Space Hamlet is a madcap musical which reimagines Shakespeare’s most iconic tragedy with a cosmic twist. With an electrifying original score, adult language and puppet violence, Space Hamlet is an off-beat musical comedy for lovers of Shakespeare, Star Wars and the Muppets alike.
Daniel Sturman is a musical theatre writer and composer from the UK. His first outing was the 2011 New York “Pick of the Fringe” Zombie Wedding, co-written with R.C. Staab. More recently his show Yippie Ki Yay! – a musical for the Die Hard movie fans, enjoyed a sold-out regional production in the UK in 2023. He is currently leading the creative team for the 2024 Reddit Musical.
Tickets available here: https://www.thecockpit.org.uk/
1. What does turning Hamlet into a space opera allow you to do that a more traditional setting wouldn’t, especially thematically?
We knew we wanted a more heroic and melodramatic Hamlet than the internal and esoteric Hamlet you may expect in a traditional staging. When you think about it, Hamlet has ghosts, sword fights, warring kings, loads of murder and a pirate abduction. Its packed full of drama. Space Opera is melodrama with laser swords and aliens, and we could see every way Hamlet could be rocketed into such a universe. Ghosts? How about holograms? Sword fights? How about laser sword fights? A pirate abduction? How about a dogfight in hyperdrive? The Space Opera setting allows us to have a lot more fun. Oh and aliens!
2. Why link Bowie and the world of glam rock in particular to Shakespeare?
It’s actually linked to the Space Opera. We wanted the stomp, kitsch, face-melting rock, but also knew we needed some sophistication, and Glam and its cousin Art-Rock just spoke to use as the musical language of our show. Where it becomes specific to Hamlet himself, we wanted our guy to be an angsty young man who grows up. So we wanted angsty rock, but not punk as he’s he’s still a prince, so he needs some dignity and vocabulary, and who better to reference for that other than the original Space Rock prince himself?
3. What are the benefits and challenges of working on so many different roles in this production?
Space Hamlet is a multi-role show and if you count alien chorus, the cast are probably playing fifty roles among the eight of them. They’re a hard working cast and the show is a marathon. Everyone is a single, puppeteer, and rapid costume changer. The benefit is an electric, unstoppable stage energy. For writers this was a jigsaw puzzle of who is free to play what and when. There are no minor roles in the show, every multi-role character also is a main character – its a big song type show with loads of big moments and every gets their spotlight.
4. Do you and long-term collaborator R.C. Staab have a particular creative process when working together? How does it differ from your individual processes?
When we first started collaborating over 16 years ago, working across a five-hour time difference meant sending audio files back and forth, writing long email chains and waiting on slow uploads. demo tracks. Technology over the last decade has completely transformed our process. High-speed file sharing, cloud storage for scripts and sheet music and reliable video calls mean we can now hold real-time writing sessions, demo a song live and refine lyrics line-by-line as if we were in the same room. For our demos, we had musicians in Europe, Daniel overseeing them in England, R.C. working with actors in New York, Ohio and California to record vocal tracks. Yet, it sounds seamless. It’s turned an ocean-wide gap into just another step in our daily workflow. Our collaborative process is something approaching talk therapy. We plan our story develop our characters through conversation and bullet list beat sheets. All the while refining and refining until when its time to actually write a script or a song, everything you need is there. This system means you can see plot holes, see your theme, and know your characters before you start actual writing.