In some ways, Rick Miller is bringing the bard back to his roots.

"Shakespeare was pop culture in his time time, and I think a lot of people hold him in such high regard or even fear, frankly, that they forget the spirit of his performances was very rowdy and irreverent," said the Montreal, Canada, native. "That's what Shakespeare was and I think should be more like."

Miller is the man behind "MacHomer," a "Simpsons"-inspired take on the Shakespeare classic "MacBeth" that casts Homer as the title character, Marge as Lady Macbeth, Mr. Burns as King Duncan and so on.

Now in its 15th year, the show has been performed in 150 cities and seen by half a million people, drawing rave reviews.

While Miller usually performs the show for about a month at a time, Morristown will get just one night with him at 7 p.m. Nov. 14 at the Community Theatre.

The show started as a joke at a cast party at the conclusion of Miller's first professional role,  "Murderer 2" in "MacBeth." A casual Simpsons fan, he said he hadn't expected such a positive reaction to his imitations of the famous voices.

"At a certain point you realize, 'I can make people laugh, people like my stupid idea, and maybe I can get some mileage out of it and find a way to use my skills more productively than playing 'Murderer Number 2,'" he said.

"It appeals to people looking for something a little bit different. And it took off and kept going and it's hard to stop doing something that keeps going," Miller added.

Switching between such different voices is hard work Miller described as "vocal acrobatics," and he said he realizes part of the draw of the show is watching him accomplish the feat. The fact he's copying such famous voices so well certainly doesn't hurt.

"I realize it's a very, very specific, geeky skill I've developed, and frankly I don't think anyone could do it quite as well as I could," he said.

Indeed, when he met the real cast of The Simpsons at a Scottish theater festival, he said the cast passed him around from one actor to the next so he could imitate each of them in turn. He was also relieved to find they and Simpsons creator Matt Groening were supportive of the idea and he called Groening "extremely generous" for letting the show continue in an admittedly gray legal area.

Miller likened MacHomer to one of the Simpsons' annual "Treehouse of Horror" episodes, where characters leave their regular roles and are allowed to play parts in famous stories and do things they never could during the normal course of the series.

"MacHomer feels like an extended Halloween episode where there's this bizarre, surreal melding of Shakespeare and Springfield and characters are permitted to kill each other," he said. "It makes for a very strange world that people have enjoyed."

But he also said he draws inspiration from the classic Simpsons episode "A Streetcar Named Marge," which focused on a community theater production of a musical version of "A Streetcar Named Desire." One of those influences is the music, and in the show Miller sings both in and out of character, but he also says he learned from the fake musical's real emotional punch.

"You take something tragic and make it funny, and still leave in moments of very touching emotion," he said. "I think that's what makes The Simpsons so great. They're tragic characters, so pathetic and flawed, yet they're much more lovable than the 'Family Guy' characters."

Even though he's made a name for himself drawing inspiration from the show, Miller said he still considers himself an "average fan" who prefers what are widely considered the classic seasons but stills enjoys the new material. While voices and elements of the series change, "I try to pay attention to the spirit of the show," he said.

A native of French-speaking Canada, Miller often performs in languages other than English. But he said MacHomer remains a monolingual show because the voices in each country are so different, and in some cases not as funny as the American actors.

While he says theaters book his show to attract "people who'd otherwise never step away from the TV" to go to the theater, he also noted Shakespeare's works and The Simpsons aren't such different beasts.

"Shakespeare fans are used to satire and different levels of comedy, and I think Shakespeare and The Simpsons share that," Miller said.

Using the web as a tool, he's now working on reaching out to more schools to help students learn the joys of the bard's language, since there's no way he can go to every school he'd like to visit.

Contrary to some skeptics, Miller said his interpretation of MacBeth is anything but a mockery.

"I think Shakespeare wouldn't be rolling in his grave about my show," he said. "He would've had a lot of chances to roll in his grave before me, and I think he would've liked The Simpsons.

"He was a businessman and part of pop culture and he was somebody who was great with satire that reflected us, and I think The Simpsons do as well."

For tickets, visit http://www.machomer.com/tour-and-tickets.