Breaking News: Christian Slater Joins 'The Glass Menagerie' as Tom Replacing Dallas Roberts- Page 3

[Unknown User]

Posted: 2/22/05 at 8:43pm

I'm not overly bothered by this development - I think Mr. Slater acquits himself well with the observer mode - not sure about the wistfullness (he seems much too ironic), but we'll see. I'm pretty much there for Lange, and the distraction of Mr. Lucas.

[KindnessofStrangers]

Posted: 2/22/05 at 8:45pm

If there's no need to audition someone of Slater's caliber, then why was Tobey Maguire forced into that strange reading/audition fiasco. Maguire is obviously a bigger marquee name than Slater.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 2/22/05 at 8:58pm

Kindness - I'm not sure he has the same kind of track record - certainly not the longetivity.

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 2/22/05 at 9:11pm

Plus, Slater has done stage work in the past, while Maguire never has. He is unproven on stage, so of course he would have to audition.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 2/22/05 at 9:15pm

Slater has given several well-received performances on stage over the years (since he was 9, in fact) and was still doing "Cuckoo's Nest" as they were about to go into rehearsals for Menagerie (in fact, Leveaux and Kenwright likely saw him in the role -- his performance may have been a sort of de facto audition for the director and producer).

Maguire, to my knowledge, has never done theatre professionally and stage acting is a different animal from film acting. He needed to show Leveaux that his style of acting wasn't too "internal" and could fill a 1000 seat house. The problem was Maguire was told that he was going to an informal meeting with the director and wasn't informed that he was going to be asked to read and so hadn't prepared to. Also, Leveaux erred in not making it just a private meeting between he and Maguire, but, according to reports, allowed more than a dozen others to be present, further putting off Maguire. Leveaux basically botched the whole thing by making Maguire fell as if he had been ambushed and that was the end of that.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 2/23/05 at 11:44am

From Riedel's column today:

"WHO'S directing this revival of "The Glass Menagerie," anyway?
David Leveaux or his star, Jessica Lange?

From the look of things, I'd say it's La Lange, who's playing Amanda Wingfield.

It was Lange, I'm told, who picked critics' darling Dallas Roberts to play her son, Tom, in the classic play by Tennessee Williams.

And it was Lange who, over the weekend, apparently had a hand in dispatching the poor kid.

On the eve of the production's first preview at the Barrymore, Roberts has been replaced by Christian Slater.

What happened is murky.

One person close to the show says Lange seemed annoyed that Roberts' performance kept changing throughout last week's technical rehearsals. Another source says she was unnerved by his "intensity."

That intensity didn't seem to bother Lange's husband, Sam Shepard, who appeared opposite Roberts recently in "A Number" at the New York Theater Workshop. By all accounts, Shepard and Roberts got along just fine.

Slater comes to the production fresh from a triumphant performance as McMurphy in the London hit "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."

The former movie star has carved out a nice career in the theater. When he finishes "The Glass Menagerie," he'll head back to London to star in another Tennessee Williams play, "Sweet Bird of Youth."
------------------------------------------------------------


Lange was "unnerved by his intensity"? Huh? She didn't want a powerful actor acting opposite her?

So did Dallas Roberts get replaced because he was out-acting and upstaging Lange and her ego couldn't take it? Was he so spontaneous and "in the moment" that he was throwing her off? Was he so intense that he was making her look bad?

If this is true, then I'm very disapppointed with Lange. Frankly, I'd rather see a Menagerie with Roberts' too "intense" Tom, than Lange's Amanda. This story is even more sad and pathetic than I had imagined.

http://nypost.com/entertainment/41055.htm

Updated On: 2/23/05 at 11:44 AM

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 2/23/05 at 11:46am

There are two different stories from two different "sources" there, Margo. Don't get hung up on one which may not even be true...

Rath (who only wants to think the best about Ms. Lange!)

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 2/23/05 at 11:55am

Well I was very underwhelmed by her Blanche, so I could totally see Roberts walking off with their scenes together in Menagerie. But, obviously, it's all rumor and speculation at this point. We'll see how well she adjusts to Mr. Slater (who's no slouch in the intensity department).

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 2/23/05 at 11:56am

I prefer to believe the first "source," if either. But that's just me. I actually loved her in STREETCAR, and was not impressed with Mr. Baldwin, and had expected the opposite...so we'll see.

[onceadancer2]

Posted: 2/23/05 at 12:02pm

The play is the important factor here. Let's see how the cast serves the play. That's most important!

Miriam

[KindnessofStrangers]

Posted: 2/23/05 at 2:30pm

Eh, I'm skeptical of this story. I think we're all aware of the reputations of the NYPost and Jessica Lange. One is a consummate professional, one isn't.

I saw Lange play Blanche in three different productions of Streetcar. Though she was excellent in all, her performance in London was the best. I imagine that being the outsider (the lone American actor) in a British cast lent something to her performance, much like Vivien Leigh in the 1951 film version.

Back to Slater, the qualities he carries, the cynicism and the vocal intonations borrowed from Jack Nicholson, don't make him an ideal Tom, in my opinion.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 2/23/05 at 2:37pm

Love him or hate him, but Riedel has proved to be extremely reliable in his reporting of backstage/behind-the-scenes information. He may be a creep, but his sources are impeccable.

[magruder]

Posted: 2/23/05 at 2:53pm

I saw Slater give a very understated, sensitive performance in Side Man, so I know he has more colors than the Nicholson-isms for which he is so often assailed. Still, I was more intrigued by the prospect of what Dallas Roberts was going to bring to the role. If you can't be free to try out different interpretations in the rehearsal room, where can you do it?

[KindnessofStrangers]

Posted: 2/23/05 at 3:11pm

Exactly, Magruder. This is why I'm skeptical that Lange would have Roberrts fired for not having nailed down the characterization. I recall that when greeted with some early criticism during previews for the Broadway production of Streetcar she stated that she was under the impression previews were for determining what works and what doesn't.

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 2/23/05 at 3:26pm

I also loved Ms. Lange in "Streetcar". Like Rath, I really do want to think only the best of her, since I've been in love with her since I was 9.

[LaurenB]

Posted: 2/23/05 at 7:52pm

I was rather annoyed when Lange made some unkind comments in the press a couple of years ago when she learned that Glenn Close was doing Streetcar in London. The comment had something to do with Glenn's age (too old for the role). It was a real meow moment. I just hope she hasn't ****-whipped Leveaux.

[borninaditch]

Posted: 2/23/05 at 7:57pm

This summer I was in Edinburg, Scotland and I saw him in Cuckoo's Nest at the Fringe Festival. He was really wonderful! Too bad this didn't work out.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 2/24/05 at 10:09am

interesting. margo's link to the riedel piece still works, but if you got to the post and try to access it normally via their last seven days feature, you get a blank page.