Eddie Izzard - Solo Hamlet

At the same venue he (she actually I think ?) recently did a solo Great Expectations.

He was on book when I saw his Great Expectations at Edinburgh fringe, had great potential but it suffered as a consequence of his Autism kicking in a couple of times. Hopefully a 60' rather than 90' show could be performed off book and I feel lead to a stronger performance.

Excuse my ignorance but how does one’s autism display itself in the middle of a scripted performance?

Are you talking about dyslexia?

BTW, has anyone seen a one man version of Hamlet before? Surely it must have been done already

Interesting reviews this one is getting.

It sounds like exactly what I’d expect from a vanity project Izzard-Hamlet. I’m just surprised he hasn’t pulled out his ‘James Mason’ voice for any of the characters.

Blimey. 1* from the Guardian. Even the Telegraph only gave it 4* - that's on the scale that also gave the Donmar Cherry Orchard 4*. The fact that it is on at the Riverside indicates it's a vanity project - that's mostly what they stage these days - I mean literally.

The Zeitgeist seems to be turning against Eddie Izzard. A few months ago I was surprised when Dara O Briain, who seems like an amiable chap, on a TV show specifically brought up the topic of Izzard doing his stand-up act in French and German and said "I don't think that was as successful as Eddie seemed to think it was". It made me think that maybe Eddie wasn't universally adored in the business.     

As I've been uncharitable maybe I should also note that EI's very early 1990s stand-up act was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. 

Opens tonight. If you do the maths on this it doesn't sound too ambitious: 30 performances, capacity 400 = 12K seats (1/2 an O2 arena, say).

But it's not selling well - availability on every nignt in June.

If Eddie is underwriting this himself, I'd imagine it might get quite sweaty in those tights ..

www.eddieizzardhamlet.com/buy?flow=WpMfjRzQ#/?month=2024-06

I wondered if it might do a 'Springtime for Hitler' with those reviews. 

The expensive seats at the front were full and people stayed after the interval.
At the back, in the more affordable seats, and at the sides there were very many empty rows and many folk left half way.
As she left, one lady said it was 'very mediocre'.

I think you underestimate quite how rich high-profile stand-up comedians are. For example Sean Lock who I wouldn’t say was one of the very top ones and who just did tours and a few panel shows, even after all the tax mitigation he must have done still left £4 million in his will. So I’m pretty sure Eddie Izzard could cover venue hire for a few weeks out of loose change.