Question about Cyrano de Bergerac- Page 2
Question about Cyrano de Bergerac
#25Question about Cyrano de Bergerac
Posted: 9/16/12 at 9:04am
Not a great production, though I expect it will improve as they settle in. Saturday night ended at 10:50pm.
On a side note: most people probably think that Cyrano is a fictional character, but not so. At several points in the play he mentions the moon, and a trip to the moon. For $0.99 you can grab Cyrano's A TRIP TO THE MOON for your Kindle - scifi novel that predates Jules Verne by two centuries.
http://www.amazon.com/Cyrano-Bergeracs-Voyage-Illustrated-ebook/dp/B001PO5UFU/ref=sr_1_7?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1347800508&sr=1-7&keywords=cyrano+de+bergerac+kindle+books
2016 These Paper Bullets (1/02) Our Mother's Brief Affair (1/06), Dragon Boat Racing (1/08), Howard - reading (1/28), Shear Madness (2/10), Fun Home (2/17), Women Without Men (2/18), Trip Of Love (2/21), The First Gentleman -reading (2/22), Southern Comfort (2/23), The Robber Bridegroom (2/24), She Loves Me (3/11), Shuffle Along (4/12), Shear Madness (4/14), Dear Evan Hansen (4/16), American Psycho (4/23), Tuck Everlasting (5/10), Indian Summer (5/15), Peer Gynt (5/18), Broadway's Rising Stars (7/11), Trip of Love (7/27), CATS (7/31), The Layover (8/17), An Act Of God (8/31), The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (8/24), Heisenberg (10/12), Fiddler On The Roof (11/02), Othello (11/23), Dear Evan Hansen (11/26), Les Liaisons Dangereuses (12/21) 2017 In Transit (2/01), Groundhog Day (4/04), Ring Twice For Miranda (4/07), Church And State (4/10), The Lucky One (4/19), Ernest Shackleton Loves Me (5/16), Building The Wall (5/19), Indecent (6/01), Six Degrees of Separation (6/09), Marvin's Room (6/28), A Doll's House Pt 2 (7/25) Curvy Widow (8/01)
wonkit
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/30/08
#26Question about Cyrano de Bergerac
Posted: 9/16/12 at 10:31amAre any of the obscenities spoken by Cyrano? That would seem to me to be a major gaff. He is supposed to be the noble and pure one, a good soldier and a good wit, but not as pedestrian a man as those around him. If he is trash talking like everyone else, he hardly has the stature he assumes in the original.
#27Question about Cyrano de Bergerac
Posted: 9/16/12 at 10:42amHe does utter an obscenity at least once, as I remember. Also, the character didn't seem too noble and pure to me. He seemed rough around the edges, a bit of a hothead, etc.
wonkit
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/30/08
#28Question about Cyrano de Bergerac
Posted: 9/16/12 at 11:38amHe is the kind of hothead who sacrifices himself to save the life of a beautiful young man loved his Roxanne but it is a noble hothead action. I may just have to see this to determine if I can tolerate an anachronistic translation approach. I'm thinking probably not...
Dollypop
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#29Question about Cyrano de Bergerac
Posted: 9/16/12 at 12:29pmCyrano is based on a historical character from the town of Bergerac in France. I'm sure that great dramatic liberties were taken when Rostand dramatized him, though.
"Long live God!" (GODSPELL)
Dollypop
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#30Question about Cyrano de Bergerac
Posted: 9/16/12 at 12:34pm
Some information about the historic Cyrano:
Cyrano de Bergerac (Writer)
"Long live God!" (GODSPELL)
#31Question about Cyrano de Bergerac
Posted: 9/17/12 at 11:57pmI don't profess to be familiar with every translation of Cyrano into English, but I certainly have a favorite. I don't know why any production is ever put on that doesn't use Christopher Fry's beautiful and brilliant translation.
Words don't deserve that kind of malarkey. They're innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other, so if you look after them you can build bridges across incomprehension and chaos. But when they get their corners knocked off, they're no good anymore…I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.
Dollypop
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#32Question about Cyrano de Bergerac
Posted: 9/18/12 at 9:42am
Okay, I've re-read the French version and can't find anything that could be mistaken for the "s" word that is used several times in the new production.
So much for that.
