Dear Elizabeth-is it best casting of year

[sskeats2]

Posted: 10/15/15 at 3:16pm

http://www.broadway.com/buzz/182436/cherry-jones-kathleen-chalfant-more-set-for-sar

A new play about the relationship between Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Spencer is the topic of Dear Elizabeth by Sarah Ruhl and directed by Kate Whoriskey. It opens at the Women's Project Theater October 28. It's the McGinn Cazale Theater on Broadway and West 76 St. That's first home of 2nd Stage

I think I would opt for the J. Smith Cameron/John Douglas Thompson duo. Ah...maybe I would do more than one.  What's your pick?  

[little_sally]

Posted: 10/15/15 at 4:51pm

I definitely need to see this with Cherry Jones!

[sskeats2]

Posted: 10/16/15 at 10:34am

Casting isn't complete,,,I wonder if they have any other biggies coming in? Let's not forget the men. I wonder who else for Robert Lowell beside John Douglas Thompson?

[doloreshaze]

Posted: 10/16/15 at 11:08am

SO excited for this--definitely going to check out more than one cast!  Can't wait to see who else they are going to announce!

[Brick]

Posted: 10/16/15 at 11:22am

I believe Chalfant is starring in the production at Berkeley Rep next Spring.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 10/16/15 at 12:25pm

I love Ruhl, but can't get excited about people reading letters? 

[sskeats2]

Posted: 10/16/15 at 4:28pm

I've been told that it is more than just letter writing when I purchased tickets. And if you love Ruhl you know she will not let this relationship between Robert and Elizabeth become just still born through letters. My bet.

[cardamon]

Posted: 10/16/15 at 4:52pm

Actually, I think it could be "people reading letters." I found this on the page about the play on Sarah Ruhl's website:

You really need nothing more than a table and two chairs for two wonderful actors who could even read the letters straight from the page rather than memorizing them. You might then use someone to read stage directions rather than projecting subtitles.

 

So maybe the staging will be similar to "Love Letters"?

Updated On: 10/16/15 at 04:52 PM

[Melissa25]

Posted: 10/16/15 at 8:59pm

Looking forward to seeing Cherry in this. Going on Nov. 16th.

 

Interstingly, Isherwood said the following in his review of "Dear Elizabeth" that played at the Yale Rep in December 2012:

 

I rarely give thought to recasting, but fantasies of Cherry Jones in the role kept springing to mind.

Updated On: 10/16/15 at 08:59 PM

[RippedMan]

Posted: 10/17/15 at 1:06am

See that turns me off. I'll wait for some early reports. Ruhl is one of those playwrights who is great when great, but lately she seems to be flatlining. The Oldest Boy was not my favorite. But I loved the Vibrator Play. 

[sskeats2]

Posted: 10/19/15 at 4:00pm

https://the-interval.com/interviews/2015/10/14/lynn-nottage#.ViUebyh3Mak

More interesting casting to the line-up.Anybody check the box office lately> I wonder who is sold out. It's not a very big theater.

[little_sally]

Posted: 10/19/15 at 4:05pm

sskeats2 said: "https://the-interval.com/interviews/2015/10/14/lynn-nottage#.ViUebyh3Mak

 

More interesting casting to the line-up.Anybody check the box office lately> I wonder who is sold out. It's not a very big theater.

 

This doesn't necessary indicate how well it's selling but it is/was on TDF for a lot of dates already.

 

[sskeats2]

Posted: 10/22/15 at 10:57am

As to TDF, Dear Elizabeth is still present. But all the dates have double asterisks  next to them. 

[ClydeBarrow]

Posted: 11/6/15 at 4:11pm

I know there was some excitement for this before it started but has anyone actually seen it yet?

[CurtainsUpat8]

Posted: 11/6/15 at 10:58pm

I saw this show. I have always admired the show the Woman's Project have done. I seen several of them when they were at the smaller theatre downstairs at City Center.
I saw Kathleen Chalfant and Harris Yulman.  And yes, basically they sit and read letters back and forth. You can't help compare the piece to Love Letters, which I didn't care for much at all.
Dear Elizabeth was difficult to sit through. It's dull and a much more literate, rather than theatrical. I think Kathleen Chalfant is a wonderful actress, but I thought as Mr. Yulman spoke she tended to overreacted to what he was saying, thus drawing attention away from him and on to her. He was much more subdued when she was reading her letters. Basically she was stealing focus from him far to much.
The whole night was kind of boring to sit through, but at the end you  were somehow ok with having endured it. It does have some moments of charm, and you do feel like you are introduced to two poets you may not have heard of before. I had never heard of either of them before I saw the show.
There were however, things that never made sense to me. At one point he asks her to marry him. It's never really dealt with and never mentioned again. In the relationship between two people, clearly a proposal of marriage would have some affect on the relationship.
I wouldn't really call "Dear Elizabeth" a play.  It's source material is probably better than what is in Love Letters. I can imagine Mr. Gurney has made a small fortune with all the productions of Love Letters that have been performed all over the country. I can't help but think Sarah Ruhl wrote this, or put this together, in hopes that it would be another Love Letters. Basically an easy to produce play, where two actors don't have to memorize anything, it can be produced in any town in the country... in short a royalty cash cow.

Updated On: 11/6/15 at 10:58 PM

[stevenycguy]

Posted: 11/6/15 at 11:36pm

When you're reading words for 1 hour 45 minutes, it takes a special kind of actor or actress to make those words come alive for the audience.  Sadly, this was not the case with last week's cast.  You will likely be as bored out of your mind as I was.  The playwright tries to inject some humor into the reading of letters back and forth with some things like "Woman has an asthma attack", but last week's cast completely missed the point.  Last week's actress simply let out a whimper of a cough that was barely audible, and she thought that constituted an asthma attack?  Another actress could have been clutching at her chest, raising her hands in the air, grabbing her throat in pain, falling down in the chair, ANYTHING to wake up the catatonic audience.  But instead we hear a mild cough that lasted a half a second????  Seriously?  What a totally dry and uninspiring reading of these lines last week.

 

It reminds me of Love Letters, where the first cast was extremely boring and put me to sleep.  Then I saw it with Carol Burnett, and everything changed for the better.  Carol Burnett was an actress who made the words come alive on stage, and I really felt like these were her words.  I felt the pain, the humor, etc.  It felt like a true story that was flying by.  Carol Burnett did much more than simply read words on a sheet of paper; instead, she inhabited the words and kept the audience enthralled.  I wish they'd invite Carol Burnett for Dear Elizabeth, and I'd see it in a second.  Sadly, last week's cast completely sucked the life out of the show and made it a very long 1 hour 45 minutes.

Updated On: 11/6/15 at 11:36 PM

[Melissa25]

Posted: 11/20/15 at 9:12am

...it takes a special kind of actor or actress to make those words come alive for the audience. 

 

Fortunately, I saw Cherry Jones and David Aaron Baker this week and these actors could read the phone book and I would be enthralled.  I enjoyed the volley back and forth between the poets but agree that there's not much of a play here.  

 

The 90 minute volley covers a 30 year friendship between the two poets and provides a glimpse into their characters and relationship. I couldn't help but leave wanting to know more about these people.

 

i definitely found the drama enacted in the film Reaching for the Moon much more rewarding.  Visually stunning as well. I recommend the movie to Elizabeth Bishop fans.

Here's the trailer:

http://youtu.be/27YqB_UZ9u8