Arsenic and Old Lace
Arsenic and Old Lace
MadelineKahnFan
Chorus Member Joined: 4/26/06
#1Arsenic and Old Lace
Posted: 3/4/08 at 9:27pmI think its time for a revival. Love to see Cheyenne Jackson in the role of Mortimer Brewster. He does have great comic timing.
#2re: Arsenic and Old Lace
Posted: 3/4/08 at 9:29pm
With Lansbury and Seldes together again?
Theatre is a safe place to do the unsafe things that need to be done.
-John Patrick Shanley
#2re: Arsenic and Old Lace
Posted: 3/4/08 at 9:31pmOne could only hope!
There wouldn't be lights bright enough!
#3re: Arsenic and Old Lace
Posted: 3/4/08 at 9:35pmIt's a very funny play. It'd be nice to see it revived. I tried musicalizing this for fun in the style of a comic operetta, but either that concept didn't work or it just wasn't right for musicalizaiton. But it's a fun play.
Roscoe
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#4re: Arsenic and Old Lace
Posted: 3/4/08 at 10:40pmNow there's a great idea. Angela Lansbury and Marian Seldes in a good play. Someone pitch it to them, quick!
"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." Thomas Pynchon, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Philip K. Dick
My blog: http://www.roscoewrites.blogspot.com/
#5re: Arsenic and Old Lace
Posted: 3/4/08 at 10:54pmI would LOVE to see this revived, and if either Lansbury and/or Seldes is unavailable, I'd like to see Stritch play one of the aunts.
"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg."
-- Thomas Jefferson
#6re: Arsenic and Old Lace
Posted: 3/5/08 at 12:12am
Maggie Smith?
And Gavin Creel.
And Julia Stiles.
:)
And you think of all of the things you've seen, and you wish that you could live in between ,and you're back again only different than before...
After the Sky.
-Into the Woods (Jack)
#7re: Arsenic and Old Lace
Posted: 3/5/08 at 12:37amNot only is this a fun play, but a great movie too. I have heard that Cary Grant thought it was his worst performance on film, but I find him absolutely hysterical. The expression on his face when he first looks in the window seat is priceless. Josephine Hull and Jean Adair make incredible aunts (did they originate the roles on stage?), plus Raymond Massey cracks me up as Boris Karloff...I mean Jonathan.
Marie: Don't be in such a hurry about that pretty little chippy in Frisco.
Tony: Eh, she's a no chip!
#8re: Arsenic and Old Lace
Posted: 3/5/08 at 9:32am
Cary Grant is absolutely amazing in this film. He pulls off triple takes with perfect comic timing. Not easy to do without an audience giving feedback.
Lansbury and Seldes would be wonderful in those roles. I hope a producer is out there taking notes.
Gothampc
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
#9re: Arsenic and Old Lace
Posted: 3/5/08 at 10:19am
While I'd like to see a good production of this on Broadway, I'd prefer a revival of Charley's Aunt.
Unfortunately, the US doesn't have a National Theatre dedicated to doing the great classics.
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
Updated On: 3/5/08 at 10:19 AM
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#10re: Arsenic and Old Lace
Posted: 3/5/08 at 10:20amWow- what a great idea- but I don't know about Cheyenne. Maybe when Mario Lopez finishes up with Chorus Line.
#11re: Arsenic and Old Lace
Posted: 3/5/08 at 11:57amWhen George Clooney did "Fail Safe" live on TV, I thought he should have done next "Arsenic & Old Lace" live too, with Maggie Smith and Judy Dench. Don't know if he'd ever do Broadway.
puppetman2
Leading Actor Joined: 3/2/08
#12re: Arsenic and Old Lace
Posted: 3/5/08 at 12:32pm
A composer I know wanted to do a musical of Arsenic, but in checking for the rights was told that the author had a clause in the agreements that it could not be done as a musical.
One of the things I miss in the otherwise great film (wish they could have gotten Boris Karloff for it) is the change in the line at the end when in the play Mortimer finds about his parents and yells "I'm a Bastard" not the "son of a sea cook" sanitized version.
It Sucks To Be Me
Updated On: 3/5/08 at 12:32 PM
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