Kronborg: 1582

Kronborg: 1582

Kronborg: 1582 (other titles: Rockabye Hamlet, Something's Rockin' in Denmark, Hamlet - The Musical). Rock musical by Cliff Jones after Shakespeare's Hamlet. Commissioned by the CBC, Kronborg: 1582 was premiered 1 Dec 1973 on CBC radio's 'The Entertainers' with Cal Dodd as Hamlet and Nancy White as Ophelia. It was staged at the Charlottetown Festival in 1974 and 1975, and toured eastern Canada in 1975, with Brent Carver as Hamlet and Beverly D'Angelo as Ophelia. Renamed Rockabye Hamlet and substantially revised by Jones under the direction of the producer Gower Champion, it opened 17 Feb 1976 at the Minskoff Theater on Broadway and closed after only seven performances. Though the Broadway cast was largely from the US, D'Angelo retained her role as Ophelia. A recording of songs from Rockabye Hamlet was released on the Rising label (RILP 103). The musical was subsequently revised by Jones as Somethin' Rockin' in Denmark and produced successfully in 1981 at the Odyssey Theatre in Los Angeles, where it had an extended run. In 2003, the show was revived for a tour of schools in Canada.