If Yazbek and his collaborators reinvent the property, as they did with THE FULL MONTY and, to a lesser extent, DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS, the show should stand on its own apart from the film and Hoffman.
There's no way around it completely, of course, but Michael Caine and Steve Martin were huge stars when the DRS film was made (and still are, of course) and yet I don't recall a lot of comparisons between them at the stars of the stage musical.
Both THE FULL MONTY and DRS had a lot more to offer audiences than a transcription of a screenplay and performers asked to imitate iconic performances. They were stage creations in their own right and, even if you had never seen the films, you could still enjoy the shows. If TOOTSIE is of the same ilk, it won't matter that Hoffman's star may be tarnished now. |
