Suddenly Last Summer Tonight- Page 2

[ducdebrabant]

Posted: 10/26/06 at 4:59pm

Gale Harold is from Decatur, Georgia. He doesn't have to put on some phony southern accent. By the way, here's what somebody else said about him elsewhere:

"Gale's beauty may just play against him. In that perfectly tailored white suit, with his hair blond and slicked back, he looks like an Arrow Shirt man from the thirties. His profile onstage is stunning. I think in some photos it may be too sharp, but onstage it is so strong that it translates to perfection. The thing about him is, he is so incredibly tall and slim and handsome that it takes you a few minutes to realize that someone is talking. When he walked onstage, there was an audible gasp. It was amazing.

I had a hard time letting go of that distraction to get into the performance. But I did. In the beginning, he has little to do but react to Blythe. He does so, and what he does is fine. But here's my criticism of the play, overall. I think Blythe was not all that interesting. I have always loved her, still do, she looks great, but maybe unrealistically aged. To give Violet power, the actor has to make us hate her on one level, but feel her pain on another. I neither hated her nor felt her pain. I didn't get the sense of her deep manipulation. And if Gale was supposed to be drawn in by her, and honestly I'm not clear if he was, that didn't come across. He always seemed skeptical to me. But he played a fish out of water very, very well.

I got from him the sense of a man with ethics but also a blinding ambition. He felt he was doing good for people, but wasn't sure, and he was willing to take that risk to find out. He sold completely the idea that he would use the power of his good looks and charm to get what he wanted, in this case, money. At one point Blythe lost her cue and had to be fed a line. Gale never did, he was very professional and poised. Any discomfort he may feel, he baked into his performance."

It's still in previews, and everybody seems to be talking about a very early performance. We really should wait and see how it gels.