Broadway versus West End- Page 3

[kissmycookie]

Posted: 6/30/06 at 5:16pm

Just wondering if the UK's National Theatre will be considered part of the West End in this instance...

[jwsel]

Posted: 6/30/06 at 5:31pm

"I think some Westend performers have trouble with using an American accent, more so than American actors using British accents.

It's just something I've observed, don't yell at me."

When I was studying drama in the UK, I learned a little about how English actors learn American accents. Many are taught to choose one US accent and use it consistently before trying to learn multiple American accents. When seeing a play with young actors, this can lead to some very odd situations where actors use accents that do not fit their characters at all. I remember this being very noticeable during a production of The Man Who Came to Dinner in 1989 at the RSC. John Wood played the lead, and was great. However, he was surrounded by a cast in which the younger featured male (a very young Ralph Fiennes) sounded like Jimmy Stewart, the ingenue female sounded like a Southern Belle, and various other characters sounded like they were from Brooklyn and Boston. (The play is set in the Midwest.) To my American colleagues, this was very distracting. But I also doubt that this was as noticeable to a British audience, just as I think most Americans would have difficulty noticing the differences between British accents. Whereas a British audience might question if an upper class character from Southern England used a Northern English accent, how many Americans would know that is out of place? (There are some exceptions, of course. Most of us would attribute a Cockney accent to someone of low class.)

Also, I should have qualified my prior post about acting to say that I agree that I find Broadway musicals generally superior. I think the quality of singing and dancing in the US is higher than in the UK.

[Weez]

Posted: 6/30/06 at 5:47pm

Even brilliant accents don't sit right on performers who don't have that accent naturally. I'm listening to 'Sweeney Todd' right now, and they've all got great accents, but even if I didn't already know they were all American, I'd be able to tell they're not English just by listening. The best English-to-American accent I ever heard was Hugh Laurie. House is awesome. His English-to-American-to-fake-English was the best thing EVER. XD

The most common mistake for American accents is just to try doing "an American accent". The UK is teeny weeny and we have LOADS of hugely different accents, so I don't get why it doesn't occur to many people that America might be the same.

I love getting my free Playbills on Broadway. The program(me)s we have here are lovely, but they're a tad cumbersome and cost money I'd sometimes rather not spend. Plus it's a bit silly when I go through my collection and realise I may as well not have bothered 'cos the tour cast is mostly the same as it was last time it passed through, and none of the articles have changed at all. I feel less gipped by getting the "read it all before" feeling from Playbills, for obvious reasons. ^_^ They're not classy like program(me)s, but they're classy in their own way, and I adore them. :3

Updated On: 6/30/06 at 05:47 PM

[All_For_Laura]

Posted: 6/30/06 at 7:02pm

Well I love my playbills and collect them all and they are usually signed. But, brochures that you buy in west end theatres, which are the equivalent to playbills, but you pay for them are much better. They are bigger, each actor usually has his/her own page for biography, sometimes they have color, they have better articles, and just show how they are worth the money. But I like everything!

[USTheater.TV]

Posted: 6/30/06 at 8:42pm

Nice.....what an excellent range of constructive opinions from many visitors from both sides of the pond.

Some of you may know that I am the webmaster and editor of UKTheatre.Net which shows highlights of theatre in the West End, Stratford, Manchester, Edinburgh, and more recently opening up in new sites in New York, Chicago and L.A. It compliments many of the features here and I would welcome BWW members to join for free. I have a time limited 5th birthday offer which you will find out more about if you register at the site and subscribe to our free newsletter.

Thanks in the meantime for all your excellent feedback.



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