Suzy Eddie Izzard is all on her own for her ‘Hamlet' show at the Montalbán

Suzy Eddie Izzard may be best known as a comedian, but her next project, an interpretation of Hamlet, flexes her dramatic muscles.

Izzard (who still goes by just “Eddie Izzard” professionally) is performing the play at the Montalbán Theater in Hollywood through Jan. 31.

If you’re wondering who the other stars are, that’s it. It’s a solo show where Izzard plays eight main characters of Shakespeare’s classic. When you add the rest of the roles, she portrays a total of 23 characters.

Why “Hamlet”?

Izzard told LAist host Julia Paskin that before her career in standup comedy, she started out with aspirations to become a dramatic actor. Inspired by Monty Python, she tried her hand at sketch comedy, then street performing, before her career in standup finally took off.

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But the Tony-nominated Izzard never forgot her love for drama.

“ In the end, I was ready for Shakespeare, I wanted to do Shakespeare, but I wasn't at the top of everyone's list,” Izzard said.

Why a solo show?

Izzard was hoping to capitalize on the momentum of other performers doing  solo shows.

“People, if they look around — it's not 10 a penny, but a lot of people are doing it and having good success with it,” she said. “So if no producer was gonna come and say, ‘We're gonna build a Hamlet around you’ — if that wasn’t gonna happen, I was gonna do it.”

Izzard said her self-starting spirit was part of a long tradition of actors who book and run their own productions. She pointed to actor-managers like Laurence Olivier.

“The French do have a word for entrepreneurial and, uh, it's ‘entrepreneur,’” Izzard quipped.

On the show not being for everyone

“I freely admit, some people go, ‘It's not for me. I need more people. I need a flying car, I need explosions and things,’” Izzard said. “But you can focus in on the words and the stories and the characters. I love doing it, and people are responding and coming in a second and third time.”

Suzy Eddie Izzard performing Hamlet.

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Courtesy Amanda Searle

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The difference between comedy and drama

Izzard said her Hamlet solo show is similar to a standup set in the sense that she’s on stage by herself with no one to help with lines. But the similarities run out there, so don’t expect her to do any crowd work.

“ No one's ever shouted anything. Certain times phones go off. The Flintstones theme tune did go off as Ophelia was about halfway through her soliloquy,” Izzard said. “That was not great, because this is not a comedy — and I should say this very clearly to people. But just as Shakespeare went from his comedies to his dramas and tragedies, I have followed in his footsteps.”

On knowing L.A. as “a friend”

“ Los Angeles is a friend,” Izzard said. “I've been everywhere, driven everywhere, lived in a number of different places in L.A.”

She mentioned that since many actors in L.A. are expected to drive themselves, she came to know local freeways as well as the characters in SNL’s “Californians” sketches.

“ I was doing ‘The Riches’ [in L.A.] and driving myself every morning out to Santa Clarita and knowing all the freeways and how they worked,” Izzard said.

Izzard mentioned the Fonda Theater and Hollywood Bowl (where “the laughter rolls down the hills”) as two of her favorite places to perform in the area.

How to see the show

There are three shows left in Izzard’s Hamlet run, from Thursday, Jan. 29 to Saturday, Jan. 31.

For ticket details, visit Izzard’s website.