"Long live God!" (GODSPELL)
#33Question about Cyrano de Bergerac
Posted: 9/18/12 at 10:32amI'm not familiar with the translations at all. So, i can't comment on that. But as a whole, I really enjoyed the production. I thought it was beautiful and that they staging told the story well. Even though it was long, it didn't feel long at all to me.
So, that was the Drowsy Chaperone. Oh, I love it so much. I know it's not a perfect show...but it does what a musical is supposed to do. It takes you to another world, and it gives you a little tune to carry with you in your head for when you're feeling blue. Ya know?
Dollypop
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#35Question about Cyrano de Bergerac
Posted: 9/18/12 at 2:42pm
Ah, the Burgess translation eliminates that wonderful reference the dying Cyrano makes to his "panache". Instead, he uses "my white feather". To some people that is the same thing, but "panache" has so more...well, panache.
Similarly, the current version omits another one of my favorite lines, "Tonight a hundred man are not enough. BRING ME GIANTS!"
"Long live God!" (GODSPELL)
#36Question about Cyrano de Bergerac
Posted: 9/18/12 at 4:26pmI was wondering why this version ends with "My panache" and other versions with "my plume." I hadn't realized before looking at the dictionary just now that "panache" is a feather or a bunch of feathers on a helmet. So I learned something!
Mr Roxy
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
#37Question about Cyrano de Bergerac
Posted: 9/18/12 at 7:58pm
Saw it last Sunday. We enjoyed it immensely.Hodge's Cyrano reminds me of Cyrano crosssed with a longshoreman.He looks grubby compared to Plummer's Cyrano.He did give a great performance though. The whole show is him.I do not think there will be a great audience for it however.
The sound was one of the best I have heard in a long time. The cannon roar all around you and your seat reverberates at times.
Poster Emeritus
Dollypop
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#38Question about Cyrano de Bergerac
Posted: 9/18/12 at 8:13pmA belated Happy Birthday to you, Mr Roxy. It's hard to determine the year you were born in because the earth was still forming at the time of your nativity.
"Long live God!" (GODSPELL)
Mr Roxy
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
Dollypop
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#40Question about Cyrano de Bergerac
Posted: 9/18/12 at 9:39pmNo I don't, Roxy. My birthday is a few days after yours.
"Long live God!" (GODSPELL)
#41Question about Cyrano de Bergerac
Posted: 9/24/12 at 10:28pm
WOW. What an absolute steaming pile of dog sh*t. I'd never walked out of a show at intermission, but this was the worst production I've tried to sit through. Horrible pacing, awful direction.
I can't recommend enough that you learn from me, SKIP IT AND SAVE YOUR MONEY.
#42Question about Cyrano de Bergerac
Posted: 9/24/12 at 10:59pmThe "panache" thing only really sticks out if you know it's there in other translations. It's a complex point, anyway- it's a pun that works only because the play was popular enough to create a double meaning for the word "panache" that gradually became culturally ingrained more than the original meaning.
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#43Question about Cyrano de Bergerac
Posted: 9/25/12 at 3:20am
douglas hodge is a great talent so why is he so bad here.
Ed_Mottershead
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/20/05
#44Question about Cyrano de Bergerac
Posted: 9/25/12 at 2:12pmMy question is, why is the Roundabout so addled-pated to revive a play that was given a fine production within the last 5 years? I admit that I've never cared for the play, but Klein did what there was to do with the role. Surely Roundabout could have come up with something more original that could have allowed Hodge to do his thing, as it were.
BroadwayEd
Rainbowhigh23
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/29/12
#45Question about Cyrano de Bergerac
Posted: 9/25/12 at 3:21pmIf anyone is curious to see the show tonight I have an extra ticket. PM For details. Thanks.
#46Question about Cyrano de Bergerac
Posted: 9/25/12 at 6:05pmWhat I find interesting is that Patrick Page, who has played Cyrano to acclaim regionally, left what I'm sure would have been a very lucrative stay in Spider-Man to play the thankless supporting role of De Guiche at the Roundabout for presumably a lot less money.
wonkit
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/30/08
jeffmiele
Broadway Star Joined: 11/6/07
wonkit
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/30/08
#49Question about Cyrano de Bergerac
Posted: 9/25/12 at 10:31pm
Thanks.
Seeing this tomorrow afternoon. Love the Burgess translation. Unsure about this new one.
Videos