TO BE OR NOT TO BE at MTC's Friedman Theatre

(Seen 10/19/08)

Nick Whitby's adaptation of this 1942 comedy film, set against a background of the Nazi scourge, is another forgettable exercise in bringing classic movies to a new incarnation on the Broadway stage.

Despite an otherwise capable and personable cast, director Casey Nicholaw is unable to overcome the script, and fails to elicit even passable performances from his cast. It becomes a disastrous display of how wrong a "black comedy" -- as the producers describe it -- can become a bleak tragedy.