| My experience of Channing and Bishop | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 12:37 am EDT 06/27/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Kurtz was also considered for the part... - jwilson 12:09 am EDT 06/27/18 | |
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| I've posted about this several times here over the years, but not recently. Bishop was not nearly as funny as Channing — although that may have had partly to do with not playing it to audiences as large as Channing's (more on that below) — but I preferred her in some ways because she made more sense of the character's journey. Both times I saw it with Channing — first during early previews at the Newhouse, and then during her final week at the Beaumont, when she had returned to close the production — it made no sense when she turned to Flan and said, "We're a terrible match." If you didn't mind that, she was dazzling. I have it on good authority that at the performance on the day of the Tonys, she made that moment work, but it may have been a one-time event. Both times I saw Bishop as Ouisa — first at the Newhouse, between Channing and Kurtz, and then near the end of her run at the Beaumont, just before Channing's return — her entire performance seemed built to that moment. It was inevitable. When I saw it early in previews at the Newhouse at a weekend matinee (I think it was the first week), it didn't get many laughs. I loved it, and the friend I was with loved it, but I'm not sure most of the LCT members did. Similarly, when I saw it later at the Newhouse with Bishop and an understudy Paul, it didn't get many laughs and I'm not sure the audience loved it, although by this time it had opened to great reviews. When i saw it with Bishop at the Beaumont, the house was perhaps 60 percent full, and it didn't get great laughs (although more than it had either time at the Newhouse), although I think the audience liked it a lot. Seeing it one last time during the final week at the Beaumont, with a packed house and everyone's timing very "on," it got huge laughs. I doubt that Bishop, who can be very funny, was ever as funny as Channing was with a packed house, probably for the reasons articulated so well by 15minutecall, but in some ways she was more convincing. |
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