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Zach Appelman Riveting in Hamlet at Hartford Stage
“Zach Appelman makes for a clear, moving and thrilling Hamlet — a career-propelling performance that at times takes your breath away…Appelman, a Yale School of Drama grad, is as captivating as he is conflicted as he goes from mourning son, to a questioning prince, to a rebel with a cause, to a young man of destiny bent, if not twisted, on vengeance of a higher order.” - Frank Rizzo, Hartford Courant”
Hartford Stage’s ‘Hamlet’ is visually stunning, articulate, and revelatory.
"Zach Appelman…who is so perfect in the role, so understandable, so believable, so in tune with the rythym of the language that we are carried away by his character’s logic and his madness. Delivering each and every stellar monologue with brio, but no affectation, Appelman heads a splendid cast…” -WMNR Fine Arts Radio
“Appelman is the genuine find here, an actor capable of the heroic, but also able to get so deeply into his character that virtually every line, even every word, is suffused with meaning and feeling. He also speaks his lines with remarkable clarity, so that every speech can be heard and understood even in the farthest reaches of the theater.” -Andrew Beck, Examiner
Zach Appelman as Hamlet. Photo by Scott Suchman
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Zach Appelman starred as King Henry V , which received rave reviews at the Folger Theatre, and became their best-selling production of all time.
Zach Appelman as Henry V
“…a young actor by the name of Zach Appelman has come along to grab hold of the oratorical reins of ‘Henry V’ and carry us with astonishing confidence back once more unto the breach…in Appelman, Richmond and the company are minting another vigorous Shakespeare star, whose performance hearkens back to that of a British actor, Kenneth Branagh.” -Peter Marks, Washington Post
“…the still-young Appelman plays with the confidence of an actor thirty or forty years his senior…He is at once endlessly tactful and effortlessly captivating, charming us with well-timed glimpses into his mostly-covered well of emotions.” -Hunter Styles, DC Theatre Scene
“Zach Appelman’s strawberry-blond Henry V is so eloquent, so engaging, that it’s hard not to leave the theater thinking of him as one of the greatest male characters Shakespeare ever wrote.” -Sophie Gilbert, Washingtonian
“…this particular production, directed by Robert Richmond with Zach Appelman in the starring role, is quite simply a stroke of theatrical genius…The way Appelman handles the text and embodies the character is so totally genuine that you will not have to suspend your disbelief; for he makes Shakespeare’s words so much the King’s and provides such authentic behavior that you will find yourself identifying with this young man in every scene.” - Robert Michael Oliver, MD Theatre Guide
"The show belongs to Appelman, whose performance changed the way I see the play completely, and to Robert Richmond, whose vision is the force behind it all. Folger Theatre's Henry V is a great piece of theater, not to be missed." - Mark Dewey, DC Metro Theater Arts
Zach Appelman as Henry V.
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A young classical actor, burning bright in Washington
In college, Zach Appelman heard voices. And they convinced him that he on the right track. They came to him through speakers and ear buds: the honeyed sounds of great Shakespeareans, actors such as Lawrence Olivier and John Gielgud, reciting — sometimes singing, in that master-thespian manner — the poetry of “Hamlet” or “Macbeth.” They imparted to an eager young acting student at a library carrel an understanding of the legacy of a great oratorical tradition…
Appelman’s reverance for those vanished voices is clear the moment he opens his mouth on the Folger Theatre stage as the title character in “Henry V,” the role he wraps up this weekend, in what has become the highest-grossing production in Folger history. A significant share of the credit belongs, of course, to director Robert Richmond and the robust supporting cast he’s assembled in the fine production he conceived. But it is also fair to say that the show would not be half as watchable without the contribution of a lead player who, at the tender age of 27, reveals himself to be a classical theater star…
Read the Washington Post’s full profile on Appelman here.
D E A T H O F A S A L E S M A N - CHAUTAUQUA THEATRE COMPANY
Amy Van Nostrand, Zach Appelman, & Stuart Margolin in Death of a Salesman
“Revelatory performances from Margolin and Zach Appelman provide the freight-train force behind the production…As Loman’s wayward son Biff… Zach Appelman is spellbinding. He sets the base of his performance with a monochromatic and crestfallen solemnity. When the time comes, as in the famous scene where he confronts Willy and cuts him down to size, Appelman rises so far above that baseline you think he’ll crash into the rafters. It’s a performance of stark contrasts, and it’s often jaw-dropping.”