ACCENTS: are people trained anymore?

I go see Pirate Queen last night and out of the 40 person cast and 20 speaking roles I think only 4 had accents in a HUGE Irish/British show. Stephanie Block didn'tou say ireland it comes out naturally). (except for a few times she said Ireland and you know when you say ireland it comes out naturally) while jeff mccarthy (her father in the show) did...hmm then Marcus chait didn't while his father had a scottish accent..hmm..then hadley fraser had his british accent, but wasn't he suppossed to be Irish? super..its only a hundred dollar ticket to a 16 million dollar musical. no biggie..MORE SETS and special effects will draw your attention away from the crappy accents or lack therof.

Then I saw Legally Blonde last week and while the show is set in boston, Orfeh has the BEST Long Island/Brooklyn accent I have ever heard...oh wait..its set in BOston right? huh..oh well it's only broadway. Its only the "best theater in the USA". don't worry about getting the accent right..just make one up. and yes I know what a boston accent is suppossed to sound like..Been there a bunch. Long a's kids. "pak ya caaah in hahvad yaaad"

I think the only ones to actually get their accents right are the cast from grey gardens. Mr. Cavanaugh is a little nasal for my taste but the rest of the cast nail it. Amazing. One of the cheapest shows with the tiniest budget gets it right while the mega-money shows get it horribly wrong. what should we dooo..oh yea..MORE SETS! Draw the public away from the horrible attention to detail with Delta Nu sweaters, Huge Fire on stage, and a song about ireland that makes no sense whatsoever...

Gimme a break.

Thank GOd for Ms Ebersole and crew.

no

Uh, I don't know if GG classifies as "cheap".

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i think in comparison to the other musicals on bway its cheap. I would feel good in saying that Bee, Q,, GG and Spring are the cheapest musicals on bway.

Massofmen, I can't talk about PQ and their accents but have you ever spent any time in Boston and/or watched The Departed? Orfeh's accent was spot on, matter of fact I've heard her do a perfect Brooklynese in Fever and Southern in Love, Janis. Her Paulette is just fine. I don't know many people from Brooklyn who say "fawyteen beeahs" and "Haare afaare". But it seems you had to find flaw with something. I second the Arrgh matey. Now, if you had complained about Orfeh shouting the ending to a song in to a wall, we'd have something to validly discuss. Throngs of people are actually bothered by that far more than whether her "aaah's" are perfect Bostonian or not.

Updated On: 4/13/07 at 12:48 AM

You're right Munk and there'd you'd be claiming to have shot the footage. Have you seen Legally blonde? I did and I'm from the east coast and Orfeh, as I've said 10,000 times on this board, needs no defense from me but nonsense is nonsense and should be corrected.

I'm not Munk but massofmen was really in a lather and unnecessarily so. There are far bigger problems to be talking about with regards to Legally Blonde as a whole and I'm sure PQ. Accents or lackthereof are hardly the glaring problems in either case. And I'm one of maybe a handful of people who's always supported Orfeh on this board. I've got nothing on the legion of IdinasuttonshoEdenchenobutlerpetersmurphyziemba fans that will go ballistic if someone dare utter an unkind word. Al, swooping away.

Updated On: 4/13/07 at 01:07 AM

I haven't seen Pirate Queen, but I'm wondering why they need to have Irish accents. In reality, the characters wouldn't be speaking to each other in English; they'd be speaking Gaelic. I know this issue has been previously discussed on these boards. The analogy that was made is that the actors in Les Mis don't speak English with French accents to indicate French - so why should the people in Pirate Queen speak English with Irish accents to indicate Gaelic?

I always enjoy it when Al Dente swoops into any thread, and she does champion other performers than just Orfeh.

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I agree, Dodger. He did a good job.

This thread made me laugh because I just saw The Rose Tattoo in London, and Susannah Fielding, who plays Rosa, has the most outrageously awful accent I've ever heard anyone do. It's this meld of Southern and Italian, and it's ridiculous.

in regards to Pirate Queen, the last time I saw it I was completely impressed with the subtlety of the dialects used by Hadley, Stephanie and Marcus (Hadley almost completely hid his native British sound- almost). They were all quite consistent without being completely over the top with it. But I was somewhat thrown that Jeff McCarthy didn't even seem to attempt the dialect. Even though I am an admitted fan of the show (and Jeff), this did bother me some.

-QB

Uh, guys? No such thing as a British accent. I'm sure you're aware there are strong regional variations, even on such a little bitty set of islands, so uh... no such thing as just a British accent. :P

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"I think the only ones to actually get their accents right are the cast from grey gardens."

Christian and JLY have very good Jersey accents in Jersey Boys.