Scottish-born actor, David Tennant, best known across the pond as Dr. Who in the Saturday night serial of the same name, will take at least a season off from that show to play Shakespeare’s moodiest Dane, Hamlet for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Rest assured, this isn’t some David Duchovny as Jacques stunt casting.

From What’s Onstage: “While now best known to TV fans for his adventures in the Tardis, Tennant’s early career also included two seasons with the Royal Shakespeare Company, where his Shakespearean roles included Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, Touchstone in As You Like It (for which he won an Ian Charleson Award commendation) and Antipholus of Syracuse in The Comedy of Errors. ”

“His last London stage appearance was at the National in the 2003 premiere of Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman (pictured here), while his last full stage production was a revival of Look Back in Anger, which ran in Edinburgh and Bath in 2005.”

So his acting resume leaves me confident that he has the chops to play the part, but his casting in this role, given his now broader appeal as a television star, puts him into a growing category of “celebrity casting” that has been seen in the West End (and of course in the States) of late.

Daniel Radcliffe in Equus, Nicole Kidman in La Ronde, Jake Gyllenhaal in This is Our Youth, and Cate Blanchett in Plenty all received good notices abroad and brought a fan-base to the theatre that may not have been there otherwise–and who will hopefully venture there again.

On the other hand, Madonna in Up For Grabs (and long ago in Oleanna) was not such a stellar success. I saw Kim Catrell in Whose Life Is It Anyway in London a couple of years ago, and was sorely disappointed. Would I have gone if her name had not been above the title? Probably not. Such is the chance we take when we let such celebrity casting dictate our theatrical forays.

I’d say Mr. Tennant is a safe bet as Hamlet, but regarding celebrity casting in general, I advise that you think twice before being mesmerized by the star power drawing you in. Or as our favorite Danish Prince might say, “It is a custom more honour’d in the breach than the observance.”

Update: Before I could even publish this post, we learn from Playbill.com that Patrick Stewart will play Claudius in this production. I probably needn’t list his credentials, but the same ideas apply re: the “star” in this case can act too…

2 Comments to “To See or Not To See: Dr. Who as Hamlet”

1. SFG — September 27, 2007 @ 10:33 pm
   

   You know this is going to be sold out, and not by theater fans. It’s the ultimate nerd twofer. Sorta of a trans-Atlantic geekfest.

2. Eric — September 28, 2007 @ 1:32 pm
   

   SFG–Now that you mention it, I’m predicting that the audience is going to be somewhat similar to the <i>Spamalot</i> demographic.

   Oh well–theatre geeks, Trekies, Dr. Who nerds–whatever gets butts in the seats, eh?

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