NewsHamlet opens on Broadway
Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who plays Ophelia opposite Jude Law in Michael Grandage's Hamlet as part of the ‘Donmar in the West End' season, opens in the production on Broadway on Tuesday 6 October. It will play at the Broadhurst Theatre until 6th December.
Gugu, who recently finished touring in the National Theatre's production of David Hare's new play, ‘Gethsemane', was nominated for a Manchester Evening News Best Actress award for her first performance as a Shakespearean heroine, Juliet, at the Royal Exchange in 2005.
Michael Grandage was extremely complimentary when the casting was announced in the Daily Mail; ‘She gave the most sensitive and heartbreaking reading, and Jude and I were very, very clear that she was our girl.' The Observer and The Telegraph also talked to Gugu in advance of the opening.
"Nothing is rotten in the state of this production. All the relationships are beautifully pitched. Even Hamlet and the barefoot ghost of his father (a mellifluous Peter Eyre) are a credible father and son, while Laertes (Alex Waldman) and Ophelia (the fresh faced and youthful Gugu Mbatha-Raw) make for a touching brother and sister."
**** Julie Carpenter, First Night Review, Daily Express.
"The best support comes from Gugu Mbatha-Raw, whose touchingly bewildered Ophelia goes quietly mad instead of indulging in a psychiatric cabaret turn."
*** Michael Billington, First Night Review, The Guardian.
"Gugu Mbatha-Raw is simply the sweetest, prettiest and most pitifully vulnerable Ophelia I have ever seen."
**** Urmee Khan, The Telegraph