran actor, who played the title role decades ago, shake free from the dour cadences of his "Law & Order" character, Jack McCoy. And it's a shame that the invaluable Jay O. Sanders, who plays no fewer than three roles here (Ghost of Hamlet's Father, the Player King and the Gravedigger), couldn't have been assigned even more.

Running a slow-paced 3½ hours, the production offers scant visual pleasures. Its massive set looks less like an ancient castle than it does the exterior of a sewage treatment plant.

HAMLET