Jude Law Lunacy

Yesterday was the much awaited matinee performance of Hamlet featuring Jude Law in the title role. We were all worried that he wouldn't show up to perform since he hasn't been performing in all of the matinees. However, I was plesantly surprised to see the curtain rise on his bowed head and could tell straight away from the hairline that it was him. We had really horrible balcony seats as the play has been sold out, which reallllyyy sucks when you're used to the front row!! We were basically viewing the top of the actor's heads rather than their faces which I found really took away from the emotional connection the actors generally have had with the audience in the other productions we have seen.

Since Hamlet is my favorite play by Shakespeare, I really had my hopes up to see a moving and intense production. Unfortunately the performance fell very flat for me. The costumes and the sets were all very drab in gray and black. This made Gertrude's telling Hamlet to "Cast thy nighted color off" completely irrelevant as it looked as if the whole court were still in mourning rather than just Hamlet. The actors did not seem to have any chemistry with eachother. There were some stand out individual performances. Kevin McNally as Claudius did a good job. But it was pretty much The Jude Law Show. He even had his own individual curtain call. Some in our group didn't enjoy his performance but I enjoyed it very much. He played Hamlet in kind of the same air as Mel Gibson's Hamlet. I felt he was a very active and animated Hamlet. And if nothing else, he's at least the hottest Hamlet I've ever seen!!

The Jude Law Lunacy kicked in around 10pm when a group of us headed back to the theatre to get Jude's autograph since he didn't come out between shows. It was madness. We waited for over an hour with the group accumulating as the night wore on. Luckily I had a front row spot so I had an excellent view and received one of the first autographs. He was very polite when I asked for a picture. He wasn't able to take individual shots due to the size of the crowd, but when he was signing something over my head I turned around and got one with myself and his arms! It was madness trying to get out of the que. I pretty much had to push people out of my way to be able to breathe again.

Overall, I felt it was a bit ironic that I live so close to Hollywood and all of the movie premieres that go on in Westwood, yet this was the first time I've actually stood and waited to meet an actor/actress. Go figure.

On another note, today I went to an Evensong service at Westminster Abbey. It was sooo extremely beautiful inside. The service was very different from what I'm used to and not very personal, but I think it may be the most accoustically pleasing building I've ever been in. The choir sounded beautiful.