| re: Alfred Drake? | |
| Posted by: Snowysdad 12:38 am EDT 03/16/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Alfred Drake? - portenopete 07:05 pm EDT 03/15/21 | |
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| Fred's talents lay in a highly individualistic direction. He was not a traditional leading man, he had an insouciance about him that colored all the roles he originated, especially Fred Graham and Hajj. Note that when James Hammerstein went to direct what he hoped would be a revitalized production of Oklahoma he added a line for Curly to emphasize this characteristic, "Who laughs at your jokes" inserted into "People will say we're in love." To my mind it clarifies the Fred Drake in the part, takes the character away from a cardboard leading man. The only role I know that he played that did not have this prevailing characteristic is The King in you know who and I. Rodgers says he was terrific and I have no reason to disbelieve him. Listen to the cast album of Sing Out Sweet Land and again this characteristic comes through, even though Burl Ives was supposed to be the sort of comic American folk tale teller. I guess its time to reveal that I knew Fred, he introduced me to Burl and I had several courses with Elie Seigmeister who wrote Sing Out at Hofstra so some of this is insider information. Anyhow Fred was one of a kind and therefore several of his leading roles are almost impossible to cast effectively. I didn't mean to suggest that he was completely debilitated by the time of Sweeney, because he had stopped drinking circa very early 1960s, but the years before that of hard living made him 64 going on mid to late 70s rather than 64 but able to play younger. He was a unique talent. | |
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