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| re: CAMELOT | |
| Last Edit: lordofspeech 10:25 pm EDT 08/04/20 | |
| Posted by: lordofspeech 10:18 pm EDT 08/04/20 | |
| In reply to: re: CAMELOT - GrumpyMorningBoy 09:33 pm EDT 08/04/20 | |
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| I’ve never had much of a problem with the show. I maybe just love it too too much. The Pellinore stuff has to be cast right. Not sure who would be right. Someone truly balmy, an anachronistic eccentric, perhaps an Eddie Izzard. His bits can’t be the annoying intrusion they sometimes seem. Of course Jason O’Connell could do it. Maybe Jay O Saunders or Michael McKean. There are still some gorgeous character actors. George Hearn? Ed Dixon? But they’d have to be able to be really funny, not just a proper idea of what’s funny. Julie Andrews made an interesting point in her first autobiography that the romance with Lance cannot be consummated until after the rescue. Otherwise she’d be just too lightweight a character. She needs to have the same noble mettle as Arthur and the same conflict. (Curiously, her romanticism in “Simple Joys of Maidenhood” need not detract from that.). This is a change from the source novel (in which she’s an all-too-human brat) and from where Josh Logan and the hyper-sensual Redgrave took the character in the film (wherein Redgrave was so mesmerizing alive and beautiful and sexy that the centrality of Arthur and the Roundtable was completely, catastrophically upstaged). Anyway, I think a director with the right two leads could make the whole thing work. But Guenevere has to have heroic scale as well as winsome humor. If she’s simply an attractive, terribly young queen (as she was in the version whose Arthur was played beautifully by Robert Sean Leonard, at Westport), the play cannot work. I think Pellinore doubling as Merlin is a good idea. And, though I liked the cutting down of the Robert Sean Leonard version, you need at least two ladies in waiting (one of whom could play Morgan LeFay...why not?) But it you can’t find the right Arthur and Guenevere, don’t do it. It seems to me that Malcolm Getz and Melissa Errico would be a fine pair. And, for nobility, Audra McDonald seems the perfect Guenevere. With Robert Sean Leonard. That’s a beautiful match. |
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| re: CAMELOT | |
| Last Edit: Chromolume 02:02 am EDT 08/07/20 | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 01:53 am EDT 08/07/20 | |
| In reply to: re: CAMELOT - lordofspeech 10:18 pm EDT 08/04/20 | |
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| I've seen that done. But Pellinore (or, cloyingly, "Pelly") was still this annoying, twee, boring nebbish with a dog. What I've never ever understood is why Arthur would want to hang around with this bore. (Also, though the director was a good friend of mine and I thought much of her work on the show was very good, I still was made to have the impression that Merlin became Pellinore, which I don't think works.) |
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| re: CAMELOT | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 02:04 pm EDT 08/07/20 | |
| In reply to: re: CAMELOT - Chromolume 01:53 am EDT 08/07/20 | |
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| I think Pellinore is completely unwatchable and unplayable as a character, regardless of the talents of whoever is cast in the role. As for Merlin, even that role is not well written, for what little he's given to do, exiting about 15 or 20 minutes into the show and never being heard from again. Except -- we do hear from him again when Arthur quotes him, and the quote is such a horribly misogynistic Alan Jay Lernerism that it makes us hate Merlin retroactively: "Merlin told me once, never be too concerned if you don't know what a woman is thinking, they don't to it often." I really don't expect to hear that line retained in any future productions of CAMELOT! |
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| re: CAMELOT | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 02:56 pm EDT 08/07/20 | |
| In reply to: re: CAMELOT - Michael_Portantiere 02:04 pm EDT 08/07/20 | |
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| I forgot about that line. Yeah. that doesn't play at all anymore, even if Lerner meant (or hoped) that it would be taken with a bit of humor (no matter his own personal views on women). Is Pellinore actually supposed to be a stand-in for Pickering? The idea that the lead *needs* a sidekick of sorts? (Even Tommy has Jeff, though Jeff - and Pickering - are much more interesting characters.) Maybe they were wrong in assuming Arthur needed that. |
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| re: CAMELOT | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 12:55 am EDT 08/08/20 | |
| In reply to: re: CAMELOT - Chromolume 02:56 pm EDT 08/07/20 | |
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| "Is Pellinore actually supposed to be a stand-in for Pickering? The idea that the lead *needs* a sidekick of sorts? " I suppose that might have been what they were thinking -- especially if we consider that the same actor originated both roles :-) |
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| re: CAMELOT | |
| Posted by: Erik_Haagensen 03:38 pm EDT 08/07/20 | |
| In reply to: re: CAMELOT - Chromolume 02:56 pm EDT 08/07/20 | |
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| Lerner rewrote that line for the 1980 revival. He tried several variants and ultimately replaced it with "But no matter. Merlyn said to me once, 'Never ask a woman what she is thinking. She may tell you.' But what do you do while you’re wondering?" | |
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| re: CAMELOT | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 01:50 pm EDT 08/08/20 | |
| In reply to: re: CAMELOT - Erik_Haagensen 03:38 pm EDT 08/07/20 | |
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| Thank you, Erik. I did see the 1980 revival with Burton, but I didn't remember that the line in question had been rewritten. I can certainly understand why it was :-) | |
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| re: CAMELOT | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 11:29 am EDT 08/05/20 | |
| In reply to: re: CAMELOT - lordofspeech 10:18 pm EDT 08/04/20 | |
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| "Guenevere has to have heroic scale as well as winsome humor." I agree, but I don't think it's possible for anyone to play her that way with the lines and songs originally written by Lerner. Would you say that Guenevere is being winsomely humorous when she wishes that she could "cause a little war," or when she goads the knights to maim or kill Lancelot in the jousts? Lyrics like that belong to a comic character villain in a fully comic musical -- like the character Morgan le Fay (speaking of CAMELOT!) in A CONNECTICUT YANKEE, who sings "To Keep My Love Alive." |
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| re: CAMELOT | |
| Posted by: StageDoorJohnny 03:06 am EDT 08/05/20 | |
| In reply to: re: CAMELOT - lordofspeech 10:18 pm EDT 08/04/20 | |
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| I've always wanted to see the doubling of Merlyn and Mordred -- the Yin and Yang of Arthur's story. I've also got an idea how to add to the magic, with adding to the playing time -- hope I get to try it someday! | |
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