the Rice Thresher

Issue date: 3/14/08 Section: Entertainment

Media Credit: Taylor Johnson Horatio (Jason Holly, left), Hamlet (Payton Odom, center) and the messenger (Joe Dwyer, right) ham it up with the ghost of Hamlet's father (Dan Nelson, back) in one of the many song and dance numbers in Wiess Tabletop Theater's quadrennial musical.

The pressure of high expectations is a powerful motivator. Gleaned from 40 years of tradition and amidst the bustle of Beer-Bike festivities, this year's production of the original Rice play Hello Hamlet! delivers a polished diamond of a show, jam-packed into two hours of comedic pleasure and Monty Python-like humor.

Director Caitlin Miller's attention to detail pays off in a show that is not merely a reproduction of the original script written by George Greanias (Wiess '70) in 1967, but a revamped and edited version, with almost a third of the songs modified to keep the jokes relevant and the audience engaged. While some musicals drag with a large load of song and dance numbers, this Wiess Tabletop Theater production does just the opposite. The fast pace of the show flows seamlessly with the good-humored parodies of famous musical numbers, ranging from Les Misérables to Fiddler on the Roof.

Although familiarity with Broadway classics greatly adds to enjoyment of the musical, the orchestra does the songs justice even for viewers without the nostalgia of a large repertoire. With less than a month of practice, they do a fine job on iconic pieces like "Cellblock Tango" from Chicago and "The Phantom of the Opera" from The Phantom of the Opera.

Baker College junior Payton Odom plays the reluctant hero Hamlet, a whiny, wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time poet who makes a hilarious fuss struggling to find the right words before bursting out into the big song and dance numbers more comfortable for his character. Odom, who is a member of the Rice Philharmonics, has one of those rare male voices as full and strong as the baby grand accompanying them. Like Shakespeare's original Hamlet, who is flittingly indecisive with his actions but dwells on his internal torment in profound monologues, Odom's characterization of Hamlet is similarly hard to pin down and the viewer cannot encapsulate it as easily as the protypically rotten bad guys. Nevertheless, as he jumps from cavalier to prissy, his distinctive lack of heroism is endearing.

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