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| What roles might Tony winner Lenny Baker of "I Love My Wife" had played if he hadn't died young | |
| Last Edit: PlayWiz 11:19 am EDT 08/07/20 | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 11:11 am EDT 08/07/20 | |
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| Listening to the OCR of "I Love My Wife" and seeing a clip from the Tonys, he seemed like he was on the way to becoming one of Broadway biggest comedic musical stars. He appeared opposite Ellen Greene in the film "Next Stop, Greenwich Village" before dying very young. Might they have been reunited for the original "LIttle Shop of Horrors"? It's possible he might have done a lot of the roles that later went to Nathan Lane and/or Matthew Broderick. I'm just bring this up because his name is rarely mentioned nowadays, and he seems like he could have been one of the greats, a wonderful combination of funny, quirkiness and sweetness. He was among the first in the theater community to die from AIDS-related illness back in 1982. | |
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| re: What roles might Tony winner Lenny Baker of "I Love My Wife" had played if he hadn't died young | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 01:38 pm EDT 08/10/20 | |
| In reply to: What roles might Tony winner Lenny Baker of "I Love My Wife" had played if he hadn't died young - PlayWiz 11:11 am EDT 08/07/20 | |
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| I saw Lenny Baker onstage in six shows, though not in I Love My Wife, which did not interest me at all, not even with Lenny Baker in it. I loved him. I still think his Lucio in the 1976 Measure for Measure is one of the greatest performances I've ever seen. I don't think he would have done roles that were done by Nathan Lane and/or Matthew Broderick, partly because he was born in 1945 and they were born in 1956 and 1962, respectively. Having said that, Lane was really too young for Mendy in The Lisbon Traviata, but I don't especially see Baker in that role. I'm a little hard put to think of roles in which he might have been cast. His physicality might have been viewed as limiting him somewhat, although his brilliance got him cast in roles for which he might have seemed unlikely. Still, I can imagine him as Henry Carr in a revival of Travesties (I first saw him in The Real Inspector Hound), in various Chekhov roles (some of which I'm surprised he seems not to have played because he would have been so perfect as Tusenbach, Treplev and Trofimov), possibly as Hamlet if anyone would have thought him right for it, a slew of Shakespeare character roles, and (coincidentally) the Baker in Into the Woods (although it really makes more sense for the character to be younger but Chip Zien was born in 1947). So I guess that I can come up with roles for him. And he would have been a great Felix Unger in an Odd Couple revival, a role that Broderick did play. Anyway, I loved him a lot. |
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| re: What roles might Tony winner Lenny Baker of "I Love My Wife" had played if he hadn't died young | |
| Posted by: Gustave 08:33 pm EDT 08/07/20 | |
| In reply to: What roles might Tony winner Lenny Baker of "I Love My Wife" had played if he hadn't died young - PlayWiz 11:11 am EDT 08/07/20 | |
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| I saw "I Love My Wife" with the original Broadway cast. At one point the two males stripped down to their underwear, Baker first. He made it into a one-act play, progressing ever so slowly as he removed each article of clothing -- and getting laughs all along the way. (During his strip, a woman near me commented "He's so skinny.") The biggest laugh came when he was done. He looked at Naughton who then shed all but his underwear in about 10 seconds. The plot was slim but the show was fun. A four piece band played on stage and occasionally interacted with the actors. I wasn't used to seeing such "informality" in a musical. Gustave | |
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| re: What roles might Tony winner Lenny Baker of "I Love My Wife" had played if he hadn't died young | |
| Posted by: joerialto 02:44 pm EDT 08/07/20 | |
| In reply to: What roles might Tony winner Lenny Baker of "I Love My Wife" had played if he hadn't died young - PlayWiz 11:11 am EDT 08/07/20 | |
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| Such a tragic loss. He was wonderful in that show & ‘Next Stop, Greenwich Village.’ | |
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| re: What roles might Tony winner Lenny Baker of "I Love My Wife" had played if he hadn't died young | |
| Posted by: Pokernight 04:19 pm EDT 08/07/20 | |
| In reply to: re: What roles might Tony winner Lenny Baker of "I Love My Wife" had played if he hadn't died young - joerialto 02:44 pm EDT 08/07/20 | |
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| "Next Stop Greenwich Village" is a must-re-see. What a cast including Ellen Greene, Christopher Walken, Lois Smith, Antonio Fargas, Jeff Goldblum( hilarious), Dori Brenner and Shelley winters at her absolute Jewish-mother best. | |
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