Hamlet and the Lyin' King

Revelation: Hamlet is the Lion King.
1. The King is killed by the hand of his brother
2. the King's brother becomes the new king, and takes the king's wife as his own
3. The King appears to his son as a ghost, telling him that he must revenge his father's death and take his rightful place in the throne
4. Hamlet kills the king out of revenge.
Of course, many more characters die in Hamlet... plus, Simba doesn't accidentally kill a couple people along the way.

After listening to the audio version of Hamlet, I've got to say I am soo done with hearing musical interludes between the scenes. They started really bugging after about the second or third. But besides that, I really loved the dramatizations of the lines. The words were spoken slowly, and I could clearly hear every word. But sometimes the pauses were so long that they left me holding my breath, waiting for the next line to come. My favorite part was Ophelia, who did a great job of playing a frail character with a thin voice, who has a nervous breakdown halfway into the play. Her little songs were so creepy, they gave me the chills. There was a use of sound effects: trumpet heralds, swords clanging, and a special musical motif for when the ghost appears. There was also the sound of heels tapping every time some one entered or exited. I found it to be useful at first, but superfluous later, as the narrator redundantly announces an arrival or exit. More useful for transitions were when they would begin the sound of the voices of the approaching characters, slowly growing until their arrival was announced. For example, when the queen approaches, crying because of Ophelia's death, you can hear her as part of Claudius and Laertes' conversation.
Overall, I found it hard to focus on the words if I was not doing something with me hands, so by the end of it, I found my whole house to be spotless from the compulsive cleaning.  It certainly would have gone faster with a reading, but I was glad for the opportunity to multi-task. :)