Happy 451st Birthday, Shakespeare!

It's Shakespeare's (possible, but conjecturally extrapolated) birthday! Let's take a moment to celebrate the works of one of the world's greatest and most sensationalist storytellers.

Part of the reason I enjoy Game of Thrones so much is that so much of its plot resembles a Shakespearean history play... but on steroids, with more magic and less complicated family trees. If you think Shakespeare is boring, just think of it as Game of Thrones: Elizabethan-Style. It's just as entertaining.

Happy Birthday, Shakespeare! 

The Sound of Hamlet, part 7

The Sound of Hamlet
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13

We're back with some more Rodgers and Shakespearstein musical goodness today with everybody's favorite song about yodeling goats.

I'm just going to say.... if that yodeling goat is every found mysteriously murdered, there will be no shortage of suspects.

I'm taking a short break from The Sound of Hamlet on Thursday to celebrate Shakespeare's birthday, but next week we'll be into the home stretch. We're running out of songs! And plot. 

The Sound of Hamlet, part 6

The Sound of Hamlet
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13

It happens in every production of Hamlet - you reach Act 3, Scene 1, and you can hear the audience hold it's collective breath for a moment... followed by the suppressed sound of hundreds of people trying very hard not to say the words along with the poor actor on stage.

It is the "to be or not to be" speech.

Similarly, in every production of the Sound of Music you can hear people trying very hard not to sing along to "Do Re Mi".

It's the same thing.

Phew. Thank goodness that's over.

Tune in next week for the Murder of Gonzago, in which there may or may not be goats!

The Sound of Hamlet, part 3

The Sound of Hamlet
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13

When we last left my dubious Sound of Music/Hamlet mash-up spectacular, Hamlet was about to go up and see the ghost everyone has been talking about...

No one's really sure what hebanon is supposed to be...

Tune in Thursday to see how to solve a problem like our Hamlet!

The Sound of Hamlet, part 1

The Sound of Hamlet
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13

Since nobody rioted over my last Shakespeare/Musical Theater mash-up  so I thought I might try another one. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the release of The Sound of Music film adaptation, starring Julie Andrews and acclaimed Shakespearean actor Christopher Plummer. To celebrate, I have taken this most-beloved of musicals and unceremoniously mashed it together with that most-beloved of Shakespeare plays... Hamlet.

We start with an abbreviated rendition of the title song:

The next song is based on "An Ordinary Couple", which was cut from the film version and replaced by "Something Good". It's occasionally replaced in stage productions as well, so it's not very well-known. (I don't particularly like it, but it's a great song for Claudius to sing.)

Finally, we have the song that ousted "An Ordinary Couple" - "Something Good".

Tune in again on Thursday for part 2 of The Sound of Hamlet!