| re: One more thing - the male leads | |
| Last Edit: Chazwaza 03:39 pm EDT 09/26/23 | |
| Posted by: Chazwaza 03:35 pm EDT 09/26/23 | |
| In reply to: One more thing - the male leads - Singapore/Fling 10:11 am EDT 09/26/23 | |
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| I said this in my post too but while we're discussing the male leads... so much can be said about the exceptional female roles and performances from this show, Toni, Eartha, Tonya, and the impeccable supporting performances by Leah Hocking & Sally Murphy, Brooke Sunny Moriber, and Jane Summerhays -- but it's less common to talk about the incredible men. Marc Kudisch and Norm Lewis in the biggest male roles besides Burrs and Black, were perfect... and Oscar & Phil played by Nathan Lee Graham and Michael McElroy, Gold & Goldberg played by Adam Grupper and Stuart Zagnit ... all just so so so good. I totally agree about Black and the actor who played him in the Broadway production. It was sadly the one weak spot in the cast and it had a notable impact. But that said, the work Toni and Tonya did, and Yancey too to the extent that it played, made it play to some extent even if it was a hole for what the show needed and what that element/stories could have had. I don't know when Wolfe was looking at Ricky Martin but he was a global super star and extremely famous in America in 1999, before this production started. Maybe it was just before "La Vida Loca" came out here that he was thinking of him? I can't and won't speak to what it was like to work with Mandy on this particular production that he clearly went too real and dark with in his acting process -- but on stage he was giving one of the best and most daring performances I've ever seen in a musical. That's in no way to excuse the behavior, I think he's more than talented enough to have gotten there without that. And it's a terrible shame he made those choices and created those experiences for Toni and the cast, and overshadowed the work he was doing on stage, in the role and in his scene/song work with the other actors, which was, again, on all counts, extraordinary. And I'll say in my circles at least, no one "felt sorry for that cast and how they might be terrorized by Patinkin" when he was announced for Great Comet. Wild Party was one show, and it was 16 years earlier, and he was certainly not unaware of Toni's feelings about it or the reputation he got. I think he's a smart and sensitive enough person and performer that I, and the other NY theater people I know, felt safe assuming he wasn't going to "terrorize" this cast... beyond the extremely key detail that Burrs IS a violent broken psycho clown who at many points in the play had to create a palpable sense of danger and unpredictability but also in a relationship with Queenie was liked the violence and danger (to an extent) -- this is a play, it has to be fake, he went too far, but it is NOTHING like Great Comet or Pierre... Pierre is in no way anything like Burrs and inhabiting him would not invite the lengths or methods Mandy went to, even acknowledge he took it inappropriately far. To imply that he would approach any character or performance in a way that would lead to him "terrorizing the cast" is disrespectful and unearned -- again, in no way excusing what happened on Wild Party. |
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