| Canadian Theatre is in mourning. |
| Posted by: portenopete 12:11 am EDT 08/07/20 |
| In reply to: re: Brent Carver has died - Alison 09:57 pm EDT 08/06/20 |
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I was lucky and had 35 years of seeing him. The Pirate King in Pirates of Penzance was the first in 1985. Hamlet was next! Then The Emcee in Cabaret. Don John in Much Ado. Love for Love, Don Carlos and Alceste in The Misanthrope. Larry in Company. Plays at holes-in-the-wall in Toronto. Molina in Spider-Woman in Toronto before London and NYC. Lucio in Measure for Measure and Antigonus in The Winter's Tale. Jacques Brel. Gandalf in Lord of the Rings. The School for Scandal in 2017 must have been the last.
But it's his Tevye in Stratford's 2000 Fiddler that will stay with me the most. As Jason Robert Brown's remembrance talks about, he was able to turn feats of egregious miscasting into revelatory reinterpretations. The idea of thin, ethereal Brent - 48 at the time but still seeming like he should be playing Ariel - taking on the salt-of-the-earth Russian peasant dairyman seemed like the nuttiest piece of casting, but from the second he walked onstage he was in charge, even though he rarely spoke above a whisper.
You are spot on that he was a gracious and lovely man and a wonderful fan of the theatre: he saw everything and was perennially encouraging and supportive.
Even before his Tony and Broadway successes, Brent was a true star of Canadian Theatre and his passing is felt across the country. |
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re: Brent Carver's Tevye. - Billhaven 07:03 pm EDT 08/07/20 |
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