Shakespeare"... of American Hamlets? I was too young to have seen Barrymore, but I suppose the three most notable American Hamlets since have been Stacy Keach, Kevin Kline and Sam Waterson. Kline was an athletic soldier-prince, a sort of Henry V with doubts, while Waterson suggested a scholar whose resolution was 'sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought.' But for me, the best of that bunch was Keach, whose neurotic passion and fierce poetry were quite wonderful."
Clive Barnes, New York Post, Sunday Dec 26, 1999
Those who love the theater will know that, in addition to the roles that have made him a popular television personality, Stacy Keach is also admired for the classical protagonists he's brought to life on stage, with renderings of Hamlet, Macbeth, and Richard III, that are widely considered to be among the finest interpretations those remarkable characters have ever received.
We're now in Mr. Keach's debt for another memorable performance, his splendid new recording of the Sonnets with which, in the words of a distinguished later poet, Shakespeare "unlocked his heart."
John F. Andrews, President, The Shakespeare Guild, Washington, DC February 7, 2000
Shakespeare Live Performances
Antipholus of Syracuse, COMEDY OF ERRORS, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, 1962.
Westmoreland, HENRY IV, PART 2, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, 1962.
Mercutio, ROMEO AND JULIET, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, 1963.
Berowne, LOVE'S LABOURS LOST, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, 1963.
Henry V, HENRY V, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, 1963.
Marcellus and The Player King, HAMLET, New York Shakespeare Festival, 1964.
Brutus, JULIUS CAESAR, L.A.M.D.A., (London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art) 1965.
Kent, KING LEAR, L.A.M.D.A., 1965. Banquo, MACBETH, Public Broadcasting (TV), 1966.
Feste, TWELFTH NIGHT, Public Broadcasting (TV), 1966.
Autolycus, WINTER'S TALE, Public Broadcasting (TV), 1966.
Coriolanus, CORIOLANUS, Yale Repertory Theatre, 1967.
Falstaff, HENRY IV, PARTS ONE AND TWO, New York Shakespeare Festival, 1968.
Edmund, KING LEAR, Lincoln Center, 1968.
Hamlet, HAMLET, Long Wharf Theatre, 1970.
Hamlet, HAMLET, New York Shakespeare Festival, 1971.
Hamlet, HAMLET, Mark Taper Forum, 1973.
Richard, RICHARD THE THIRD, The Shakespeare Theatre, Washington, 1990.
Brutus, JULIUS CAESAR, BBC/NPR(radio), 1994.
MacBeth, MACBETH, The Shakespeare Theatre, Washington, 1995.
