Santino Fontana in the Guthrie's 2006 production of "Hamlet." / Photo by Michal Daniel.

By Rohan Preston

Santino Fontana, the Guthrie Theater/University of Minnesota BFA graduate who played a ponderous Hamlet in the final production at the old Guthrie on Vineland Place, is suffering the slings and arrows of box-office misfortune. He was a cast-member of two ill-fated Broadway revivals of Neil Simon comedies headlined by Laurie Metcalf. Fontana played Stanley in both "Brighton Beach Memoirs" and "Broadway Bound." "Brighton Beach" opened and closed in a week, despite strong reviews for the play and his performance ("Fontana is a find as Stanley, immensely likable and thoroughly convincing in the character's struggle between his selfish impulses and his fiscal obligations to the family," said the Washington Post). "Broadway Bound" was cancelled in rehearsals. This turn of events is certainly a setback, but Fontana has done well trotting the boards in Times Square. For example, he played Tony in the hit musical "Billy Elliot," which won 10 Tony Awards.