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. |
