actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better- Page 3
actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better
Gaveston2
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/28/11
#50actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better
Posted: 12/8/11 at 6:48pm
Thank you, goldenboy. I don't agree about Sweeney, though George Hearn has been excellent in everything I've seen him do. (ETA just to be clear: I'm not arguing that Hearn didn't sing the part better, and if that is what's most important to you, then he would be and should be your favorite. To me, however, Cariou's gravelly voice better suited the character. So as the poster below me points out, much of this is subjective and depends on which aspects one considers most important.)
But while Ann Miller thought Mame was her personal best role and she sold out houses all over the country in the show, I seriously doubt she was better than Lansbury. Lansbury was simply so much closer to the character. I would be very surprised if Ann Miller (talented though she was) could tell the difference between one modern art movement and another, much less teach them to her nephew.
Updated On: 12/8/11 at 06:48 PM
#51actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better
Posted: 12/8/11 at 6:49pm
Estelle Parsons was 1,000 times better than Deanna Dunagan in AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY. I know many others who felt similarly.
I disagree. I thought they brought very different things to the role, and I liked them equally.
Bernadette was better than Catherine Zeta-Jones, hands down. (Bradley Dean was also an improvement on Aaron Lazar)
I SUPER disagree. I am one of the 3 people on the planet who hated Bernadette in this role. I saw CZJ 6 times in the role, and she was not good the last time I saw her (the week of the Tonys). But she was amazing the first 6 times. Bernadette schmacted her way through the entire thing.
I preferred Laura Osnes to Kelli O'Hara in SOUTH PACIFIC.
I disagree. Kelli was exquisite and Laura didn't have the acting chops to pull it off. Her voice is lovely, but doesn't come close to Kelli's.
Beth Leavel was far superior to Christine Ebersole in 42ND STREET.
ARE YOU NUTS?! No. Way. Ebersole was glorious in the part. She commanded that stage like something you rarely see these days. Beth was good, don't get me wrong, but I always felt like she was more of a caricature than a character.
In WICKED, I'd say that Murney, Bean, and Espinosa were better than Menzel; Hilty was far better than Chenoweth; and Hearn was a better Wizard than Grey.
Here we finally agree (except for Espinosa, who I thought was terrible). Hilty and Bean were the perfect duo as far as I'm concerned, and I've seen that show WAYYYYY too many times.
And right now, I'd say Judith Light is better than Linda Lavin in OTHER DESERT CITIES.
I haven't seen this yet, but I love both women so much. I imagine that their takes are very different. I loved Lavin off-Broadway (the only thing I liked about the show actually). Hopefully I'll get to see Judith soon.
So I guess the message I am trying to convey here is that it's all very subjective. some people prefer certain actors in certain parts because they look for different things in the roles. I prefer Stephanie to Sutton in Anything Goes. I haven't seen Adam in Memphis because I refuse to go back to that terrible show, but I am sure it wouldn't be hard to best Chad Kimball. I'm sure if Stephanie had been in Anything Goes from the start, though, Brantley would have panned her and Patina would have won the Tony. Just saying...
#52actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better
Posted: 12/10/11 at 2:17am
To Gaveston::The reason I liked George Hearn Better had nothing to do with the singing. George Hearn Scared the bejesus out of me in Sweeney Todd while with Len Cariou I always knew was acting in a scary musical.
I did not see Kelli O Hara in South Pacific I did see Laura Osnes. As talented as Laura is, I have to agree she did not have the acting chops to pull of Nellie Forbish on Broadway. There was something amateurish in her acting in South Pacific. I dont think Laura had enough life experience to pull of Nellie Forbush. She was much better in Bonnie and Clyde.
I never saw Kristen Chenowith in Wicked. other than clips. I am certainly a Cheno fan.......... but Megan HIlty did indeed blow me away in Wicked
A great performance. She was also damn good in 9 to 5. Hilty is a force to be reckoned with.
In my humble subjective opinion.
massofmen
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/10/04
#53actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better
Posted: 12/11/11 at 5:44pmagain, my point is more that alot of times the actor doesn't win the tony, the role wins the tony and the actor playing the part gets to keep the award.
Gaveston2
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/28/11
#54actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better
Posted: 12/11/11 at 7:30pm
Sorry, goldenboy, but thanks for the correction. Maybe you caught an off-performance, because I don't know many people who would say Len Cariou--who also originated roles in Applause and A Little Night Music of all things--was an inferior actor!
And for me, Cariou's voice WAS the soul of Sweeney Todd's character.
(None of this is a criticism of George Hearn, with whom I've worked personally and whom I've seen in many different roles (also opposite Lauren Bacall BTW). Lovely man, fine actor, great voice, IMHO.)
Updated On: 12/11/11 at 07:30 PM
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#55actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better
Posted: 12/11/11 at 10:13pmI kind of think Darren Criss is going to best them all in HOW TO SUCCEED....
