Boston Dialect Paper...HELP!

[koolaid mustache]

Posted: 3/31/08 at 6:11pm

Hey ALL!

I am writing my term paper, and have chosen to write on the south Boston dialect. I need to find two good, and two bad examples of the use of this dialect.

What broadway performers have been succesful/unsuccesful with this dialect onstage in your opinion?

[insertclevernamehere]

Posted: 3/31/08 at 6:22pm

Does it have to be Broadway? Because the accents in Mystic River were terrible.

[koolaid mustache]

Posted: 3/31/08 at 6:39pm

I am looking for Broadway, or stage performances

I have a few chosen already from movies/tv

:)

[Katurian2]

Posted: 3/31/08 at 7:09pm

I wasn't all too impressed with David Hyde Pierce's in "Curtains"...but he won the Tony, so what do I know?

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 3/31/08 at 7:54pm

Some of Legally Blonde takes place in Boston...

[FIERCEY516]

Posted: 3/31/08 at 8:15pm

yeah but there's no real South Boston in that.

koolaid I can't think of any musicals that incorpate much of Boston. I guess if I really thought hard, something might come up.

as a native of Boston, I do know that you could find a select number of plays that incorporate the accents.

[almostxfamous]

Posted: 3/31/08 at 8:45pm

I think the accents in The Departed and Good Will Hunting are both good examples. I don't think there are as many play options as there are film options.

[koolaid mustache]

Posted: 3/31/08 at 8:50pm

ya this has been my problem

I have lots of film examples, but I need stage examples

Curtains, is the one show I have been using, I thought his accent was good, although it turned on and off, so when it was on it was good!

thanks for all the help so far, anymore would be great!

[almostxfamous]

Posted: 3/31/08 at 9:55pm

I don't know if you have to use an actor, but there is one play that uses South Boston accents and gives the phoenetically so the actors can speak it correctly. The title is escaping me, but the title has South Boston in it.

[slimandslam]

Posted: 3/31/08 at 11:34pm

almostxfamous: You're probably thinking of David Lindsay-Abaire's How We Talk in South Boston.

[slimandslam]

Posted: 3/31/08 at 11:41pm

I have lots of film examples, but I need stage examples

I'm probably showing my naivete about this, but why do you need stage examples? (Especially if you hadn't witnessed them yourself, and are relying on possibly inaccurate secondhand memories.)

And, since stage performances are ephemeral, why should the professor think you're not just making up those examples?

[AStack75]

Posted: 3/31/08 at 11:47pm

"I think the accents in The Departed and Good Will Hunting are both good examples."

I thought Matt Damon had the fakest sounding accent in The Departed....and he's from Cambridge.

[jpbran]

Posted: 4/1/08 at 12:19am

I know you're not looking for movie examples, but the "lower-class" Gone Baby Gone accents were supposedly pretty accurate.

[koolaid mustache]

Posted: 4/1/08 at 2:48am

I don't neccesarily need to critique all the examples

i just need exampled of when it was used on stage...

and I think a drama prof may know when the dialect was used....