Brantley tramples FESTEN early! — Page 2

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#26

re: Brantley tramples FESTEN early!

Posted: 4/8/06 at 12:12pm

This is exactly why I'm now really looking forward to History Boys. I'll be able to see what all the fuss was about with no qualifications.

Plus, I'm really hoping Richard Griffiths goes off on a cell phone user.

#27

re: Brantley tramples FESTEN early!

Posted: 4/8/06 at 12:16pm

Margo, as far as I could tell, the cast and staging was pretty much the same as the London production. The stage was largely bare with very few props and the text was stark and moody, as it is here. For me personally, it comes down to the cast. In London, the cast really clicked and were believable as a family in trouble. Here, they seem like a random group of people who just met for the first time. Only Margulies and Sisto seemed to have any ken of the text.

I guess it's like a mirage...With the right cast, it seemed so wonderful and thrilling, but with a weak cast (and major misdirection), it's a convoluted mess.

I love your idea of Judy Davis, though!

#28

re: Brantley tramples FESTEN early!

Posted: 4/8/06 at 12:25pm

Perhaps, that's the problem. I don't buy this cast as a family. They seem more like a randomly assembled group out of a dinner party scene in an Agatha Christie murder mystery. Actually, that's EXACTLY what this feels like and it's all wrong for this play.

"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie [http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/] "The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney

#29

re: Brantley tramples FESTEN early!

Posted: 4/8/06 at 12:27pm

I agree with you completely.

#30

re: Brantley tramples FESTEN early!

Posted: 4/8/06 at 12:28pm

Completely! I was waiting for Dad to slump over, poisoned, during dinner. Or for Christopher Evan Welch to stagger in with a knife planted in his back.

#31

re: Brantley tramples FESTEN early!

Posted: 4/8/06 at 12:32pm

MEF, you just identified what was wrong with the play for me. I couldn't put my finger on it, stupid as that sounds.

#32

re: Brantley tramples FESTEN early!

Posted: 4/8/06 at 12:33pm

I guess I'm the only one who really liked this play. I found it an intense evening and by the end it had drained all my emotions. I thought the acting was great (except for MacGraw) and I did feel they were a family...just a really messed up one. But that might just be me.

#33

re: Brantley tramples FESTEN early!

Posted: 4/8/06 at 12:49pm

Has there ever been a concrete explanation for McGraw's casting? Is she related to somebody, or does this director just have a LOVE STORY fetish?

#34

re: Brantley tramples FESTEN early!

Posted: 4/8/06 at 12:53pm

It seems the producers asked her to audition. This comes from New York Magazine:

MacGraw joins a long list of actors on Broadway who seem to have been cast more for box-office drawing power than theatrical experience. And Rufus Norris, the director who mounted Festen in London, admits that he resisted even auditioning her. “I went into the meeting thinking, frankly, this is a daft idea that the producers have come up with as a last-ditch attempt to get one more name on the poster,” he says over the phone. “I thought, Okay, she’ll be a bit crazy, she’ll be one of those people who haven’t come out of hiding in years, or she’ll have had 23 face-lifts. And then I’ll get back to the theater actors I feel comfortable with.” But instead, “she looked fantastic, and, more importantly, fit into the family picture. She was totally disarming.”

#35

re: Brantley tramples FESTEN early!

Posted: 4/8/06 at 2:28pm

I knew right from "Love means never having to say you're sorry." This chick is toast.

"You've gotta have a swine to show you where the truffles are."

#36

re: Brantley tramples FESTEN early!

Posted: 4/8/06 at 2:40pm

Wait, Ali MacGraw, box office draw? Are they serious?

#37

re: Brantley tramples FESTEN early!

Posted: 4/8/06 at 2:58pm

I think we're the same age, Bobby, so I think we're of the wrong generation to understand how that could be. But as I said, I did here a lot of Baby Boomer-aged people last night who were -- without sarcasm -- excited to be in her presence.

Maybe it's kind of like seeing a real life Norma Desmond -- a former it girl who couldn't keep up with her medium and became a recluse.

#38

re: Brantley tramples FESTEN early!

Posted: 4/8/06 at 3:21pm

If this were 1973, then I could POSSIBLY buy the idea of Ali MacGraw as a box-office draw. But nowadays, Ali MacGraw = Ali Who?

#39

re: Brantley tramples FESTEN early!

Posted: 4/8/06 at 3:27pm

OK, but anybody who was unfortunate enough to see Ms. MacGraw on Dynasty knows that she is quite possibly the worst actress ever. She seriously made Joan Collins look like she COULD act.

"You've gotta have a swine to show you where the truffles are."

#40

re: Brantley tramples FESTEN early!

Posted: 4/8/06 at 3:28pm

When I was telling a friend about the show, she said: "Ali MacGraw. Wasn't she the girl from Top Gun"?

I think she was thinking of Kelly McGillis.

#41

re: Brantley tramples FESTEN early!

Posted: 4/8/06 at 3:31pm

Lamc16, there is no doubt that MacGraw is one of the worst (if not the worst) "professional actors" of all time.

Calvin-LOL

#42

re: Brantley tramples FESTEN early!

Posted: 4/8/06 at 3:33pm

Yes, McGillis, who, by the way, is a better actress than MacGraw too. As far as I'm concerned, Ali only had two hit movies: Love Story and The Getaway--both of which, despite what big box office draws of the time they were, are NOT very good movies. It'll be interesting to see what kind of opening night crowd attends. It would be cool to see Robert Evans.

"You've gotta have a swine to show you where the truffles are."

#43

re: Brantley tramples FESTEN early!

Posted: 4/8/06 at 4:31pm

I may be wrong but wasn't Ali McGaw also in "Goddbye Columbus"?

#44

re: Brantley tramples FESTEN early!

Posted: 4/8/06 at 4:52pm

Yes, she was. That was actually before Love Story and The Getaway.

"You've gotta have a swine to show you where the truffles are."

#45

re: Brantley tramples FESTEN early!

Posted: 4/8/06 at 4:59pm

'Katie' at All That Chat offered the following explanation for why Festen might not work in its Broadway incarnation, versus the acclaimed London production.

I haven't been to see Festen, but this sounds very plausible. Katie, whose posts are always insightful and intelligent, really should be writing for one of the New York dailies.

Katie on Festen

Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.

Updated On: 4/8/06 at 04:59 PM

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