Frank Langella / Chicago 7 - Anyone see him?

[macbeth]

Posted: 10/27/20 at 7:07am

Great interview w/ Frank Langella by Christians Amanpour... https://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2020/10/26/amanpour-langella-chicago-7.cnn

I've never seen him on stage, but can imagine that his presence is magnetic... Who has had the pleasure? 

He was great in the Trial of the Chicago 7!

 

[HogansHero]

Posted: 10/27/20 at 10:49am

He has to be carefully cast so that his scenery chewing doesn't get in the way of the story-telling. Obviously Julius Hoffman is perfect casting and he is the best thing in the show imo.

[JBroadway]

Posted: 10/27/20 at 11:52am

The only time I've been able to see him onstage was in his most recent Broadway outing, "The Father." I thought he was quite good - worthy of the Tony he received (though I probably would've given it to Mark Strong for "A View From the Bridge" if I had my pick). 

Still, even though I haven't seen much of Langella's work, and even though I've liked what I've seen, I can definitely see him as someone with a tendency to chew the scenery. I'd even say he did a bit of that in Chicago 7. 

[Broadway61004]

Posted: 10/27/20 at 1:21pm

I've seen him twice: In "Match" (which was an otherwise horrendous production of a horrendous play) and "Man and Boy" (which was an otherwise mediocre-at-best production of a mediocre-at-best play).  Both times, he completely elevated the material and made the productions much more bearable to watch than they should have been.  However, I can definitely see him as "chewing the scenery" too much in otherwise better written roles in better written scripts (but in these particular cases, his scenery-chewing was a pleasant distraction).