Welcome to Part VII of Theatre in Film, our weekly feature on a film that depicts a life in the theatre. In Part VII, we examine films with biting humor, fantastical plots, and theatre family values. This week, we feature the 2008 dark comedy that was dubbed “dementedly hilarious” by Entertainment Weekly and “comedy heaven” by Rolling Stone — Hamlet 2.

Be advised that this film contains adult material and is rated R.

Hamlet 2 (2008)

Director: Andrew Fleming
Starring: Steve Coogan, Catherine Keener, Amy Poehler, David Arquette, Skylar Astin, Phoebe Strole, and Elisabeth Shue

What happens:

Failed actor, recovering alcoholic, and high school drama teacher Dana Marschz (Steve Coogan) encounters a problem when the underfunded neighboring county schools send students to West Mesa High School and enroll them in the only open class — drama. The new students in Dana’s class make his life a living hell when they challenge his authority and openly mock him.

In addition, Dana and his wife Brie (Catherine Keener) are having marital issues that are caused by Dana’s failed career and the border (David Arquette) who is renting space in their house. Desperate to produce something to impress his principal, his wife, the school’s juvenile theatre reviewer, and the students in his class, Dana writes a controversial, outrageous, and disturbingly funny sequel to Shakespeare’s Hamlet — Hamlet 2 — that features time travel, dancing, and a musical number entitled “Rock Me Sexy Jesus”. The play initially garners outrage and criticism, but after a quirky ACLU representative supports the production, it’s allowed to continue and is praised by the New York Times, launching its journey to the Broadway stage.

Why it matters:

It’s no secret that drama departments are largely underfunded (or sometimes non-existent in the face of budget cutbacks). Dana Marschz’s struggle to reach his principal on an artistic level is a real battle that all drama teachers have, at one time or another, encountered…sometimes with little luck.

Though Mr. Marschz also has to deal with his own personal hardships as well, he finds a way to reach his unruly class, mostly through using derogatory language and a script that speaks to the teens on a modern, pop-culture laden, and daring manner. In Marschz’s determination to save his drama class and his job, he turns to the most well-known play of all time — Hamlet — thinking that he’ll educate the students about Shakespeare and save his career. In his drug-fueled, insane, and fantastical script that utilizes topics like Christianity, alcoholism, sex, and domestic violence, he inadvertently reaches his students on a personal level in addition to educating them. They connect with their roles in a way he hadn’t predicted. A Latino boy from the transfer group and an annoying (and blatantly racist) white girl from West Mesa High School become friends and fall in love during rehearsals. Octavio (played by Joseph Julian Soria) slowly comes to understand that theatre is a community to which he belongs (when, before, he openly mocked acting and Dana Marschz in class). And Mr. Marschz finds faith in the transfer students he wrongly thought were deadbeats from the beginning.

If anything, this comedy of errors provides an insight into how panic can produce a revolutionary piece of art that awakens, inspires, and unites a community that otherwise may have refused to work together.

Below is the hit song, “Rock Me Sexy Jesus”.

This film is the second film in Part VII. See below for the other films in Part VII.

• Synecdoche, New York (2008)
• The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)
• Don’t Think Twice (2016)
• Phoebe in Wonderland (2009) (Coming soon.)

Want to start with Part I? Begin with 42nd Street (1933).
Miss Part II? Check out The Band Wagon (1953).
Need a refresh for Part III? Start with our feature on All That Jazz (1979).
How about a recap from Part IV? Jump into A Chorus of Disapproval (1989).
Check out Part V, and start with An Awfully Big Adventure (1995).
Start reading Part VI with Camp (2003).