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| re: Accents. | |
| Posted by: NewtonUK 02:19 pm EDT 03/29/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Accents. - AC126748 10:24 am EDT 03/29/18 | |
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| This is often ignored in NYC. For example, no one in the press flagged up Cherry Jones' inability to do an Irish accent in FAITH HEALER, or Jay O Sanders inability to do any recognizable dialect in the Roundabout PYGMALION, or Chris Walkens inability and/or refusal to do an Irish dialect in THE DEAD. Seemingly in NYC the crix dont care. Of course in both PYGMALION and MY FAIR LADY the accents are really important. |
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| re: Accents. | |
| Posted by: Thom915 02:32 am EDT 03/31/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Accents. - NewtonUK 02:19 pm EDT 03/29/18 | |
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| Every review I checked of The Faith healer mentioned Ms Jones faulty accent though they seemed to feel her performance was so strong it didn't matter. Brantley praised Sanders' doolittle but questioned his accent. You may very well be correct about Walken but on two out of three you struck out with incorrect assertions. | |
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| re: Accents. | |
| Posted by: Chazwaza 07:25 pm EDT 03/29/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Accents. - NewtonUK 02:19 pm EDT 03/29/18 | |
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| To be fair, no one seems to care, especially in the UK, how many dreadful or laughable or just passable American accents are done by British actors in the West End or here. It's hard to ignore when someone just doesn't do it or doesn't blatantly poorly -- but in most cases they are good or at least they are at a point where only someone from that area the character is from/play is set, or an accent expert, could tell that it's not right... most people, including those who think they don't, can't REALLY tell if the accent is accurate or not because especially with the hundreds of British accents there are just so many variations and factors at play in each individual one that who can really say... and if it sounds like it's possible then just go with it, as an audience member, I say. |
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| re: Accents. | |
| Posted by: Lillebear 12:32 pm EDT 03/31/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Accents. - Chazwaza 07:25 pm EDT 03/29/18 | |
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| To say that no-one in the UK seems to care is, to me, hyperbole. I would suggest that most actors on both sides of the pond want to do the best job they can and doing an accent well is part of the job. There are some actors who couldn't give a whit whether they get it right or not and others who are hired even though they can't do accents. There have been shows on both sides of the Atlantic where the accents were utterly atrocious. I name KINKY BOOTS over here and the semi-recent MERRILY in London as classic examples of really bad accent work production-wide. For Kinky Boots, I've lost count of the number of theatre professionals in NY who ask me (I'm British) if I've seen KB and whether "are the accents really as bad as I think they are?" And I know at least some of the actors on the show feel bad about the accents in the show but it isn't their fault. On both shows, I would say that the problems were, primarily, not the fault of the actor's but more to do with directorial and/or producing decisions. My Fair Lady is a show where use of accent is a major driver of the plot and I feel that any production needs to get it right. Eliza switching from Cockney to Standard British is so crucial and very few productions do it well. Dolittle himself should be easier but, if the actor doesn't get the accent right, it becomes caricature. |
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| re: Accents. | |
| Posted by: mikem 10:35 am EDT 04/01/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Accents. - Lillebear 12:32 pm EDT 03/31/18 | |
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| With Kinky Boots, I'm not sure why they didn't just have the show take place in the US. It seemed like a very "American" show, anyway. And the accent work was really bad by some of the performers. | |
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| re: Accents. | |
| Posted by: NewtonUK 01:43 pm EDT 03/30/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Accents. - Chazwaza 07:25 pm EDT 03/29/18 | |
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| The accents I hear in American plays in London may not be accurate always - for instance there are words like 'anything' and 'everything' that virtually no UK actor can say like an American. But they do a better job. As do Aussies. There a zillion great actors in America, and in the UK. But while we have many many UK actors playing Americans on our TV shows - Damian Lewis on Homeland and Billions, Matthew Rhys on The Americans, Hugh Laurie in House, Andrew Lincoln The Walking Dead, Idris Elba the Wire, Laura Fraser in Breaking Bad, Ruth Wilson in The Affair, Millie Bobbie Brown in Stranger Things, Stephen Moyer in True Blood - not to mention British actors playing American seamlessly in movies - including Rebecca HAll, Tom Hardy, Carey Mulligan, Alfred Molina, Michael Sheen, David Oyelowo, Daniel Craig, Bob Hoskins, David Suchet - the list goes on. Where is the list of Americans convincingly playing Brits? Gwyneth Paltrow and .... John Lithgow more or less as Churchill. Accents do matter. When they are important to the script. As they are in PYGMALION and MFL. Otherwise nonsense is made of every word Higgins utters. And thats not a good idea. Liza nd Alfred Doolittle are father and daughter speaking the same Cockney. If they;re not, what's the point. |
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| If we are to trust Higgins, Eliza and her father do NOT speak the same Cockney (nm) | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 02:09 am EDT 04/01/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Accents. - NewtonUK 01:43 pm EDT 03/30/18 | |
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| nm | |
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| re: Accents. | |
| Posted by: Chazwaza 07:59 pm EDT 03/30/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Accents. - NewtonUK 01:43 pm EDT 03/30/18 | |
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| I actually think this has far more to do with bias on the parts of directors, casting directors, producers than it does with the insanely imblanced ratio of acting talent with accents in the UK/AU than America. Lots of Americans do great UK accents, but people would rather hire brits to do them if it's not a star, in large part because this country has always had a complex about British actors being superior. But to propose that there are such a vastly disproportionate number of american actors able to do accents than non-Americans able to do American accents is crazy. I mean, not even all the people who work in American roles can do it... take the other Brit from The Wire, Dominic West.. I knew in the first 5 minutes that he was British. That happens ALL THE TIME. These people don't get good American roles because they've proven they can do an accent, it's because theyre good actors and the train and get coaches and are taken a chance on. Americans have the same thing, but i don't think they are trusted as much. And for the record you do the argument no good by pretending the only two Americans who have convincingly played Brits are Gwyneth Paltrow and John Lithgow. |
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| re: Accents. | |
| Posted by: ryhog 12:24 am EDT 03/30/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Accents. - Chazwaza 07:25 pm EDT 03/29/18 | |
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| No one seems to care because there is no reason to care. Forest/trees and all that. |
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| re: Accents. | |
| Last Edit: PlayWiz 03:53 pm EDT 03/29/18 | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 03:52 pm EDT 03/29/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Accents. - NewtonUK 02:19 pm EDT 03/29/18 | |
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| I heard some atrocious American accents in American plays in London as well. A production of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" where the Massachusetts-living principals emphasized their "r"s (especially in the middle of words!), among other productions I saw. There are some folks on both sides of the pond who are better than others at accents. | |
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