Michael Sheen’s Hamlet almost a sell-out before it starts

ACTOR Michael Sheen has scored a major success with his return to the stage in Hamlet – before the production has even started.

The Young Vic Theatre, where Sheen will play the Danish prince from October 28 to January 21, yesterday announced the run was already virtually sold out.

A Young Vic spokeswoman said: “There are just a few seats left and it says something for the stature of Michael Sheen that seats have been selling like hot cakes for the past few months.”

Hamlet will be Sheen’s first Shakespearean role since 1997 when he won great acclaim for his portrayal of Henry V at the RSC.

Theatre experts say that at 42, Sheen, better known for uncannily realistic portrayals of real life characters like Tony Blair, Brian Clough and David Frost, is not too old to play Hamlet.

The last major Welsh star to play the role on stage was another Port Talbot actor, Richard Burton, whose Broadway version of Hamlet in 1964 was a major success.

Burton was 39 when his production achieved the longest run – at 137 performances – for the play in Broadway history.

Many Shakespeare scholars argue Hamlet was intended to be in his 20s and early texts have references to Hamlet being 30. But Shakespeare’s lead actor when the play was written, Richard Burbage, was well over 30.

Actor David Warner, who had rave reviews as Hamlet at Stratford 50 years ago when he was just 24, said: “I think Laurence Olivier was 41 when he took the title role in the film. I saw Sir Michael Redgrave play Hamlet at Stratford when he was 50.”

Michael Grandage, who directed Jude Law as Hamlet at the Donmar Theatre, added: “The role of Hamlet is so much more than the age of the character. He may be the son of Gertrude and a student, but he spends most of the play trying to discover the meaning of life and that isn’t only the journey of a young man…”

Source Thanks MSheenOnline