The Raúl E. Esparza "Spread the Love" Thread, Part Four- Page 52

[humbugfoto]

Posted: 10/20/08 at 10:24pm

Just stumbled across this:

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 10/20/08 at 10:56pm

Honestly, I wish I could find the other bare footed photo from Show People magazine because it is beatuiful, but I don't have it saved to this current computer.

The nudie WTBS pic: I've seen that picture before, but I never paid attention to how dark his nipples were. *blushes*

The STP pic: Whoa! They look very sexy. And it looks like Raul is a smidge taller than Jeremy Piven. Is that really the case or am I just seeing things.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 10/20/08 at 11:01pm

They're about the same height. I think Jeremy is actually a little tiny bit taller, but he's surprisingly short. I expected him to be really tall!

[humbugfoto]

Posted: 10/20/08 at 11:04pm

I think it's just the camera angle and the way Jeremy is standing, with his head cocked to one side like that. According to IMDb, he's 5'9", and, well, we know Raúl....isn't.

Updated On: 10/20/08 at 11:04 PM

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 10/20/08 at 11:12pm

Jeremy is so not 5'9".

[humbugfoto]

Posted: 10/20/08 at 11:13pm

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 10/20/08 at 11:19pm

Aww, short guys ROCK!

But I have to wonder where IMDB got their info from!

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 10/20/08 at 11:22pm

A person who made it up. Like much of the content there.

Updated On: 10/20/08 at 11:22 PM

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 10/20/08 at 11:48pm

Maybe they measured him in high heels!

[misschung]

Posted: 10/21/08 at 10:04am

I do wonder exactly what the Butler saw, if those pictures are any indication...

Yeah Jeremy isn't very tall. I think 5'9 is like, a go-to guess when guys are on the short side, lol.

[humbugfoto]

Posted: 10/22/08 at 11:35am

Updated On: 10/22/08 at 11:35 AM

[humbugfoto]

Posted: 10/22/08 at 2:07pm

Playbill Photo Call:








PHOTO CALL: Speed-The-Plow arrives on Broadway

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 10/22/08 at 3:05pm

WOW! In that first picture Jeremy looks so damn sexy. Why have I not seen this yet?!

[humbugfoto]

Posted: 10/22/08 at 4:25pm

In the last picture, Raúl looks like he's about haul off and slug Jeremy.

[Hest882]

Posted: 10/22/08 at 5:06pm

Raul looks like he has the mother of all pimples in the first picture. Sigh, really makes me wish I could be in NY again so I could catch a post-preview show.

[wonkit]

Posted: 10/22/08 at 5:53pm

humbugfoto -in the last picture, Raul's character is about to slug Jeremy's charaacter, and more than once.

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 10/22/08 at 6:04pm

See, now to me that last picture looks like Raul is about to jump Jeremy. But who wouldn't?!

[humbugfoto]

Posted: 10/22/08 at 6:10pm

LOL!! I kind of wondered if that's where that shot was from, that moment in the play. He looks decidedly Not Happy.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 10/22/08 at 6:48pm

The angles are really strange on those Playbill pictures.

[spidey_882]

Posted: 10/23/08 at 7:41am

That last photo makes Raul look like he's trying to pass a kidney stone...

[wonkit]

Posted: 10/23/08 at 5:01pm

Break a leg tonight, Raul!

[humbugfoto]

Posted: 10/24/08 at 1:24am

Happy Birthday, Raúl, from the various theatre critics reviewing Speed-The-Plow:

“Wearing a fierce glint and a sly smile, Esparza is one of those kinetic actors who doesn't hold anything back. He's full-tilt ahead -- tailor-made for the pugnacious Charlie.”
The Associated Press

“Esparza offers no such hints of softness. While this is unusual for an actor who’s made much of his career of traversing tormented psyches of men in musicals and plays as diverse as Company, The Normal Heart, and The Homecoming, it results here in a fiery, unforgiving depiction of success-hungry despair. Whether bellowing (for Charlie does little else) with outrage flooding his eyes or with his face pasted with the impish, off-center smirk of an inveterate trickster, Esparza is terrific at cutting to the heart of even the deepest deception to unleash the real-world truth beneath it.”
Talkin’ Broadway

“Fortunately, Esparza picks up the slack, delivering a furiously fast and funny performance that provides Mamet's hilariously profane dialogue its full impact.”
Hollywood Reporter

“Raúl Esparza's Charlie is more sharply funny, and more revelatory; his brutal resourcefulness at the end will leave you titillated and haunted.”
USA Today

“…- but the super-heated intensity of Raúl Esparza's memorable performance drives the show fast and furiously ….an assured show dominated by Esparza's forceful presence as nervy Charlie, especially so when his character melts down into explosive rage.”
Newark Star-Ledger

“Broadway veteran Esparza -- who finds new venom every time he articulates "Bob" -- gives a performance that taps all Charlie's uncertainty and volatility.”
TheatreMania

“Esparza is unsurpassed at revealing ecstatic exuberance or, in a twinkling, unleashed rage. He acts equally commandingly with octave-storming voice, rampaging or cringing body and galvanized or galvanizing limbs. His expressions, by themselves, could knock over bowling pins or stop a steamroller.”
John Simon, Bloomberg.com

[sweetestsiren]

Posted: 10/24/08 at 4:37am

And from Ben Brantley, too:

"Mr. Esparza runs full speed ahead with his ambition-stoked character, tapping the full kinetic force he artfully kept under wraps in recent revivals of “Company” and “The Homecoming.” But while Charlie may be an animal in perpetual fight-or-flight mode, Mr. Esparza finds many shades and textures — of pride, humiliation, anger and resentment — within that primal instinct. And the portrayal of the shifting alpha-male status between Charlie and Bobby should be mandatory viewing for sociologists and, come to think of it, zoologists."
- The New York Times

[misschung]

Posted: 10/24/08 at 9:52am

I don't know that he kept it under wraps so well in The Homecoming, but a great review nonetheless, lol.

[Hest882]

Posted: 10/24/08 at 11:48am

And the quote that sums it all up for me:

"...while the always amazing Esparza is the pushy underdog, all rapid-fire action and virtuosic language."
New York Post