The Raúl E. Esparza "Spread the Love" Thread, Part Four- Page 64

[wonkit]

Posted: 12/27/08 at 6:55pm

I imagine I am going to be hungry every time I listen - for food, of course.

[humbugfoto]

Posted: 12/27/08 at 8:48pm

Just food. Of course. Suuuuure....

[wonkit]

Posted: 12/30/08 at 10:59am

Got a ticket for tonight's performance of SPEED-THE-PLOW! I am very excited.

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 12/30/08 at 2:34pm

Oooh, how exciting! Have a great time! The two of them together is such a high. I reeeeeeeeeeally wanna see it again before Norbert leaves.

[humbugfoto]

Posted: 12/30/08 at 8:41pm

I think we’ve all heard the story Raúl tells of when he was in high school, he was a National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts finalist, but lost the scholarship when the judges told him he had no acting talent, the most he could hope for was maybe to be a director, etc.

Well, it seems the NFAA has caught up with their past mistakes and is attempting to rectify them. In 2006 they created the NFAA Alumni Award and according to an article in the Orlando Sentinel, “Three-time Tony Award nominee, Raúl Esparza will receive the fourth annual NFAA Alumni Award” which will be presented during NFAA’s youngARTS program the week of January 12-17, 2009.

And to think they said he couldn’t act!!


Orlando Sentinel

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 12/30/08 at 10:54pm

Hahahahahahahah! UP YOURS NFAA!

That is awesome! I love how they don't include all the negative stuff.

[wonkit]

Posted: 12/30/08 at 11:59pm

I went to SPEED-THE-PLOW tonight. The house seemed to be full, and the audience was very enthusiastic and attentive. Tonight's performance was so different from the Piven-era performances (which I saw two of, one in previews and one in mid-November) that I hardly know where to begin. Norbert was off book completely and I never heard a prompt - I was sitting close to the back of the orchestra. He is so much warmer a character as Bobby Gould - he really seems to be listening to Karen in the second scene, trying to hear her weird message, and when he cries out in the third scene that he is lost, he sounds like someone truly in pain. (The line actually got laughs the last time I saw Piven deliver it.) Moss is beginning to vary her vocal quality more, and she was breath-taking in the third scene -really nailed it! Raul slowed the first scene down a lot, and was almost pathetically desperate in the last scene. He had been playing a lot of anger at the end, but now it was sadder. He looked totally exhausted, though - his eyes were hollow. This can't have been easy for any of them. I loved this performance - and I had found a lot to like, even during Piven's "stay." But now there is greater depth and interest. I wish I could go back again while NLB is in it, but I recommend that if you can, you try to see it. And Raul - get some sleep.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 12/31/08 at 12:10am

Wow, you too? I went tonight, and ran into like, ten people I knew.

I don't think he's necessarily "warmer," per se, because Bobby is just not a warm character, but I think Norbert brings to him a much, much bigger sense of being lost. Which he is, that's the point, but I think with Jeremy, Bobby was working really hard to cover it up. Norbert's take lets the audience see just how much this guy is only barely treading water. I think that's so much more beneficial to the telling of the story. It makes the play about a lot more than -- pun unintended -- speed. I actually thought the first scene was the fastest I had seen it yet. Once they locked in at the beginning, it just totally took off, I thought.

If there were a prompt, you wouldn't have heard it. They don't like, shout out the lines to the rafters. It's not obvious at all. He dropped one line for a split second, but didn't let it throw him.

[wonkit]

Posted: 12/31/08 at 12:16am

There were a couple of points during the first scene when there seemed to be a hesitation, and I couldn't tell if there was a line call or not. The first scene seemed much longer - as though I had previously seen an abridged version or something!

[Hest882]

Posted: 12/31/08 at 1:11am

Thanks for the detailed reviews, especially for those of us who are 3000 miles away!

[wonkit]

Posted: 12/31/08 at 1:10pm

I think the entire East Coast must have been at last night's performance! Tons of blog mentions cropping up about it. Good, free publicity of the right kind.

I just opened my audiobook of THE BOOK OF UNHOLY MISCHIEF - 10 cd's - hooray!

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 12/31/08 at 6:15pm

I guess it's that a lot of people are in town for the holidays. I generally avoid Times Square in the few days before New Years so I don't really experience the late-December flux of tourists and college students on break, but yeah, many coincidences last night!

