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| re: Seeing Report that Christopher Plummer has died | |
| Posted by: WWriter 06:27 pm EST 02/05/21 | |
| In reply to: Seeing Report that Christopher Plummer has died - comedywest 01:08 pm EST 02/05/21 | |
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| How nice to see a discussion on Plummer that mostly ignores Sound of Music. I saw him in the musical Cyrano. I accept everyone's reservations about the show, but I loved it. He was wonderful, as was Leigh Berry. I also saw him in The Good Doctor, in which he gave a sloppy, careless performance. Very disappointing. But, oh, Cyrano! |
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| re: Seeing Report that Christopher Plummer has died | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 12:53 am EST 02/07/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Seeing Report that Christopher Plummer has died - WWriter 06:27 pm EST 02/05/21 | |
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| He was terrific in The Good Doctor at the closing performance. Sorry to hear that he wasn't always. | |
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| re: Seeing Report that Christopher Plummer has died | |
| Posted by: StageLover 07:26 pm EST 02/12/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Seeing Report that Christopher Plummer has died - AlanScott 12:53 am EST 02/07/21 | |
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| I also thought he was very good in it. But as a lad, I collected autographs at the stage door, and after a Sat. mat. of TGD, CP pushed right by me and ignored my request. The only other tine that happened was after MOON FOR THE MISBEGOTTEN, when CP's future OLD TIMES co-star Jason Robards did the same thing. Knowing what I do about both great actors, they were probably on their way to a much-needed post-show drink and were not going to be stopped. I still loved them both...and I can see why Neil Simon fell for the gorgeous Marsha Mason from that show. So did I. |
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| re: Seeing Report that Christopher Plummer has died | |
| Posted by: WaymanWong 02:59 am EST 02/07/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Seeing Report that Christopher Plummer has died - AlanScott 12:53 am EST 02/07/21 | |
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| I've never seen any production of ''The Good Doctor,'' but I've always been curious about this ''comedy with music.'' Peter Link is credited with the music and Neil Simon with the lyrics, so are there actual songs? Have they ever been recorded? I see that the 1974 Tonys nominated ''The Good Doctor'' for Best Original Score (and passed over the songs to ''Cyrano''). And the 1973 Tonys nominated Link's incidental music to ''Much Ado About Nothing'' (over Jule Styne & Bob Merrill's ''Sugar''). It looks like Link's ''Much Ado'' nomination might've been the first time a play made it into the Best Score category. |
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| re: Seeing Report that Christopher Plummer has died | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 11:28 am EST 02/08/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Seeing Report that Christopher Plummer has died - WaymanWong 02:59 am EST 02/07/21 | |
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| On Broadway, there was one song in The Good Doctor. There seems to have been at least one more when it opened out of town. On Broadway, the play was preceded by a 20-minute concert of music by Peter Link, and there must have been some incidental music. It was so long ago and I can't remember. I think you're probably right that Link's Much Ado score was the first time that an incidental music score was nominated, but of course there are songs in Much Ado and other music called for, plus Link composed additional music, which I think was pretty much all there in the television production. I can't remember if the television production of The Good Doctor includes much or even any of the music, although I think it must include at least the song. |
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| re: Seeing Report that Christopher Plummer has died | |
| Last Edit: WaymanWong 12:46 am EST 02/06/21 | |
| Posted by: WaymanWong 12:27 am EST 02/06/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Seeing Report that Christopher Plummer has died - WWriter 06:27 pm EST 02/05/21 | |
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| I never saw ''Cyrano.'' I just knew Plummer and Beery were the show's only Tony nominees, and that Plummer won Best Actor in a Musical. I didn't realize it ran for only 5 previews and 49 performances. And was directed and choreographed by Michael Kidd. Was it largely panned? . That '73-74 season looked slim; there were only 3 nominees for Best Musical (''Raisin,'' ''Over Here!'' and ''Seesaw'') and only 3 nominees for Best Book (''Candide,'' ''Raisin'' and ''Seesaw''). But the Tony nominators didn't even give the 4th slot to ''Cyrano'' just to fill out those categories. I've now listened to the cast album, and only one exquisite song caught my ear: ''You Have Made Me Love,'' beautifully sung by Beery. I just realized I first heard this tune years ago in ''Broadway Jukebox,'' Ed Linderman's fun revue of forgotten songs from Broadway flops. (Has anyone else seen ''Cyrano: The Musical'' (1993) and the Off-Broadway musical ''Cyrano'' (2019), starring Peter Dinklage, too?) |
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| Link | 'You Have Made Me Love,'' sung by Leigh Beery, from ''Cyrano'' (1973) |
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| re: Seeing Report that Christopher Plummer has died | |
| Posted by: dbdbdb 12:52 pm EST 02/06/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Seeing Report that Christopher Plummer has died - WaymanWong 12:27 am EST 02/06/21 | |
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| The 1993 Cyrano was a loud, stentorian pop opera of no particular interest. The creative team was Dutch and the English lyrics, by Sheldon Harnick, had some unfortunate aspects. One favorite, sung by the good sisters at the convent to which Roxanne retires, was, "Cyrano is lots of fun/Lots of fun for every nun." The 2019 Cyrano was a depressing exercise that stripped the material of its melodrama and romance. Peter Dinklage played it without an enlarged nose; also cut was the speech in which Cyrano comes up with dozens of witty synonyms for that particular organ. At first, I thought the show might make something of the actor's dwarfism, but it didn't. In truth, Dinklage is a pretty good-looking guy and it was hard to see why he couldn't make a play for Roxanne. Her character was reduced to nothing as well, thanks to the loss of scenes like the one in which Roxanne and Ragueneau the baker storm the battlefield bearing provisions for Cyrano, Christian, and their fellow soldiers. The score is best described as morose. It was Ken Mandelbaum who made the very good point that the text of Cyrano is so lush and grand that adding music to it constitutes an unnecessary gilding of the lily. |
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| Harnick's credit on CYRANO was for "additional lyrics." | |
| Last Edit: Seth Christenfeld 11:55 am EST 02/08/21 | |
| Posted by: Seth Christenfeld (tabula-rasa@verizon.net) 11:54 am EST 02/08/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Seeing Report that Christopher Plummer has died - dbdbdb 12:52 pm EST 02/06/21 | |
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| The bulk of the English translation was by Peter Reeves, a minor British actor-turned-writer whose other major credit is having written "Engine of Love" with ALW--the song that ended up growing into Starlight Express. Seth, who remembers this garbage but can't remember a word of high school French |
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| re: Seeing Report that Christopher Plummer has died | |
| Posted by: FAIRBOY 09:30 pm EST 02/05/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Seeing Report that Christopher Plummer has died - WWriter 06:27 pm EST 02/05/21 | |
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| Leigh is magnificent on the CD of Cyrano. Shortly after Cyrano, she played Maria in WSS at the Pittsburgh CLO. Lenora Nemetz was Anita but she sustained an injury on opening night and IIRC missed a few performances thereafter. |
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