RSVP : The House of ‘Hamlet’ : Film Premiere Proceeds to Help Build London Theater Center

Shakespeare might have repeated “All the world’s a stage” in the beams of the klieg lights at the world premiere of Franco Zeffirelli’s film version of “Hamlet” Tuesday night in Westwood.

“Hamlet” was first staged before an afternoon audience of “groundlings” (who paid a penny, sat on the ground and ate hazelnuts, the 16th-Century popcorn) and three galleries of seated Londoners and European visitors.

There were neither hazelnuts nor popcorn Tuesday evening, but the Bard would have marveled at the crowd of 1,525 and the post-screening gala planned by Joan Hotchkis and Robin Parsky to benefit the International Shakespeare Globe Centre, which will rise on the south bank of the Thames, opposite St. Paul’s, in London.

Construction is scheduled to begin in February, with the first performance on Shakespeare’s birthday (April 23) in 1993.

Well-equipped with parking passes, police escorts and perfect instructions, premiere guests were told to park at the Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center. In minutes, they were shuttled in double-decker buses and taxis to Mann’s Village Theater.

On cue, the paparazzi blitzed arrivals, including Don Johnson, who came in just a step ahead of Jean (Mrs. William French) Smith, chairwoman of the Southern California Committee for the Globe Centre, Robin and Gerry Parsky and Joan and John Hotchkis.

It was a night when everyone talked about favorite high school and college Shakespeare teachers and quoted the Bard. Malcolm Kingston, chairman of the Globe Centre’s western region board, noted there were 300 Shakespeare teachers in the audience, and said, “I hope you have an evening as you like it with not much ado about nothing and leave with a midsummer night’s dream.”

He introduced Sam Wanamaker, founder and vice chairman of the Globe Centre, as “the American who had the audacity to come to England and to re-create Shakespeare’s Globe.”

The popular, ever-smiling Wanamaker forgot that “brevity is the soul of wit,” and went on quite a few minutes. “This will still take several million (dollars) to achieve,” he said, “as we step into the second phase, an international facility (with an educational component).”

At the party, Mel Gibson (Hamlet) went straight to the Elizabethan boards, filled by Rococo Custom Caterers with rare roast beef and sausages, cabbage, soups and hot mulled wine reminiscent of the 16th Century.

Only after that was he willing to pose for photos. Glenn Close (Gertrude), Helena Bonham-Carter (Ophelia) and Zeffirelli were among the stars detailing the filmmaking for fans.

Warner Bros. underwrote the party and Warner chairman and CEO Bob Daly and his wife, Nancy, got kudos for that. In the crowd: John and Connie Gavin, Frank and Ann Johnson, Tamara Asseyev with Roger Smith, Peter and Annette O’Malley, Mary Hayley and Selim Zilkha, Liz and Thad Up de Graff, the Globe Centre’s western regional director, Kay Tornborg, Joni and Clark Smith, Irwin and Sue Russell, Helen Bing, Arrola and Lee DuBridge, Reese and Mary Milner, Hammer director Stephen Garrett, Charlton and Lydia Heston, Frani Ridder, Patrick Swayze, Marcia Israel, Samantha Eggar. Some of them moved upstairs and walked through the galleries of the new Hammer Museum. Others headed out for midnight present-wrapping.