Richard Burton's Hamlet cover art

Richard Burton's Hamlet

Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Richard Burton's Hamlet

By: William Shakespeare
Narrated by: Richard Burton, a full cast
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £20.99

Buy Now for £20.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

This production of Hamlet, directed by Sir John Gielgud and starring Richard Burton, was recorded in the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in New York City during a spectacular season for Broadway. It was the year of Carol Channing's Hello Dolly, Barbra Streisand's Funny Girl, and Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park. Noel Coward, Arthur Miller and Alec Guinness were also on the Great White Way that year. But the show that created the most excitement was Richard Burton's Hamlet. Given the importance of the show, a film was made of a single performance. At Burton's insistence, after screening the film for just two days, all copies were destroyed except for one that went to the British Film Institute and one that went to Burton's home. 25 years after the stage production, Burton's widow allowed this audio recording to be made from her copy. This performance differs from other recordings of Hamlet, not only because of Burton and Gielgud, but because it is a live recording of an actual performance on Broadway, not in a recording studio.

"You get the immediacy of a live production of Hamlet on Broadway in the nervousness of the actors, knowing that they can't go back on it, that this is for all time, unlike films, where you can if you make a mistake go back and do it again. The particular intensity and nerves of this is probably the same kind of thing that excites a real audience in a real theatre." - Richard Burton(P)1995 Onward Production Ltd. and Paul Brownstein Productions, Inc.
Ancient, Classical & Medieval Literature Classics Drama Drama & Plays Shakespeare Funny

Listeners also enjoyed...

Under Milk Wood cover art
John Gielgud's Hamlet (Dramatised) cover art
Hamlet cover art
Vivat Rex: Volume One (Dramatisation) cover art
The Dylan Thomas BBC Radio Collection cover art
King Lear cover art
Vivat Rex: Volume 2 cover art
Shakespeare's Original Pronunciation cover art
Erotic Vagrancy cover art
All the Sonnets of Shakespeare cover art
Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? cover art
The Book of Kells cover art

Critic reviews

"Time and again he takes a speech or an action we had thought fixed forever in unshakeable conception and daringly hurls it into new life. He is humorous when we expect solemnity and withdrawn when we anticipate aggression...." ( Newsweek)
All stars
Most relevant  
We're familiar with Shakespeare, and we know just how good Hamlet is. But this recording is all about the golden larynx of Richard Burton. As it was a recording of a live theatre performance, the sound quality is less than perfect, but who cares? It's a privilege to be able to listen to him. I agree with some that his Hamlet may be a little too manic in places, but maybe not an unreasonable interpretation.



And as a bonus, the honeyed tones of Gielgud feature as the ghost.

The finest noise ever created by vocal chords?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Richard Burton is one of the Greatest English actors that ever lived, he remains my favourite actor, people always focus on his skin and that is just pathetic way of describing this most greatest actor, writer and poet.
No one will come close to Richard Burton in my eyes he had this most powerful voice. Listen to this Hamlet.

Astounding

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Obviously recorded in a theatre and as such has far too much echo on it. Perhaps that’s to add to the atmosphere but it’s too much and the actors gabble heavily - I realise these were some of the best actors of the time but not 40 years later in modern technology. Needs to be digitally enhanced

Wasted credit

Awful - not listenable for audible, too much echo

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.