Rockabye Hamlet is a rock musical

Rock musical

A rock musical is a musical theatre work with rock music. The genre of rock musical may overlap somewhat with album musicals, concept albums and song cycles, as they sometimes tell a story through the rock music, and some album musicals and concept albums become rock musicals...

 with a book, lyrics, and music by Cliff Jones. It is based on the classic tragedy

Hamlet

The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...

 by William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

 and tells the story of a Danish

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 prince

Prince

Prince is a general term for a ruler, monarch or member of a monarch's or former monarch's family, and is a hereditary title in the nobility of some European states. The feminine equivalent is a princess...

 who plots revenge on his uncle for killing his father.

Production history

The show's original title was Kronborg: 1582. It was commissioned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...

, which first broadcast it as an episode of the radio

Radio

Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...

 series The Entertainers on December 1, 1973. The cast included Cal Dodd as Hamlet and Nancy White

Nancy White

Nancy White is a Canadian singer-songwriter, whose topical songs were a regular feature on CBC Radio from 1976 to 1994 on the public affairs show Sunday Morning...

 as Ophelia. It was staged by the Charlottetown Festival

Charlottetown Festival

The Charlottetown Festival is a seasonal Canadian musical theatre festival which runs from late May to mid-October every year since 1965.Named after its host city, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, since its inception the festival has showcased Canada's most popular and longest-running musical,...

 in 1974 and 1975, then toured eastern Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 with Brent Carver

Brent Carver

Brent Carver is a Canadian actor.Carver is known for a variety of stage and film roles, including The Wars, Kronborg: 1582, Lilies, Larry's Party, Elizabeth Rex, Millennium, Shadow Dancing, and Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love...

 as Hamlet and Beverly D'Angelo

Beverly D'Angelo

Beverly Heather D'Angelo is an American actress and singer.-Early life:D'Angelo was born in Columbus, Ohio, the daughter of Priscilla , a violinist, and Gene D'Angelo, a bass player and television station manager. She is of part Italian ancestry...

 as Ophelia.

Jones revised the show and retitled it Rockabye Hamlet for a Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 production that was staged as an all-out rock concert directed and choreographed by Gower Champion

Gower Champion

Gower Carlyle Champion was an American actor, theatre director, choreographer, and dancer.-Early years:Champion was born in Geneva, Illinois, the son of John W. Champion and Beatrice Carlisle. He was raised in Los Angeles, California, where he graduated from Fairfax High School...

. After 21 previews, it opened on February 17, 1976 at the Minskoff Theatre

Minskoff Theatre

The Minskoff Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre, located at 1515 Broadway in midtown-Manhattan. It is now showing the musical The Lion King, based on the Disney animated film of the same name....

 and closed after seven performances. D'Angelo reprised her role of Ophelia, and the rest of the cast included Larry Marshall as Hamlet, Alan Weeks as Claudius, Leata Galloway as Gertrude

Gertrude (Hamlet)

In William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, Gertrude is Hamlet's mother and Queen of Denmark. Her relationship with Hamlet is somewhat turbulent, since he resents her for marrying her husband's brother Claudius after he murdered the King...

, Kim Milford

Kim Milford

Richard Kim Milford was an American actor, singer-songwriter, and composer. He is best known for his acting in musicals such as The Rocky Horror Show and Jesus Christ Superstar. Born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, Milford grew up in Winnetka, Illinois where he attended New Trier High School...

 as Laertes, Rory Dodd

Rory Dodd

Rory Dodd is a Canadian rock vocalist who has performed many songs written by Jim Steinman. He is probably best known for singing the "Turn around, bright eyes" lyrics on Bonnie Tyler's version of "Total Eclipse of the Heart."...

 as Horatio

Horatio (character)

Horatio is a character from William Shakespeare's play Hamlet. A friend of Prince Hamlet from Wittenberg University, Horatio's origins are unknown, though he is evidently poor and was present on the battlefield when Hamlet's father defeated 'the ambitious Norway'...

, Meat Loaf

Meat Loaf

Michael Lee Aday , better known by his stage name, Meat Loaf, is an American hard rock musician and actor...

 as the Priest, and Christopher Chadman

Christopher Chadman

Christopher Chadman was an American dancer and choreographer who was nominated for Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards and was the winner of the Fred Astaire Award for his choreography for the 1992 revival of Guys and Dolls.Born in the Bronx, Chadman studied at the High School of...

 and Winston DeWitt Hemsley as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are characters in William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet. They are courtiers who are set by the king to spy on Hamlet, using their claimed friendship with him to gain his confidence. The characters were revived in W. S...

.

A studio cast recording featuring ten songs from the score was released on the Rising label. Vocals were provided by Cliff Jones, Rory Dodd, Cal Dodd, Lisa Hartt, and The Irish Rovers

The Irish Rovers

The Irish Rovers is a Canadian Irish folk group created in 1963 and named after the traditional song "The Irish Rover". The group is best known for their international television series, and renditions of traditional Irish drinking songs, as well as early hits, Shel Silverstein's "The Unicorn",...

.

In 1981, Jones revised the show once again. It was staged as Somethin' Rockin' in Denmark at the Odyssey Theatre in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

. In 2003, it was revived for a tour of schools in Canada.

In the summer of 2008, with a revised script and score by Jones, it was presented at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts in downtown Toronto by Larry Westlake and capricorn 9 productions.

Broadway song list

Act I

• Why Did He Have to Die?
• The Wedding
• That It Should Come to This
• Set It Right
• Hello-Hello
• Don't Unmask Your Beauty to the Moon
• If Not to You
• Have I Got a Girl for You
• Tis Pity, Tis True
• Shall We Dance
• All My Life
• Something's Rotten in Denmark
• Denmark Is Still
• Twist Her MInd
• Gentle Lover
• Where Is the Reason
• The Wart Song
• He Got It in the Ear
• It Is Done

Act II

• Midnight-Hot Blood
• Midnight Mass
• Hey....!
• Sing Alone
• Your Daddy's Gone Away
• Rockabye Hamlet
• All By Yourself
• The Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Boogie
• Laertes Coercion
• The Last Blues
• Didn't She Do It for Love
• If My Morning Begins
• Swordfight