Cumberbatch ‘magnificent’ in Hamlet role

It’s a Hamlet with Hollywood-level hype and an A-list star, Benedict Cumberbatch. But London’s latest stage sensation is more than a Shakespearean star vehicle.

The play’s the thing, and this sold-out production has a visual wow factor as big as its lead actor. It’s mounted at the Barbican Theatre on a vast set of crumbling opulence by Es Devlin, who has designed stadium shows for U2, Kanye West, Lady Gaga and others.

“When the curtain went up on the set, I slightly gasped,” said Cumberbatch’s Sherlock costar Mark Gatiss after Tuesday’s opening night, attended by Cumberbatch’s wife Sophie Hunter, Sherlock’s Martin Freeman and Downton Abbey stars Dan Stevens and Allen Leech.

“I thought it was magnificent,” Gatiss said.

The response from critics Wednesday was more mixed, with many finding the subtle lead performance at odds with director Lyndsey Turner’s bravura staging. The production has a cinematic scope, using freeze-frame moments and stylized movement to underscore the drama — or, some felt, undermine it.

The Daily Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish judged Cumberbatch “a blazing, five-star Hamlet trapped in a three-star show.” The Guardian’s Michael Billington said the actor was “a good, personable Hamlet” but panned a “dismal” production “full of half-baked ideas.”

Kate Maltby in The Times said Cumberbatch was a “thrillingly charismatic” actor in a “gaudy and commercial” show. Others were more impressed by Turner’s staging, which nips and tucks Shakespeare’s longest play into a pacy three hours. The play will be broadcast live to movie theatres around the world on Oct. 15.