Alas, poor Shakespeare

Shakespeare's Globe in London stoops to (I think) new lows with their competition to "win Yorrick's skull." Why do we think they're doing this?

"Something is Rotten in the State of Denmark...

...and Arnold is here to take out the trash"

The Show Must Go On

If everything came to a halt whenever it rained in England, nothing would ever get done.

Henry V, Globe Theatre, London.

Hamlet, the Lion King

         In looking for appropriations of Shakespeare, I stumbled across an article claiming that Disney's The Lion King was actually an adaptation of Hamlet. At first, I was disbelieving. Having seen the children's movie many times when I was younger and again quite recently, I had never picked up on any Hamlet references. However, after I read the article, the similarities became apparent. For example, the parallel between Shakespeare's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and the silly, goofy Timon and Pumbaa. As a child, there is no way that I would have picked up on that link, and even having read Hamlet and seen the movie again, I missed it. This is partly because the characters do not function in the same way--Timon and Pumbaa are not employed by Scar to gauge Simba's mental state--but also because I don't look for Shakespeare in everything I read and watch.
         Other similarities, and more obvious ones, include the ousting of Mufasa by Scar, the jealous uncle, and scene in which Mufasa speaks to Simba via a ghostly cloud. In this way, The Lion King is more like Hamlet; however, the ending is obviously "Disney-fied." The movie doesn't end with all the characters lying dead, but rather with a happy ending fit for a children's movie. In this way, Disney has adapted some but not all of Hamlet, using elements that make for a good story, but creating things that make for a good ending.
         Having had The Lion King's secret story pointed out in this way makes me curious to know how many other innocuous Disney movies are hiding deeper stories and meanings.

Dmitry Shostakovich sets Sonnet 66

Here's a performance in English of Shostakovich's setting of Sonnet 66 (1940), included in a group of compositions innocently titled "Six Romances on Verses by English Poets." Of course this is not the text Shostakovich actually set to music; rather, he used the translation of the sonnet by Boris Pasternak (author of Dr. Zhivago and translator of several Shakespeare plays including Hamlet). Transliterated and Cyrillic Russian text available here.
You can listen to tantalizing bits of the Russian here (click on the "play" icon) or here. 
More info (in Russian) about this composition can be found on this site devoted to versions of Sonnet 66. They've even posted the sheet music.
In the middle of Russia's "Great Patriotic War," and three years into the depths of the Stalinist terror, what do you think was on Shostakovich's mind as he sat down to compose this piece?

A Country Star's Lyrics

Any country fans out there? - specifically, Taylor Swift fans? To write yet another love song, Swift fell back on the oldest love story of all time, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, for the lyrics of her song "Love Story." The song, and single of her 2008 album Fearless, transcends the concept of true love into the 21st century by renewing and modernizing the romantic image of the "star-crossed lovers." The music video enhances the song's transcending message of love by visually presenting the past and the present. Initially set in a present-day school with a teenage couple, the music video flashes back to the time of Romeo and Juliet, and has the present-day couple assume the roles of infamous lovers. This consequently, establishes the timelessness of love, and well, recaptures the classic story associated with true love - Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

The link first link is the "Love Story" music video. The second link is the song played with scenes from  the movie Romeo and Juliet (1968).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xg3vE8Ie_E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDa4ZPt7eVQ

The movie "Gnomeo and Juliet" is a very good adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, but it adapts the story to a modern lawn setting, and changes the story from a tragedy to a comedy.  The traditional Shakespearean tragedy ends with a death, and a comedy ends in a comedy.  This rendition results in no deaths, and Gnomeo and Juliet end up happily married.  They make many references to the original play, as well as to other Shakespeare plays.

The author John Green takes advantage of this tragedy/comedy concept in *SPOILERS* The Fault in Our Stars, where it ends in a death, but the narrator's final words are "I do."  This is a brilliant book that makes you laugh and cry, and the subtle Shakespeare reference adds to the majesty.