Cherry Jones Blanks Out!

I saw "Doubt" on Tuesday, September 13th. Good show! It deserved the Pulitzer Prize. However, I do not feel that it deserved the Tony Award for "Best Play"; that honor should have gone to "The Pillowman".

I also think that Billy Crudup should've received the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play, over Bill Irwin. I do, however, think that Brian O'Byrne's performance as Father Flynn was better than Bill Irwin.

Cherry Jones won the Best Actress in a Play for her role as Sister Aloysius. In my view, Kathleen Turner should have gotten the prize as Martha in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

In the performance I saw (and this might have tainted my feelings regarding Cherry Jones), Cherry Jones blanked out in one of her scenes. I have never seen this on stage before, a Broadway stage even. And she was never ever able to rise above it.

She asked for her line! Offstage, a man's voice boomed and gave her her line. But she kept forgetting her lines even after that. After much effort, she asked the audience if she can use "the book" just during that scene.

The audience clapped. She then walks offstage and returns with script in hand and for the rest of the scene, she reads off her script.

Anybody else here saw this performance?

I guess even genius' are entitled to a brain fart now and then.

a long run is hard enough on anybody. everyones allowed to have a bad day. Cherry is still highly respected in my book, and this was only a minor mishap.

Many great actors have "gone up". It happens more often than you would think.

There's a recent story with Philip Bosco suddenly losing his way in Copenhagen, turning to the audience, and exclaiming, "Six months in and I still don't know what I'm saying."

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I love Cherry!

But I would love to know the circumstances leading up to this! As many have said actor's are human too! Sometimes it is hard to put the cares and worries of your normal life behind you when you hit the stage. I wonder if something was bothering her? Just yesterday I was doing a show and at the 5 minutes call my leading lady found out her father had just had a stroke and was headed for the hospital! But you know what they say 'The Show must go on!'

I am glad she continued the show even with the book because she is amazing! And one of the nicest people EVER!

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Fox news.com reported on it

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,169338,00.html

Cherry and the Mrs.(Sarah Paulson) showed up for the Naked Girl on the Appian Way dress rehearsal and were seen chatting it up with everybody so I guess she's very busy.

From talking to my actor friend who was playing a leading role in a long run show on bway...sometimes, its that those things just happen out of the blue and just throw you off...and many times for several performances there after, its hard to get back on track to what you were used to do doing, from the sheer shock of the incident. She had to revisit the script many times to fix those errors, and almost rememorize and reprogram the lines and intention etc to get her through....crazy huh? but lets be serious, havent you ever walked into a room to do something and just utterly stood there wondering what it was you walked in to do? Same kind of phenomenon....its a tough thing

Joe Mantegna blanked during the opening night of Glengarry Glen Ross at The Goodman in Chicago, right in the middle of his giganto monologue.

I saw Yul Brynner's 1 millionth or so performance in The King and I on tour in Chicago:

Constance Towers: Your Highness, what are you doing.

Yul Brynner: I have no idea where we are.

Constance Towers: Well, let's see if we can get this back on track, your Highness.

And they did.

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Nobody's perfect. And that's a big relief.

And one more thing, Cherry Jones rocks!

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I really expect more from a pro, especially on Broa

what was I saying?

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I love it when actors and singers fluff a line or go off key every now and then. It shows that they are human, and not perfect.

Sometimes I get a little scared of people who are ALWAYS on top of everything constantly. They must be aliens!

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Happens to the best of us.

KIM CRISWELL was playing Grizabella in L.A.'s CATS and said she left the show because she was having trouble to remember the lyrics to her only song - MEMORY...

Rex Harrison went up on the lyrics to A HYMN TO HIM on opening night of MY FAIR LADY.


Jerusha Bromley
Walpole, Mass.