ARCADIA @ the Barrymore

[JT2030]

Posted: 12/29/10 at 12:36pm

Just popped up on Telecharge.com, though I haven't seen any news yet about this. Pretty fantastic cast (Billy Crudup, Margaret Colin, Raul Esparza...)
ARCADIA at The Barrymore Theatre

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 12/29/10 at 1:05pm

I was just wondering earlier when they were going to announce this. I'm as good as on a plane.

[jacobtsf]

Posted: 12/29/10 at 1:31pm

So excited for this! Amazing cast in a great play.

[QuiteSo]

Posted: 12/29/10 at 2:41pm

Completely awesome cast in a great play! I am so there.

[wonkit]

Posted: 12/29/10 at 3:34pm

Excellent news!

ETA: And the rose to computer motif is amazingly perfect. Updated On: 12/29/10 at 03:34 PM

[viola13]

Posted: 12/29/10 at 4:06pm

I am so excited!!

[Roscoe]

Posted: 12/29/10 at 4:07pm

If only it was directed by anyone but the inept David Leveaux. I'll never forget or forgive what he did to GLASS MENAGERIE a few years back.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 12/29/10 at 5:21pm

Raúl's a little old to be playing Valentine, n'est-ce pas? lol

[alawhat]

Posted: 12/29/10 at 5:47pm

Stoppard's best I think... the concept is genius and his dialogue doesn't descend into pretentious masturbation, or at least not as often. It's rich AND satisfying, whereas most his plays fall into one category (or neither).

Not loving the rose becoming computer cord artwork tbh, almost every production of Arcadia uses that same idea in different executions. The original LCT art is gorgeous, but I love the British script cover with the classical garden bordered by wilderness.

[Kad]

Posted: 12/29/10 at 5:51pm

Love Esparza, and I agree that Arcadia is one of Stoppard's best.

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 12/29/10 at 9:24pm

I'd crawl on broken glass to see Raul in anything.

Updated On: 12/29/10 at 09:24 PM

[esparza 333]

Posted: 12/29/10 at 11:30pm

This is extremely exciting!! I am not very acquainted with this play but the concept is fascinating and I have always been interested by in Stoppard's work and Esparza and Crudup is enough to get me excited.

[VernonGersch]

Posted: 12/30/10 at 12:36am

Granted I was still in high school when I saw the original production at Lincoln center....but I was totally bored out of my frigging mind when I saw this. The intermission couldn't have come fast enough for me...With that being said, once the reviews are in and the boards are buzzing I might revisit....

[whyohwhyoh]

Posted: 12/30/10 at 12:41am

Esparza is WAY too old for this. I am surprised that they have cast him. He's a name to be sure but Valentine is meant to be in his 20's not 40's. There is supposed to be an older man/younger man dynamic between Benedict and Valentine which will simply not exist in this production (Crudup is TWO years older) whereas at LC in 1995, the age difference between Victor Garber and RS Leonard worked a treat. (Garber is TWENTY years older than RSL) THAT is the way the play is written- THAT is the dynamic.

[Hest882]

Posted: 12/30/10 at 12:55am

My favorite straight play and my favorite Broadway actor. New York...I'm coming back to see ya!

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 12/30/10 at 12:58am

I'd crawl on broken glass to NOT see Raul in anything. He's way too old.

[mallardo]

Posted: 12/30/10 at 6:04am

Assuming this is the same production that played London, have no worries about David Leveaux. It's brilliant.

[Frank8]

Posted: 12/30/10 at 7:47am

Raoul is perfect for the role. There is no age specified for Valentine. I believe that Ed Stoppard who played the part in London is in his late 30s and Raoul just turned 40. He will get another Tony nom for Arcadia.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 12/30/10 at 9:40am

There is a specified age. The script says he is "twenty-five to thirty." He's a post-grad student and certainly not the type that would have taken a 15-year break in his schooling. And, as whyohwhyohwhyohwhyohwhy stated -- even though he got the name wrong -- the difference in age between Valentine and Bernard significantly colors their interactive dynamic.

That said, I like Esparza and will see this and he will probably be very good in the role.

But it's also important to be accurate about things.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 12/30/10 at 9:53am

Yet again Raul is miscast, and yet again everyone will praise him for being excellent when all he will do is play the role as super angsty. I think he may be the most overrated performer in New York.

That being said, I am excited for the production and for Crudup. I think Leveaux will do an amazing job with this. It's right up his alley. His Cyrano was stunning.

[whyohwhyoh]

Posted: 12/30/10 at 10:42am

Right- BERNARD-I always make that mistake- thanks for pointing that out. I think I never got it out of my head that some say Stoppard based the Bernard character on the London Times critic Benedict Nightingale. I still LOVE this play- I just think that Esparza is simply the wrong age. I love Lia Williams btw- and look forward to seeing her.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 12/30/10 at 12:01pm

Not to diminish my excitement about finally seeing him do Stoppard, but I do think Raul is a little bit too old for the part. However, don't forget that there are people who, even without taking a tremendously long break in their formal education, remain in graduate school until their mid-30's, which Raul could easily believably be. (I'm sure someone who doesn't like him will insist that, no, he looks positively ancient, but I'd buy him as 30-something.) So, yes, the lack of evident age difference could be strange, but the casting itself, (other than that it doesn't fit the scripted age, but those get thrown out the window all the time)) is not as blasphemously unrealistic as some people seem to think.

Updated On: 12/30/10 at 12:01 PM

[wonkit]

Posted: 12/30/10 at 12:07pm

I actually thought the age difference between Bernard and Valentine in the original LCT production was a little too pronounced. It trivialized Valentine as an academic thinker, and made the Bernard-Chloe thing just too creepy for me (although Bernard is a sh*t, so it's not out of the realm of possibility). I think establishing some age correlation among Bernard, Hannah and Valentine is important as they are all competing with each other, both in academic prowess and sexual tension. If one thinks Esparza is too old, and Crudup too young, for their respective parts, the director may be seeing them as contemporaries rather than generationally distinct. I just re-read the play last night, and can see that working, too.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 12/30/10 at 12:11pm

the director may be seeing them as contemporaries rather than generationally distinct. I just re-read the play last night, and can see that working, too.

I was just about to edit that into my post. I'm going to have some directorial faith and assume this is totally intentional, because having them appear roughly the same age could create a very interesting, albeit different, dynamic.

[wonkit]

Posted: 12/30/10 at 12:16pm

I see Valentine as a perpetual student, since he is an aristocrat, doesn't have to work, and can spend the rest of his life pursuing his iterated algorithms. He is, in my mind, kind of like Septimus as a hermit - goes to university but ends up coming back to bury himself at Sidley Park, sitting at his computer all day with the grouse.