Big Hamlet in the Big Apple

Billboard for Jude Law in a New York production of Hamlet.

There are more productions of Hamlet on Earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

My buddy Gregg Daniels just moved to New York City. He told me he was going to see Hamlet tonight. Trying to be clever, I attempted to Google the production before he could even tell me the name of the company that’s producing it. I was surprised to discover two separate productions of Hamlet being played tonight, April 9, 2010, in Manhattan (here and here)… and neither one of them was correct. And I’m probably missing a few more.

Sometimes it’s easy to forget exactly how much this show gets produced. It’s astounding, really, that with all the choices available, so many companies still expend time and effort and generate so much excitement over Hamlet; the story has so much cultural momentum in the English-speaking world that it continues to delight both theatre companies and theatergoers alike. I guess it’s just one of those stories that never gets old.