[humbugfoto]

Posted: 1/2/09 at 8:03pm

Well, yeehaw and hallelujah, Sirius/XM FINALLY got around to broadcasting the Live on Broadway show with Raúl today. Pretty much as described by the people who attended (although they neglected to mention the game show portion of the entertainment...). I love how neatly Raúl managed to sidestep Seth's question about how and WHY he did Chitty....

The repeat schedule for the show: Sun., Jan. 4th @ 11 pm ET; Tue., Jan. 6th @ 7 am ET; Wed., Jan. 7th @ 12 pm ET.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 1/2/09 at 10:37pm

What would have been wrong with giving the same answer he always does?

Aww. Chitty.

[humbugfoto]

Posted: 1/2/09 at 10:55pm

Nothing, I guess, but there was something in Seth's tone of voice when he asked about Chitty that made the subtext to the question sound like "why on earth did you let yourself get sucked into that piece of DREK?? What were you THINKING???" and Raúl rather neatly just sort of side-stepped it and Seth got distracted and they went onto something else. I found it rather amusing. The whole show was quite....singular.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 1/2/09 at 10:58pm

Heh, I figured Seth's tone would be something like that. Much like the way he talks about plays, heh.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 1/2/09 at 11:38pm

I still don't get why people hate Chitty, but I guess I'm a sucker for the big money spectacles.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 1/2/09 at 11:56pm

I loved it. I mean, I mock it, but I thought it was fun, sweet, and really, really well done.

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 1/3/09 at 1:05am

I think lots of it has to do with the big fat paycheck. Still, the thing I enjoyed most about Chitty was the amazing adult cast. Well, minus one person.
I also loved his sign language.

[humbugfoto]

Posted: 1/5/09 at 1:33am

From Peter Filichia on Theatermania.com:

Moderated a Drama League panel with the director and cast of Speed-the-Plow, which meant Neil Pepe, Raul Esparza, Elizabeth Moss, and, arriving one half-hour late, Jeremy Piven. (As you can see, this luncheon took place much earlier in the month.) Because David Mamet’s play mentions that not-so-humble Hollywood executives give books “courtesy reads” — meaning they have no intention of making movies from them, but just read them to say that they’ve read them — I asked the group if they ever had a “courtesy audition.” Esparza virtually jumped out of his chair to tell about the time a friend of his arranged such an audition with Joel Schumacher, who was set to direct the movie of The Phantom of the Opera, and was looking for the actor who’d play the title role. Esparza was doing a courtesy call himself, for he didn’t think he had a chance at the role — until he entered the downtown restaurant and met Schumacher, who immediately exclaimed, “Oh my God, you’re just what I’m looking for!” And throughout the meeting, Schumacher just kept saying that so much that eventually Esparza came to think, “Oh, my God! I can’t believe it! I’m actually going to be the Phantom of the Opera!” Schumacher then said that he'd soon be in touch with him to make final arrangements.

Needless to say, Esparza didn’t do the role or any other in the 2004 non-blockbuster. But Esparza also pointed out that maybe Schumacher wasn’t so full of it — “for,” he said, “Joel cast Gerard Butler, and many people over the years say that we do look alike.” (Indeed, they do.) “So,” Esparza concluded,“I was the type he was looking for — just not the actual actor he was looking for.”
Peter Filichia's Diary

[wonkit]

Posted: 1/5/09 at 11:51am

A great question, and an answer I had not ever heard before. Well done, Peter!

Wow - Piven is nothing if not consistent - half an hour late, and monosyllabic. I just keep picturing a 13-year-old who has been told that he has to go to his aunt's birthday party.

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 1/5/09 at 3:05pm

Funny story. Sucks, but I guess it happens. I suppose he's better off, who knows what he would have missed out on if it had happened. And there are so many things wrong with that movie, I'm happy he can laugh about it now.

I could totally see Raul in a film noir version of Phantom of the Opera, though.

And Piven's a douche. Seems like he has a case of little man syndrome.

[humbugfoto]

Posted: 1/5/09 at 6:02pm

Hmmm.....

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 1/5/09 at 6:51pm

Whoa...not the best picture of William H Macy. I've always thought of him as an attractive guy, but lord. Here Raul looks thirty years younger than him. And it makes Elizabeth look like a teenager!

[Hest882]

Posted: 1/5/09 at 6:54pm

Oh, awful, awful picture. Whose idea was that?