After Eight
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/5/09
#56actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better
Posted: 12/12/11 at 5:15am
Kimball/Pascal: Both were excellent. I felt Kimball deserved the Tony. His Huey was more raw, more intense than Pascal's. The latter played it cuter, was more relaxed, was wonderful with the comic business, and was altogether charming.
Channing/Merman. Both were terrific.
Jones/Kert: I thought Jones was better. He remains the best Bobby I've ever seen. I found Kert to be blander.
Kahn/Kaye: Here again, Kaye was blander. Kahn was far superior, I found.
#57actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better
Posted: 12/14/11 at 7:14pm
Updated On: 6/17/12 at 07:14 PM
#58actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better
Posted: 12/15/11 at 4:55pm
How can anyone have had a moment to compare Dean Jones with Larry Kert?
My parents took me to see Company the second week of the run and Larry Kert has already taken over the role.
You would have to look really fast to see Dean Jones in that role.
#59actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better
Posted: 12/15/11 at 4:58pm
Oh as long as I am my high horse jousting my opinion at the world.
Madeline Kahn was hysterically funny in On the Twentieth Century. Apparently she was difficult and the press releases came out the Judy Kaye was better and you had to back and see her. Harold Prince producer director pushed for this.
Being young and believing press releases, I went back to see Judy Kaye.
The show wasn't nearly as good without Madeline Kahn.
Ms Kaye was probably easier to get along with than Madeline Kahn but nowhere near
the level of Ms Kahn's performance.
My opinion only. Don't get bent out of shape. This was over 20 years ago.
#60actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better
Posted: 12/15/11 at 4:58pmThat's interesting RE: Pascal, but strange because I think it is the first time someone made such a comment on here, I think. Has anyone seen MEMPHIS recently?
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
Gaveston2
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/28/11
#61actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better
Posted: 12/15/11 at 5:00pm
goldenboy, some of us are admittedly comparing Dean Jones on the OBC album and in the documentary on the recording of that album with Larry Kert, whom we saw in the show. I think for the most part we've been up front about the inequality of the comparison.
I know I, for one, specifically focused on singing, because I heard both men. I haven't tried to compare on their respective dancing skills, for example.
(ETA not a big deal, but IBDB shows Dean Jones staying with the show for a full month, which is consistent with what is reported in Sondheim & Co..)
Updated On: 12/15/11 at 05:00 PM
Gaveston2
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/28/11
#62actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better
Posted: 12/15/11 at 5:14pm
Re Kahn/Kaye, goldenboy, I'm not bent out of shape. Kahn was my favorite comic actress at the time, based on her film work, but when I saw the show, she slept-walked though it. A relative of mine later worked in the Prince office and they were STILL talking about how erratic Kahn was.
You and After Eight must have been lucky to see her when she was "on".
To me and by comparison, Judy Kaye was a revelation! So much so that I learned a very important lesson about how actors need to not only play intentions and do all the things we usually talk about when we discuss acting, they also need to seem like they really want to be in the room. Judy Kaye has had that latter quality in abundance in everything I've ever seen her do, whether comic or dramatic. (And for the record, I saw Kaye in 20th Century eight or ten times and each time I was moved by Kaye's sheer joy in playing the role.)
I also prefer her voice to Kahn's thin and sometimes shrill soprano (even on the recording where Kahn is presumably at her best). Oh, how I wish we had a recording of Kaye in the part!
#63actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better
Posted: 12/15/11 at 5:40pm
So I guess the message I am trying to convey here is that it's all very subjective. some people prefer certain actors in certain parts because they look for different things in the roles.
Obviously everything that's been written on this thread is subjective, as all opinions are subjective. For example, I find Kelli O'Hara to be a non-actress who's blander than untoasted white bread, but people around here think she hung the moon. What's been interesting about this thread, though, is the opportunity to watch certain people attempt to assert the correctness of their opinions vis-a-vis the opinions of others.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
Gaveston2
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/28/11
#64actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better
Posted: 12/15/11 at 7:48pm
I don't know if you're being sarcastic, AC, but I for one appreciate it when we at least try to locate the sources of our differing opinions.
Sure, a lot of it is subjective. But that doesn't mean we can't learn things from the attempt to explain our own subjectivity. (Not even if Kant and Schopenhauer are right and the attempt is ultimately in vain.)
I for one would rather struggle to determine why, say, you and I responded differently to a performance than read page after page of unexplained likes and dislikes.
After Eight
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/5/09
#65actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better
Posted: 12/15/11 at 11:49pm
"How can anyone have had a moment to compare Dean Jones with Larry Kert?"
I did see Dean Jones in the role at one of the last previews, and I'm glad I did.
Gaveston2
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/28/11
#66actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better
Posted: 12/16/11 at 2:25am
^^^^
I'm very jealous, After Eight. Very jealous indeed.
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