Final Comedy of Dressing Room Theatre season: I Hate Hamlet

The ghost of John Barrymore, a 29 year-old virgin and an actor who admits hating Shakespeare's Hamlet, are just three of the characters who make I Hate Hamlet a fun night of theatre at Curtain Call's Dressing Room Theatre. Beginning May 2, this marks the first time Paul Rudnick's witty comedy has played Curtain Call.

Rudnick’s 2007 essay in The New Yorker magazine, aptly titled “I Hit Hamlet,” describes how he came to rent a “medieval duplex,” once the home of legendary actor John Barrymore. Rudnick researched the connection of Barrymore to this apartment and soon became inspired to write I Hate Hamlet.

Barrymore, best known today as the grandfather of actress Drew Barrymore, played the Danish prince for 101 performances on Broadway in 1922. From there, he went on to a lucrative Hollywood film career in motion pictures. But now he’s a ghost, played by Stamford’s Brian Bianco, Curtain Call’s education director.

I Hate Hamlet is about a young and successful television actor – Andrew Rally - who relocates to New York. With his television career in limbo, the actor is offered the opportunity to play Hamlet onstage in New York’s Shakespeare in the Park, but there's one problem: he hates Hamlet. His dilemma deepens with the entrance of John Barrymore's ghost, who arrives intoxicated and in full costume to the apartment that once was his. Barrymore eventually helps Andrew deal with the rest of his zany life: a slightly off-kilter girlfriend an aggressive real estate broker, his elderly agent and a pushy LA friend.

The cast of six, under the direction of Debra Lee Failla, includes Chris Balestriere, Brian Bianco, Kendall Callaghan, Dana DiCerto, Parke Stevenson and Gail Yudain. Production design is by Peter Barbieri, Jr., costumes by Terry Hanson and stage management by Jan Ursone with Seth Barkan and Martha Dombroski.

“I Hate Hamlet is one of those shows I’ve seen many times and have wanted to work on for a while,” said Lou Ursone, Curtain Call’s executive director and producer for the show. “It’s very witty and lots of fun for theatre folks, but it’s also incredibly enjoyable for all who see it…especially those who don’t have an affinity for The Bard,” Ursone added.

Failla said, “My directing projects over the last eight years have been made up of musicals and dramas, so it’s wonderful for Lou to give me the opportunity to get back to a genre I adore, comedy.” She added, “In casting our production, I needed six actors who could not only nail their characters but work as a strong ensemble, and that is what I got and more. They’re all thinking actors who bring ideas and questions to rehearsals. It’s been a fabulous collaborative process.”

Performances will be held Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings at 8:00PM and Sunday afternoons at 2:00PM, beginning May 2 and continuing through May 19. (there is no performance Saturday, May 18.) The Dressing Room Theatre is located at The Sterling Farms Theatre Complex, 1349 Newfield Avenue, Stamford, CT. Seating is cabaret-style with a BYOEverything format. Doors open one hour before show time. Tickets are $35 for adults, $25 for senior citizens and $17.5 for children. Thrifty Thursday tickets are $27.50. Box Office: 203-461-6358 x 36 or on the web at www.curtaincallinc.com.

Curtain Call's 28th season will wrap up with Big River in June ... the summer season will include Much Ado About Nothing (outdoor free Shakespeare on the Green program in July) and Matilda, the summer youth theatre production in August. Additional information is available at www.curtaincallinc.com or by calling 203-329-8207.

Curtain Call is the non-profit community-based theatre company in residence at The Sterling Farms Theatre Complex, 1349 Newfield Avenue in Stamford. Year-round productions and educational workshops for all ages are presented by and for area residents in The Kweskin Theatre and The Dressing Room Theatre.

Curtain Call was voted Fairfield County's BEST LOCAL THEATRE GROUP ten years running in the Annual Readers' Poll of the Fairfield County Weekly and has received similar BEST OF awards from Stamford Magazine and StamfordPlus magazine for 2008 through 2019. Curtain Call received The Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts in 2011 and the ACE Award for Excellence in Arts & Culture from the Cultural Alliance of Fairfield County.