TV REVIEW : Kevin Kline’s ‘Hamlet’ Plagued by Stuffiness

No one makes Shakespeare boring on purpose, not even the BBC, which has done it a lot. Good American actors, less bound up by tradition, have often brought fresher, brasher takes to their Shakespeare. The freshness only fails them when they begin to take the material or themselves too seriously.

The point is rudely brought home in the Kevin Kline “Hamlet” that airs tonight (9 on Channels 15 and 24; 9:30 on Channel 28) on “Great Performances.” There is irony in the program’s name, because Kline’s performance as the neurotic prince wants to be great. It works at being great. It seems to believe in its greatness. But it’s not great. Only predictable.

Some of the reasons for the disappointment are easy to identify. First, the setting and camera angles. Kline, who with Kirk Browning also directed this “Hamlet,” which he first staged last May at New York’s Public Theatre, keeps the action on a visually dull theater stage. His shots are overdesigned in self-important ways.

Martin Pakledinaz’s mix of costumes (roughly Edwardian to modern) is never more than pedestrian. Osric’s foppishness, at the capable but powerless hands of Leo Burmester, is reduced to an actor waving a derby a bit more extravagantly than he normally might.

More perniciously, Kline’s Hamlet takes his cue from any one of the celebrated British ones, most notably John Gielgud’s, and delivers not a single surprise. It is clear, well spoken, plodding and blank. The words feel pre-digested, the poses struck for effect.

If Kline’s performance seems more a cloning than a creation, Josef Sommer’s Polonius is merely recycled. We’ve heard the same droning tones before. This studied imitation of art infects much of the company, including Michael Cumpsty’s smug Laertes and Brian Murray’s earnest Claudius.

Miraculously, Diane Venora’s Ophelia escapes this contagion of stuffiness. She delivers a plain but glowing girl, whose descent into madness is as moving as it is unvarnished. She almost makes it worth wading through the rest of the play to get to her harrowing, uncompromising mad scenes.

But not quite. This blunted “Hamlet” goes through its motions with too few genuine emotions. It is facade without foundation. Except for a vigorous exchange between Hamlet and a tormented Dana Ivey as Gertrude in the closet scene, there’s not much chemistry, anguish or passion anywhere.

“My words fly up, my thoughts remain below,” says the guilty Claudius at prayer. “Words without thoughts never to heaven go.” Or to anyplace else. A warning this production should have heeded.

By coincidence, Bravo is presenting Laurence Olivier’s Academy Award-winning 1948 “Hamlet” tonight at 8 and 12:30 a.m. For those who have access to the cable channel, it should make an interesting contrast.

(The PBS “Hamlet” also airs Saturday at 9 p.m. on KOCE Channel 50.)