Adapted by Shale from Alan Isler's National Jewish Book Award-winning novel, the Canadian actor portrays all 15 characters in the production, staged by English director Ben Twist.

According to production notes, "The lead character, Otto Korner, an 83-year-old resident in The Emma Lazarus Jewish Retirement Home on West End Avenue in Manhattan, acts out the story of the residents' hilariously chaotic rehearsals of Hamlet, in which he longs to play the Prince. As rehearsals progress, the Emma Lazarus Old Vic Company suffers a series of disasters. Sexual passions become inflamed, Hamlet drops dead and his replacement (Otto's sworn enemy, Nahum Lipschitz) falls down a flight of stairs. Or was he pushed?"

Otto Korner becomes "the Prince of West End Avenue in the seemingly jinxed production. Driven on by the role, he delves deep into his own past and uncovers a shameful act, which haunts him still."

Shale has performed the production at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and in London, Berlin, Sydney, New Zealand and South Africa.

  Shale trained in Canada, but moved to London in 1978. Within a few years, he had appeared in a West End musical, plays at the Royal Court Theatre (such as The Normal Heart) and Barbra Streisand's "Yentl." Despite these credits, according to his bio, he decided to make a drastic change in the direction of his acting career: He would adapt a novel, produce the show with his own funds and play all the roles himself. His first solo effort was a stage adaptation of John Kennedy Toole's "A Confederacy of Dunces," which he performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1985 (playing 15 male and female roles, plus a demented cockatoo). The show sold out and transferred to London. The next year, he adapted and performed a 19-character solo show based on a novel by Richard Brautigan, which was presented successfully in Edinburgh and transferred again to London. Four years later, he starred in a one-man musical, Herringbone, by Skip Kennon. This 16-song show featured 20 characters including "an evil tap-dancing midget" — and landed Shale in the hospital with knee trouble. He recovered, but his next show, The Set-Up (based on an epic poem about boxing), was performed sitting in a chair. It won the London Fringe Award for Best One Person Show.

Shale announced his retirement from the one-man-show business in 1992. But in 1996, he read Alan Isler's award-winning novel "The Prince of West End Avenue." After his wife Suzanne Shale read it, she suggested that, if he performed it in New York, it would make the perfect show with which to end his solo acting career.

Tickets (at $35) are available at the theatre box office, at 59 E. 59th Street between Park and Madison Avenues, and by calling Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200 or visiting www.ticketcentral.com.

For more information, visit www.59e59.org.