Musical Theatre Hamlet Productions
ABOUT HAMLET PRODUCTIONS
Hamlet Productions is a theatre production company working in association with the Kalich Theatre in Prague.
We are interested in British and European production partners with international experience with whom we can adapt the musicals to appeal to an international audience, and work together to try to reach a world market.
There are currently four musicals, written by the creative duo Ondřej Soukup (music) and Gabriela Osvaldová (libretto), which have enjoyed great success in the Czech and Slovak Republics. These are ‘Joan of Arc’ (premiered in 2000 and still playing with over 1,200 performances to date), ‘Robin Hood’ (premiered in 2010, still playing with over 350 shows), ‘Mowgli’ (premiered in 2013 and still playing with over 200 performances) and 'Elixir Of Life (over 200 shows).
We are open to discussions between creative collaborators and our team of authors and copyright holders.
On this website through the links above you’ll find information on each musical with synopses and videos, with some translated songs recorded in English. There is also detailed information about the authors and producers below.
ONDŘEJ SOUKUP
Composer
Ondřej Soukup was born in 1951 in Prague. He graduated from the Prague National Conservatory in 1975. He played in many jazz and pop groups and at the same time started composing and producing songs and creating soundtracks for films, beginning with short and animated movies and later moving to feature films. Some of the most successful films with Soukup’s music are the Czech-English Oscar winner ‘Kolya’ - directed by Jan Svěrák it was awarded Best Foreign Film in 1997, and an Israeli film ‘Intimate Grammar’, directed by Nir Bergman, which won a Tokio Sakura Grand Prix in 2010. In 1998, Soukup received the Czech Lion Award for the Best Film Composition for Juraj Jakubisko’s movie ‘The Ambiguous Report about the End of the World’ and in 2001 he won the same Best Soundtrack award for for the Czech-English movie ‘Dark Blue World’, again directed by Jan Svěrák.
He played an essential role in the career of the celebrated Czech singer, Lucie Bílá; he has composed music for and produced four of her albums. The first album, ‘Missariel’, won five (out of a possible seven) Czech Grammy Awards in 1993.
Some of Soukup's successful cross-over projects are the ballet ‘Checkmate’ and the theatrical performance of ‘The Garden Of Earthly Delights’, which was inspired by the life of Hieronymus Bosch.
Musicals represent a significant part of his work, including ‘Joan of Arc’, ‘The Elixir of Life’, ‘Robin Hood’ and ‘Mowgli’. The librettos for these four musicals, as well as lyrics for many of Ondřej's songs, were written by the highly respected lyricist Gabriela Osvaldová.
His musical ‘Joan of Arc’ premiered on March 30, 2000. It is still played in the Kalich Theatre in Prague with over 1,200 performances to date. ‘Joan of Arc’ was also invited to the International Festival of Musical Theatre in Cardiff in 2002 and 30 performances were played in Spain in 2006. The piece was translated into Spanish and poeticised by Gabriel Sopena.
‘The Elixir of Life’ premiered at the Ta Fantastika theatre on October 14, 2005. This piece draws very non-traditionally from the life of Doctor Max Wolf, the discoverer of enzyme therapy. This musical was played for three years, with 230 performances.
‘Robin Hood’ was written for the Kalich Theatre and has enjoyed over 350 performances since 2010.
Today the Kalich Theatre plays Soukup’s musical ‘Mowgli’, which premiered in September 2013 with over 200 performances so far.
Ondřej recently finished the musical 'The Last Tsar' (about the last Russian Tsar Nikolai ll and his German wife Alexandra – granddaughter of Queen Victoria) for the German production company Gallissas in Berlin.
In 2011 EMI released a Platinum Collection of Soukup’s music, consisting of three CDs. The first includes songs composed by him and sung by various artists, the second is an overview of his soundtracks and the third represents a selection of songs from his musicals.
Ondřej has been a judge on the live Czech version of Pop Idol and X Factor for four series between 2004 and 2013. He has employed some of the contestants for his own live shows.
Ondřej lives with the singer Lucia Šoralová in Prague, with whom he has two children. With his ex-wife Gabriela he has a son František who is also a celebrated musician. A huge hobby of Ondřej‘s is flying planes - he has the PPL as well as the IFR licence and with his Piper 28 Warrior he has flown over the whole of Europe. His furthest flight so far has been to Casablanca.
GABRIELA OSVALDOVÁ
Librettist, Lyricist
Born in Prague in 1953, Gabriela graduated in acting at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. She was a guest artist at National Theatre and Vinohrady Theatre and a member of the alternative Storm Studio for eight seasons. She has performed across Europe as a singer and dancer with OPSO (Original Prague Syncopated Orchestra). She was awarded the Dubbing of the Year award for 'Ziemia Obiecana', 'Le Cadeau' and received the Golden Nutcracker Award for Best Advertisement Copy.
