I'm sure the production played in much bigger barns on the road before (and after) Broadway.
Both times I saw her during that last run, she had tremendous energy. As I noted in another post, she was ill at one point during the run, but it's hard to imagine anyone being more energized than she was the two times I saw her.
Some of the roles were cast with people older than in the original, but Garner was only four or five years older than Burns. Lacey was probably back because she was available and had done the role in the 1978 revival. Herman loved her in the role, and I think Channing was probably happy to have someone there who had been in it with her before and with whom she probably got along very well. It may be that the Cornelius, Michael DeVries, who was in his mid-40s, was hired more to match with Lacey than directly because of Channing. |
