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I approve of most of the casting - I really, really do, in the case of Bebe Neuwirth - but Nathan Lane has *got* to stop getting cast in wholly inappropriate roles in revivals. Seriously; the man destroyed the revival of _The Man Who Came To Dinner_ that screened on Great Performances a few years back, he was the second-worst thing about the _The Producers_ musical movie (the script was the worst - it's a shambling zombie, compared to the original) ... and now he's Gomez?
Lane is an accomplished actor, but he's found his star character, and *it bloody isn't* Gomez Addams ... either John Astin's Gomez or Charles Addams's original cartoon Gomez, which Raul Julia did an impressive job playing. Astin's Gomez is one of the great, great, great characters of sitcom history ... he goes from cheerful to lustful to enthusiastic to bizarre without changing gears or breaking character *at all* ... and since it's Astin's Gomez that, pretty much, established the concept as a viable property for stage and screen, you have to at least acknowledge that performance when you do it. Julia's Gomez did that, but played it darker, straighter, with more attention paid to the outright sadism of the Addams cartoons.
Lane, on the other hand, took the role of Sheridan Whiteside, one of the great, big, sadistic, gleeful, cheerful, whiny, demanding roles, a role that demands only the best in scene-stealing power from the actor portraying the character ... and turned him into a petulant child. Sheridan Whiteside is ... well, evil and manipulative, not because he IS evil and manipulative ... as _The Man Who Came To Dinner_ shows us at the end, he's decent at heart ... but because it's so damn much fun. Lane can have fun with a role, but it's not a *big* fun ... his schtick is a kind of timid I-can-be-big-but-I-don't-have-to-be-please-please-please-like-me thing.
Now, if he could get away from his traditional performance, and disappear into the character, as he did at times with Timon, he might be able to not hurt the performance ... but he's not just Nathan Lane, actor, now, he's Nathan Lane, STAR, and he *WILL* use his traditional star role, as he did in _The Man Who ..._ ... and this show will be the worse for it. #carrie Reply
Lane is an accomplished actor, but he's found his star character, and *it bloody isn't* Gomez Addams ... either John Astin's Gomez or Charles Addams's original cartoon Gomez, which Raul Julia did an impressive job playing. Astin's Gomez is one of the great, great, great characters of sitcom history ... he goes from cheerful to lustful to enthusiastic to bizarre without changing gears or breaking character *at all* ... and since it's Astin's Gomez that, pretty much, established the concept as a viable property for stage and screen, you have to at least acknowledge that performance when you do it. Julia's Gomez did that, but played it darker, straighter, with more attention paid to the outright sadism of the Addams cartoons.
Lane, on the other hand, took the role of Sheridan Whiteside, one of the great, big, sadistic, gleeful, cheerful, whiny, demanding roles, a role that demands only the best in scene-stealing power from the actor portraying the character ... and turned him into a petulant child. Sheridan Whiteside is ... well, evil and manipulative, not because he IS evil and manipulative ... as _The Man Who Came To Dinner_ shows us at the end, he's decent at heart ... but because it's so damn much fun. Lane can have fun with a role, but it's not a *big* fun ... his schtick is a kind of timid I-can-be-big-but-I-don't-have-to-be-please-please-please-like-me thing.
Now, if he could get away from his traditional performance, and disappear into the character, as he did at times with Timon, he might be able to not hurt the performance ... but he's not just Nathan Lane, actor, now, he's Nathan Lane, STAR, and he *WILL* use his traditional star role, as he did in _The Man Who ..._ ... and this show will be the worse for it. #carrie Reply
@capnrob: Is Lane's "go-to-guy" status because of better professional aptitude for stage, or is it because he is positioned in such a way (read: a good agent)? His ubiquity has stepped over the line of matching actor-to-role.
I imagine a harried theater production would try to court a "proven earner" and tailor their show to a Big Man like Lane versus gambling on a name that must prove stage-value (Mrs. Tom Cruise?), or an unknown who has stage-chops but doesn't carry star-power (eg. who is this delicious Susan Egan?) Either way, don't Broadway productions behave sort of entitled to themselves? More incestuous than Hollywood I imagine, and fiercely territorial.
One certainty: Bebe Neuwirth. Ohyes. #carrie Reply
I imagine a harried theater production would try to court a "proven earner" and tailor their show to a Big Man like Lane versus gambling on a name that must prove stage-value (Mrs. Tom Cruise?), or an unknown who has stage-chops but doesn't carry star-power (eg. who is this delicious Susan Egan?) Either way, don't Broadway productions behave sort of entitled to themselves? More incestuous than Hollywood I imagine, and fiercely territorial.
One certainty: Bebe Neuwirth. Ohyes. #carrie Reply
@gods-n-clods: I'd add a phrase there: "A proven earner _who's actually willing to do live theatre_." Many big name actors aren't interested in doing the seven shows a week (or whatever it is now) thing, I suspect. George S. Kaufman wrote a piece on the subject a few decades back, and even went so far to include a bit in _Hollywood Pinafore_ where the bad guy threatens a rising starlet with forcing her to appear on stage ... and that was written in a time when the relative power of Broadway was much, much higher in comparison to Hollywood than it is now.
I can only imagine that Lane is, indeed willing, and is probably the biggest name they can get. It is a pity, though, that, say, Alan Tudyk isn't a big enough name to headline this. Reply
I can only imagine that Lane is, indeed willing, and is probably the biggest name they can get. It is a pity, though, that, say, Alan Tudyk isn't a big enough name to headline this. Reply