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| re: Madeline Kahn & 20th Century | |
| Posted by: JereNYC (JereNYC@aol.com) 03:34 pm EDT 05/24/23 | |
| In reply to: re: Madeline Kahn & 20th Century - AlanScott 03:23 pm EDT 05/24/23 | |
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| Kahn's famous remark in this story about how she hoped he didn't expect her to do that every night has always seemed to me like a joke that someone would make after knowing that they did a particularly terrific performance. It's hard for me to believe that anyone would say something like that seriously, especially to the director of the production. I've always wondered if Kahn's tenure in the show was ended due to a poor joke that went over like a lead balloon when Kahn failed to read the room. Did she ever confirm or deny saying it? Or comment on the story at all? |
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| re: Madeline Kahn & 20th Century | |
| Last Edit: AlanScott 03:44 pm EDT 05/24/23 | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 03:44 pm EDT 05/24/23 | |
| In reply to: re: Madeline Kahn & 20th Century - JereNYC 03:34 pm EDT 05/24/23 | |
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| She commented as little as possible on On the Twentieth Century. I think she was fired because too many of her performances seemed listless and uncommitted to the audience. I know there are people who say she was great when they saw her, but she wasn't great when I saw her. She seemed, if anything, to be working too hard to physicalize things, and she seemed tense. She was the star, and I think the producers would not have agreed to fire her unless they also saw that her performances were leading to the show having bad word of mouth. She was part of the reason for the show having had a good pre-opening advance. |
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| re: Madeline Kahn & 20th Century | |
| Last Edit: EvFoDr 03:42 pm EDT 05/24/23 | |
| Posted by: EvFoDr 03:41 pm EDT 05/24/23 | |
| In reply to: re: Madeline Kahn & 20th Century - JereNYC 03:34 pm EDT 05/24/23 | |
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| I think the context, though, is that there was disatisfaction with her performance leading up to the infamous comment. It's one thing if you've been doing a great job, and one night do an exceptionally unmatchable job, and make a humourous comment not to expect that repeated all the time. I got the sense from what I read that she was consistently low energy, tentative, and not delivering the goods, and then on opening night gave the "normal" great performance one might have expected and that Prince has been longing for, and then indicated that she wouldn't be doing that on a regular basis. | |
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