'I'm alive again': Playwright Cliff Jones on seeing Kronborg — The Hamlet Rock Musical back on stage

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Caption: Cliff Jones will be in the audience to watch his rock musical about Hamlet, Kronborg 1582 that he wrote in the early 1970s. (Matt Rainnie/CBC)

In 1973, Canadian playwright Cliff Jones saw his idea for a Hamlet musical become a CBC radio drama. It was called Hamlet: The Musical and it aired on a show called The Entertainers.
Back then, Jones worked at the CBC himself, but his idea grew to become something even bigger. In the summer of 1974, the radio drama became a full stage production, titled Kronborg: 1582. Now, 45 years after its premiere, the musical is returning to the stage where it first appeared in Charlottetown, now under a new name, Kronborg — The Hamlet Rock Musical.
Jones joined q's Tom Power from a studio in P.E.I. to tell us how his idea for a Hamlet musical became bigger than he ever imagined and even shaped his entire life.
Kronborg — The Hamlet Rock Musical is on now at the Charlottetown Confederation Centre until Saturday, July 20.
— Produced by ​Catherine Stockhausen
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