Anyone Seeing Boris Kodjoe Tonight?

[brandonm2]

Posted: 4/15/08 at 7:27pm

Hey, Im going to see "Cat" in a few weeks and I just wanted to know if anyones seeing him tonight, post your reviews here!

[uncageg]

Posted: 4/15/08 at 7:40pm

A Good froend of mine is in NYC and seeing it this evening. She always writes me a "review" I will share it when I get it.

[uncageg]

Posted: 4/16/08 at 10:50am

My friend e-mailed me this morning and this is what she had to say about Boris:

Boris Kodjoe was eye candy = not an actor in this theater. Unfortunate because this is an important role and he made James Earl Jones performance stale and ineffective. These two characters feed off each other. Everyone was hungry last night.

She also said the audience was awful. Cell phones ringing all over the place, candy wrappers, people responding out loud to the show and people having conversations all through the show as if they were sitting in their living rooms.

Updated On: 4/16/08 at 10:50 AM

[chitowndoll]

Posted: 4/16/08 at 11:01am

Boris Kodjoe was eye candy = not an actor in this theater. Unfortunate because this is an important role and he made James Earl Jones performance stale and ineffective. These two characters feed off each other. Everyone was hungry last night.

Thanks for posting this. I was wondering how Boris fared in his debut.

She also said the audience was awful. Cell phones ringing all over the place, candy wrappers, people responding out loud to the show and people having conversations all through the show as if they were sitting in their living rooms.

I've been hearing this a lot about the "Cat" audiences. Fortunately on the night I went, the audience was much better and more respectful.

[Depaultheatrekid]

Posted: 4/16/08 at 12:09pm

Chitowndoll - That was my experience when I saw the show as well....the audience was much more respectful and no cell phone rings at all. There was a some inappropriate chatter (as some would say..I honestly dont mind talking back) but not at all the awful audiences that most people say.

[chitowndoll]

Posted: 4/16/08 at 12:34pm

Depaultheatrekid,

When did you see the show? I saw it on March 8. No cell phone rings. Lots of laughter and the occassional moan/groan by the women at Terrence Howard.

I will admit that I was a little irritated with some of the laughter that I thought was 'inappropriate'.

[Kalimba]

Posted: 4/16/08 at 12:36pm

You can blame the inappropriate laughter on Debbie Allen's insipid direction.

[chitowndoll]

Posted: 4/16/08 at 12:43pm

You can blame the inappropriate laughter on Debbie Allen's insipid direction.

Kalimba,

I read an interview with Stephen Byrd where he said he wanted to capture some of the "Tyler Perry audience". When I saw the production, true enough, it was "entertaining" but I came away(and still feel today)feeling that the director and producer didn't took something away from the play and they didn't trust the material to stand on it's own or the actors to deliver what was already there. JMO

[uncageg]

Posted: 4/16/08 at 3:34pm

Kalimba and chitowndoll....let me share with you 2 other parts of her review!

Let me begin by saying that the audience was a horror show. Wrappers, phones going off that no one answered and so the aggrieved party would call back soon after, people all around us having conversations as if they were sitting in their living room watching a Tyler Perry comedy, shouts of “I know that’s right” and the like, laughter at inappropriate times as if they were watching a sitcom.

However, the direction and tone of the production lent itself to the sitcom delivery. It is sad to say that much of theater today is appealing to the least of us and not the most of us. This brilliant script was presented in that same fashion. A total tragedy.

[Kalimba]

Posted: 4/16/08 at 3:39pm

And thus Debbie Allen should be banned from Broadway. Thank goodness she didn't find a way to incorporate the "Debbie Allen Dancers" into the evening's proceedings.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 4/16/08 at 3:46pm

If they wanted the Tyler Perry audience, they should have produced one of his MADEA plays, not a serious piece like CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF.

[uncageg]

Posted: 4/16/08 at 3:56pm

By the end of this thread I will have posted it all in bits and pieces! it is long...But here is what she said about Ms. Allen...

Debbie Allen should be banned from directing dramas. There were repetitions of motions that should only been seen in kick lines. I wish I could count the number of times any one character went to the closet and threw something in or took something out, or the number of times Brick went to bar and poured a drink. We all know he is an alcoholic. All useless motion. Allen did not know what to do with the actors.

Updated On: 4/16/08 at 03:56 PM

[chitowndoll]

Posted: 4/16/08 at 4:29pm

By the end of this thread I will have posted it all in bits and pieces! it is long...But here is what she said about Ms. Allen...

Debbie Allen should be banned from directing dramas. There were repetitions of motions that should only been seen in kick lines. I wish I could count the number of times any one character went to the closet and threw something in or took something out, or the number of times Brick went to bar and poured a drink. We all know he is an alcoholic. All useless motion. Allen did not know what to do with the actors.
**************************************************************

uncageg,

I guess I don't understand why Debbie Allen would purposely take the play in that direction? This is not a new play. This is a Pulitzer Prize winning play that has been performed many, many times before. I don't understand why she and the producer didn't just let the play stand on its own?

[uncageg]

Posted: 4/16/08 at 4:36pm

I am dying to see it. I hope to at the end of May.

[Depaultheatrekid]

Posted: 4/16/08 at 5:20pm

I saw the show on March 20th....the only thing that really bothered me was the late seating.....

uncageg - I dont know that the repitition of Brick going to get alcohol is bad staging, most of the times I noticed it was noted in the script...and it is several times. Updated On: 4/16/08 at 05:20 PM

[uncageg]

Posted: 4/16/08 at 5:46pm

Well, when she mentioned that in her "review" I wondered about that also. I mean, he is an alcoholic.

[canmark]

Posted: 4/27/08 at 11:10pm

I saw the 4/26 evening perf. There was tremendous murmuring going on as Boris Kodjoe is seen at the start of the play; I mean, the man is a total stud. That said, I think both physically and as an actor, I'm sure Terrance Howard was much better as Brick. I think he could better do that whiny, self-pitying attitude that Brick has. Enough with the disgust already, Brick! Be a man! Kodjoe was a bit of a shell, too quiet, too removed.

I thought that the African-American cast, and the "Tyler Perry" audience (if you want to call it that), actually injected the play with some contemporary relevance. Star Jones, Terry McMillan, everybody knows the story of a black woman married to a man on the down low.

The relevation for me was Phylicia Rashad. I thought she was great as Big Mama, bringing a wonderful pathos to the long faithful wife and mother, but also an underlying strength that I think the audience (largely black) could relate to. (Interestingly, I was in a way reminded of Edith Bunker.) At the end of the play (spoiler) when Big Daddy says he's going up to the roof to survey his domain and Big Mama pleads, 'Sweatheart, can I come with you?' well, I wasn't the only one with tears in my eyes.

I would agree that the direction was a bit uneven, and failed to highlight some of the big lines or scenes. When Brick says 'Big Daddy, I'm shocked!' it just didn't have any impact (I'm not sure if that was Kodjoe's fault or the direction). A little cutting wouldn't have hurt either, IMO, as the show was a bit long (2 intermissions). While not a great production, I give it props for bringing contemporary resonance, and showing how Tennessee Williams was ahead of his time in terms of gay issues (gay athletes; husbands on the DL; gay couple--the plantation's original owners). Were the 1950's audiences shocked by such things? Even in 2008 some of the lines in the play brought gasps.