Review of The Which of Shakespeare’s Why by Leigh Light

The Which of Shakespeare’s Why is a comic take on the historic Shakespeare authorship quest. It has a play within a novel, good and bad puns, some overblown characters, and an Artificial Intelligence sub-plot that is torn right out of the interests of today’s tech startups. Right off the bat the author’s name, Leigh Light, would appear to be an androgenous “nom de plume” and the cast of characters includes an abundance of aliases and some cross dressing. All of this suggests that at least part of the spoof is aimed at Shakespeare’s plays regardless of who wrote them.

The main character, Harry Haines, is a frustrated aspiring actor who is cast as Hamlet in the initial production of a new New Jersey repertory company.  Just before rehearsals get under way, the major angel runs off with his mistress and takes his money with him. Faced with financial disaster even before the first production, Lance, the ever-resourceful director, tries to save the day by recruiting the also wealthy jilted wife of the first money machine. This woman will turn the cash faucet back on if there is benefit for her technology company and a part in the first production. Lance offers the role of role of Queen Elizabeth in the play.  

“Wait a minute” you might say.  “Queen Elizabeth the first, or the second for that matter, is not in Hamlet.”  This confusion may be based on the fact that the Queen was seen as attending a play at the Globe in that cuddly romantic fiction movie titled “Shakespeare In Love”. Dame Judi Dench even won an award for it. Whatever!  To accommodate the new money fountain, a re-write of the bard’s script is necessary. Harry, our lead in Hamlet, for some inexplicable reason, is hired to do the job. He is given the name of Mr. Bottom. Get it!  After which he is plopped in a fancy hotel suite overlooking Central Park and given a pile of money to write a new Shakespearean masterpiece called “The Which of Shakespeare’s Why.” This includes a role for Queen Elizabeth and a slew of other Shakespeare characters like Lear’s daughters, who just happen to saunter by.

 Another requirement is to highlight the 14^th Earl of Oxford. This nobleman will be revealed at the opening, which takes place at New York’s famous Radio City Music Hall, as the author of all the plays now attributed to William Shakespeare. There is a good scene when Harry/Bottom has a drunken conversation with Will’s statue in Central Park, but the long passages that discuss the work of Stratfordian Shakespeare scholars will probably leave most readers cold. You may also find some of the strange druggy sentence structure hard to decipher. The Radio City Rockettes in sequined panties playing some of King Lear’s daughters give us some sex, but the characters created by Mr. or Ms. Light mainly end up having less weight than Shakespeare’s. Even with a pretty good surprise ending, this was still a slog.  

I give it 2.5 stars