Spirited `Hamlet' Is Fun And Challenging

----------------------------------------------------------- "Hamlet: The Musical" by Eddie Levi Lee and Rebecca Wackler, music by Phillip Depoy; based on the play by William Shakespeare. Directed by Eddie Levi Lee. At Annex Theatre, 1916 Fourth Ave., Thursday-Saturday through Jan. 30. -----------------------------------------------------------

If England's Prince Charles thinks he has problems, he should consider Hamlet.

The conflicted young Dane has to deal with a two-timing mother (Gertrude), a murdered father who comes back as a Major Dad ghost, a sleazy uncle turned step-papa (Claudius), and a cuckoo girlfriend (Ophelia). All this, and his chainsaw belches smoke.

Shakespeare's fabled Prince of Denmark thrashes through all the usual woes plus a few extra ones in "Hamlet: The Musical," a spirited, go-for-broke adaptation of the famous drama by Eddie Levi Lee and Rebecca Wackler.

Produced jointly by Annex Theatre and the new Left Coast Theatre Company, the show is adroitly staged by Lee and dynamically performed by an eager young cast. It keeps scampering back and forth between parody and poetry, shtick and homage, having it both ways: serious and nutty.

For about the first half hour, "Hamlet: The Musical" behaves like a hyperactive cartoon. It also looks like one: working the usual Annex miracles with a zero-sum budget, designer Gary Smoot makes a Denmark out of two crazy-color throne chairs and an area adorned with Mexican Day of the Dead symbols - skulls, skeletons, and so forth.

A suited-up, pony-tailed Hamlet (Michael Lerner) delivers the upbeat opening tune, "Daddy Died" with three stumblebum sidekicks (Edd Key, Jillian Armenante and Michael Shapiro) in phony moustaches.

On the scene, too, are a dazed Ophelia (V. Joy Lee), a Gertrude who looks like Liz Taylor at her trashiest (Shelly Wenk), a smirking Claudius (Doug Rosson) in a lounge lizard tux and a Yiddish-accented Polonious (Bill Johns) who punctuates some lines with "oy!."

If the too-broad opening gags went on unabated, this would just be a long skit. But though considerably pared down, Shakespeare's text is treated with respect. And after the intent Lerner speaks a couple of the soliloquies straight, it's obvious the adapters aren't obscuring the poisonous tragedy of Hamlet's situation - just emphasizing the absurdity of it.

We've got solid music here, too - 10 eclectic tunes (composed by Philip Dupoy) that goose along the plot.

The cast members (rounded out by Theresa Holmes) gamely double as instrumentalists and, after a fashion, as dancers. Lerner totes the heaviest burden: Before he dresses punky and wields that ecologically incorrect chainsaw, he has to be convincing as a semi-classical Hamlet. Lerner manages to keep his focus even when engulfed by silliness, but he needs to work on the tough Act II soliloquies.

When comedy gets stressed, Rosson stands out: his shifty-eyed maneuvering is a delight. In a darker vein, V. Joy Lee makes Ophelia's descent into street-lady madness oddly touching.

It's telling that "Hamlet: The Musical" gives Ophelia some compassion, and doesn't score cheap laughs off the multiple murders .

But there's a lot to keep the laughers busy and Annex Theatre regulars happy - like the ludicrous spectacle of a woman trying to sing a ballad while a bagpiper pipes, a pizza gets delivered, someone cartwheels across the stage and somebody else hops around on a pogo stick.

It's madness, for sure. But there's method in it.