Hamlet is The Lion King...

...well I suppose it is more appropriate to say that The Lion King is strongly based on Hamlet. That being said this serves as a critique to the performance of Hamlet I saw last night at the National Theatre. Let me begin by saying that I am by no means a Shakespeare expert other then reading three of his plays in high school in addition to the sonnets. My only knowledge of Hamlet was the brief synopsis Welsh tried to give me once, but I stopped him mid-sentence after I realized that it was basically The Lion King (minus the Elton John music of course).

This was a modern day performance of Hamlet, so it was not performed like it would be if you were to see it at the Globe. I do like that in the fact that I did not have to stand during the performance, which given the typical London weather would have been most likely in the rain. In addition, the modern influences, such as music and the use of mimes during Hamlet's performance to see if his uncle did indeed murder his father added to the confusion. Given the use of old English, I think that in the context of a true Shakespearean setting the average theatre fan, like myself would be better able to understand it.

The first three acts were the quickest two hours of my life I must say. I spent the first act or so trying to correlate every character with their respective Lion King character. That was good because it helped me understand how their character was going to develop over the course of the play, or so at least I thought. Although I did end up spending a few moments thinking what the name was of Simba's mother, who is here represented by Gertrude. (It's Sarabi by the way). 

I would say by the fourth act the similarities between The Lion King and Hamlet totally diverge. Obviously the death of Hamlet is not replicated by Simba's death. Basically everyone else doesn't die at the end of The Lion King except for Scar.

I do have issues with the casting. I spent almost four acts trying to figure out what kind of relation there was between Polonius and Ophelia. Maybe I had missed when they mentioned their relation, but given the fact that GW had us in the last row of the balcony, just by looking at them you wouldn't assume they were related. Polonius was this jolly fat white guy and Ophelia looked like she could have been Iranian or possibly biracial. That being said I was really thrown a curve when Laertes was a black guy. I was able to pick up though that he was Ophelia's brother. The different races added to the confusion, despite the great acting done by the performers. I just couldn't make the connection. It was kind of like when Whoopi Goldberg was in Something Funny Happened on the Way to the Forum.

I thought the acting was great, especially Hamlet's. The only thing that seemed odd was Laertes's reaction to the fact that Ophelia was dead. I know he said he was not going to mourn, but he didn't even come off as stoic. He kind of just stood there, almost seeming like he forgot his lines. Maybe that was just me though...

Overall though I would say that it was a very good performance, and I am glad that I got to see a Shakespeare performance in London. Although it maybe is a tad bit too long, no offense Shakespeare.

Fun fact, while doing the research for this post about what Simba's mother's name was I realized that the voices of Mufasa and Sarabi were James Earl Jones and Madge Sinclair respectively. They also played King Jaffe Joffer and Queen Aoleon in the hilarious Eddie Murphy comedy, Coming To America. Yes I know I procrastinate way to much.