She has acted in the motion pictures 'Prehistory Trilogy', 'Bolero', 'Angelus', 'Horse Race' and many more, as well as in a plethora of TV films and series. She authored her own TV show 'TV Bomb' and played all the female characters in a successful parody 'The Hospital on the Brink of Destruction'.
Since the end of 1980s Gabriela has been a full-time lyrics writer. Her first were for a Jiří Korn song 'Miss Moscow' which became a hit. She's enjoyed an immensley successful collaboration with Lucie Bílá, for whom she wrote six albums. For the first album 'Miss Ariel' she was awarded five Czech Grammys together with Ondřej Soukup.
She wrote lyrics for many number one songs of the year – 'Love is Love', 'Yet the Gas is Hissing out the Oven', 'Bridge over the Past', 'SMS' and for many songs in feature films including 'The Immortal Aunt', 'Firebird', 'Ubu King', 'War of the Colours', 'Acumulator I', 'Hell With a Princess' and 'You Kiss Like a God”.
Gabriela co-authored the theatrical projects 'Garden of Earthly Delights' and 'Check Mate', and the musicals 'Joan of Arc', 'Love is Love', 'Elixir of Life', 'Robin Hood' and 'Mowgli'. She was one of the TV judges on 'Czech SuperStar', 'X-Factor', 'Robin Hood – the Path to Glory' and 'Czech and Slovak SuperStar 2011'.
She has illustrated two books 'Hi Mum' and 'You‘ll Never Forget Your Funeral', and her paintings are on show at the Musée d‘Art Naïf Max Fourny in Paris.
MICHAL KOCOUREK
Producer; Owner of the Kalich Theatre Company
A producer and writer of and actor in theatre and TV projects, Michal is considered to be one of the most influential personalities in Czech culture today.
A child actor with more than 70 film and theatre roles, he graduated from the State Conservatory in Prague.
Several theatres in the centre of Prague have flourished under him. He founded his first in 1986 and after the Velvet Revolution of 1989 created a permanent stage in the Albatros Theatre. He then initiated the V Celetné Theatre and opened the V Rytiřské Theatre in 1991, where his ensemble, The Black Light Theatre of Prague, still performs today with over 8,000 performances to date. He's also contributed to its activites as playwright.
In 1993 he co-founded the concert agency Interkoncerts under whose umbrella he co-produced more than 200 events by world stars including Led Zeppelin, Eurythmics, Tina Turner, Kiss, Joan Baez, Metallica, Joe Cocker, Dire Straits, Mark Knopfler, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Aerosmith, Iron Maiden and Nirvana (though this concert was cancelled as Kurt Cobain died the night before).
The fourth theatre he founded in Prague is the Kalich Theatre, which has become the most visited private theatre in the Czech Republic, with over half a million theatregoers. He has produced 11 successful musicals as well as many dramas and concerts, on which he collaborates with leading artists from all cultural genres, the best talent in the country.
The latest theatre he opened is the Palace Theatre in Wenceslas Square in the centre of Prague.
His production activities have long gone beyond the borders of the Czech Republic, and he has become a respected partner of foreign producers. His shows are staged to great acclaim in Seoul, Tokyo ('Hamlet' and 'Jack The Ripper'), the Scandinavian and German-speaking countries of Europe, and America. They are often performed on international tours e.g. Bogota, Mexico City, Caracas, and New York, and Michal also founded a theatre in Buenos Aires.
He also produces musical recordings, large concert tours (Daniel Landa, Stefan Margita etc) and other cultural events.
THE KALICH THEATRE ("Divadlo Kalich")
Prague, Czech Republic
The Kalich Theatre is an elite acting company in the heart of Europe, located in the historic centre of Prague. It was ceremonially opened in November 1999 with the world premiere of the original Czech musical 'Hamlet', which later captivated audiences in the USA and Asia.
The building was the historic premises of a former theatre. After decades of Communist totalitarianism the premises served as a warehouse and became delapidated. Now renovated, the modern, barrier-free theatre hall and world class stage, sound and lighting technologies have returned it to its original purpose with 450 seats.
As published by the Ministry of Culture, the Kalich Theatre has been the most visited private theatre in the Czech Republic for a long time, with over 1,500,000 theatregoers. This was achieved without any subsidies from the state, for which it has enjoyed the respect of the public and the profession.
This exclusive position was achieved primarily due to its genre-rich repertoire and its unconditional emphasis on the performances' artistic quality. Its programming is based on first-class musical shows, but also features dramas (over 17 plays) and concerts by the leading figures of Czech and Slovak music. In all genres, it collaborates with the biggest personalities excelling in their fields.
Its performances are shown through licences abroad - in Asia and Europe.
Michal Kocourek, Ondřej Soukup and Gabriela Osvaldová at the launch of Mowgli at the Kalich Theatre in September 2013.
Source: i-divadlo.cz Photo: Michal Novák