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MPC THEATRE COMPANY |
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2007 Main Stage Season |
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MPC THEATRE COMPANY |
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2007 Main Stage Season |
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I Hate Hamlet by: Paul Rudnick Andrew Rally seems to have it all: celebrity and acclaim from his starring role in a hit television series; a rich beautiful girlfriend; a glamorous, devoted agent; the perfect New York apartment; and the chance to play Hamlet in Central Park. There are, however, a couple of glitches in paradise. Andrew's series has been canceled; his girlfriend is clinging to her virginity with unyielding conviction; and he has no desire to play Hamlet. When Andrew's agent visits him, she reminisces about her brief romance with John Barrymore many years ago, in Andrew's apartment. This prompts a séance to summon his ghost. From the moment Barrymore returns, dressed in high Shakespearean garb, Andrew's life is no longer his own. Barrymore, fortified by champagne and ego, presses Andrew to accept the part and fulfill his actor's destiny. The action becomes more hilarious with the entrance of Andrew's deal-making friend from LA, spouting the laid-back hype of the Coast and offering Andrew a fabulous new TV deal worth millions of dollars. The laughs are nonstop as Andrew wrestles with his conscience, Barrymore, his sword, and the fact that he fails as Hamlet in Central Park. "...unapologetically silly and at times hilarious... affectionately amusing about the theatre..." -The New York Times "... fast-mouthed and funny...It has the old-fashioned Broadway virtues of brightness without pretensions and sentimentality without morals." -The Village Voice About John Barrymore: JOHN BARRYMORE (1882-1942). American stage and screen actor. John Barrymore was literally "born" to the theater. His father was a successful actor, and John, his brother Lionel, and their sister Ethel were raised by a grandmother who operated a popular theater in Philadelphia. When Lionel and Ethel chose acting careers, it was almost inevitable that John would join what was to become known as the "royal family of the theater." "Acting, romance, and drinking occupied John Barrymore about equally," wrote Hollis Alpert in The Barrymores. John was remarkably successful at all 3: For a decade he was America's preeminent actor, setting standards of performance that some critics say have never been equaled; he was married and divorced 4 times, the 4th marriage, at 53, to a girl of 19; and he lived and died a chronic alcoholic. Gene Fowler, in his biography of Barrymore, estimates that ". . . in 40 years he consumed 640 barrels of hard liquor." John's career began to decline in 1934 when he appeared on a movie set ". . . in so dazed and drunken a condition that he was unable to remember any of the words of his new script." Failing memory and failing health plagued him the rest of his life. His last years were spent performing roles that parodied his former greatness--when he was not in the hospital, or on extravagant trips aboard his yacht in a futile search for a "cure" for his alcoholism. He made an enormous amount of money in his lifetime, but after his death in 1942, his effects were sold at auction to satisfy his creditors. source: http://www.trivia-library.com
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Monterey Peninsula Community Theatre
Company Charitable Trust 07/14/2007 14:39:38 |
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