"The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged)," by Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield, has been making the rounds of theaters all over this country and abroad since it first opened in 1987 at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Audiences generally find it to be very amusing.

The objective is for three very funny actors to perform all of Shakespeare's 37 works at breakneck speed, finishing in a little over an hour and a half.

Well, a funny happened to this popular show when it landed at the Hanna Theatre downtown Cleveland on East 14th Street this past weekend. There wasn't much to laugh at.

The Great Lakes Theater Festival, using every trick the script provides plus a lot of extra business, has forgotten the main ingredient. Funny shows need funny actors. The three performers who make up the entire cast of this wild and madcap show just aren't funny.

Beginning with "Romeo and Juliet" and closing with "Hamlet," the show, with extraordinary costumes by Charlotte Yetman, intends to be consistently funny, often confusing but mainly keeping those who care informed as to where it is going.

"Romeo and Juliet" take up close to 15 minutes of Act 1. Realizing this, the authors leave little time for "Othello," "Julius Caesar," "Macbeth" and some of the rest of the tragedies. The bloody "Titus Andronicus" is reduced to a cooking show.

Since the authors have decided that Shakespeare comedies are mostly all alike, they have their actors read bits and pieces and sort of make them appear to be one play.

There is an awful lot of racing around and poorly performed sword play. Toilet jokes and off-color humor may be funny but not when performed by Paul Hurley, Jason O'Connell and M.A. Taylor, the three actors who are just not comics.

The second act is devoted entirely to "Hamlet." It's easy to make fun of this, Shakespeare's most popular work, but again the humor wanes as the audience is asked to participate.

An audience member is hauled up on stage and asked to scream, apparently when jilted by the title character. She's asked to scream again after labored work with the audience, which is divided up and asked to recite pieces of Hamlet's personality.

Just when the "Hamlet" business is about to set you free, our three unfunny performers decide to do it again, but faster, then finally they do it backwards.

None of this reminds us of "Hamlet" in any way, especially performed by our three actors. A lot of local humor is interjected, but the explanation of which urinal Tom Hanks uses in the men's room is appalling.

Charles Fee directs and has done much better. He may have had a good time, but half the opening night audience sat on their hands.

Gage Williams' cheap set design is not surprising, since it fits the rest of the show.

This is all so disappointing. Could it be that the Great Lakes Theater Festival is the only company that couldn't get it right? Or is this just the case of bad casting?