John Doyle to Helm PASSION at Classic Stage Company in 2013- Page 2
John Doyle to Helm PASSION at Classic Stage Company in 2013
#25John Doyle to Helm PASSION at Classic Stage Company in 2013
Posted: 1/19/12 at 10:52amMelissa Errico would be a gorgeous Clara, I think. I'm a *huge* Julia Murney fan, but somehow, I'm having a hard time picturing her as Fosca. Not that she probably wouldn't be fabulous.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#26John Doyle to Helm PASSION at Classic Stage Company in 2013
Posted: 1/19/12 at 11:14am
O'hara is 36. Marin Mazzie was only a year younger than that when she played it.
This I did not realize. I thought Marin was so much younger when she did it. I guess not.
Right, Clara's supposed to be older, I always assumed she was in her 30s.
This is true. OK then, I retract my statement! Bring on Kelli!
SporkGoddess
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/27/05
#27John Doyle to Helm PASSION at Classic Stage Company in 2013
Posted: 1/19/12 at 11:56am
I think Kelli would be perfect for Clara because some people complain that she comes across as cold onstage (I heard that during LitP's run, anyway). To me Clara needs to come across as slightly cold because if she's super warm like Audra's was you don't want Giorgio to leave her for Fosca.
Of course, you may disagree. Btw, love the idea of Leslie Kritzer as Fosca.
Jimmy, what are you doing here in the middle of the night? It's almost 9 PM!
CurtainCall
Understudy Joined: 4/1/11
#28John Doyle to Helm PASSION at Classic Stage Company in 2013
Posted: 1/19/12 at 12:11pm
In the Donmar version, Clara was certainly not played older - and indeed Scarlett Strallen was the same age as David Thaxton as Giorgio - 28. Elena Roger was certainly the older woman. I'm not sure that that the relative ages has a great deal of bearing on the story.
Updated On: 1/19/12 at 12:11 PM
#29John Doyle to Helm PASSION at Classic Stage Company in 2013
Posted: 1/19/12 at 12:32pmI'm pretty sure she doesn't sing but I think Rachel Griffiths would make a wonderful Fosca, otherwise. Her MURIEL'S WEDDING co-star Toni Collette, who does have a brilliant singing voice, would be my other choice.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
#30John Doyle to Helm PASSION at Classic Stage Company in 2013
Posted: 1/19/12 at 12:34pm
The age differences I think while not completely pivotal to the story certainly make it more compelling. I can't imagine a 22 year old Clara singing with any conviction the passages about Clara's concern over aging (the grey hair, etc.)
Borstalboy
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/9/04
#31John Doyle to Helm PASSION at Classic Stage Company in 2013
Posted: 1/19/12 at 12:35pmThe CSC space is going to be a good one for this.
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
~ Muhammad Ali
#32John Doyle to Helm PASSION at Classic Stage Company in 2013
Posted: 1/19/12 at 12:45pm
If I recall correctly, Fosca is mentioned as being in her late twenties, but appears severely aged and haggard due to illness. I wouldn't be surprised if Giorgio (a career soldier by this point) and Clara are in the same age range. Clara is concerned over aging, but she also has a young son (young enough to not yet be in school), and the play is set in the 1850s--so what we consider young now wouldn't have exactly been young then.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
Updated On: 1/19/12 at 12:45 PM
#33John Doyle to Helm PASSION at Classic Stage Company in 2013
Posted: 1/19/12 at 12:56pmLooks like Clara is 37 is in the original Tarchetti novel. I'm not sure how young her son is - I don't think any version of the story tells us if he is 4 or 14.
#34John Doyle to Helm PASSION at Classic Stage Company in 2013
Posted: 1/19/12 at 1:02pmThat makes sense--Mazzie was 34 and Rebecca Luker 40 when they played the roles.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
CurtainCall
Understudy Joined: 4/1/11
#35John Doyle to Helm PASSION at Classic Stage Company in 2013
Posted: 1/19/12 at 1:05pm
'I can't imagine a 22 year old Clara singing with any conviction the passages about Clara's concern over aging (the grey hair, etc.)'
I'd agree, but it's only one hair - there's a degree of self-dramatization there that gets underlined by the rhymes in the lyric wear/stare/hair/unaware/bear - as a rather vain creature, she's probably looking for attention at this point, rather than worrying about the onslaught of old age.
Both the film and novel have her as older - although Laura Antonelli, is certainly youthful looking - but I can't remember a great deal of direction in the libretto, and it plays well with Clara in the same age bracket, as Giorgio.
Updated On: 1/19/12 at 01:05 PM
#36John Doyle to Helm PASSION at Classic Stage Company in 2013
Posted: 1/19/12 at 1:10pm
Possibly, but I think the character is more compelling if she's not that superficial, which a 22 year old would be singing it.
It's a real fine line with this material; Clara represents on some levels a more conventional kind of love and at the end she is not willing to sacrifice all for love, but I don't think that should render her petty,unsympathetic or the villain of the piece.
The story and emotional complexities of the characters in the musical are far deeper than that.
SporkGoddess
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/27/05
#37John Doyle to Helm PASSION at Classic Stage Company in 2013
Posted: 1/19/12 at 1:12pmClara also says that she wishes she could have given Giorgio her youth.
Jimmy, what are you doing here in the middle of the night? It's almost 9 PM!
CurtainCall
Understudy Joined: 4/1/11
#38John Doyle to Helm PASSION at Classic Stage Company in 2013
Posted: 1/19/12 at 1:16pmI'm not sure where the 22 came from - I was pointing out that Scarlett Strallen was 28, the same age as David Thaxton at the time of the Donmar production.
RippedMan
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/14/05
#39John Doyle to Helm PASSION at Classic Stage Company in 2013
Posted: 1/20/12 at 2:27amDidn't Ana Gasteyer play Fosca in Chicago? I'd love to see her version. I saw her play Elphaba in Wicked and she acted/sang the mess out of that.
#40John Doyle to Helm PASSION at Classic Stage Company in 2013
Posted: 1/20/12 at 2:47amLeslie Kritzer would indeed be a knockout Fosca, and she's worked with John Doyle multiple times.
Tonya Pinkins: Then we had a "Lot's Wife" last June that was my personal favorite. I'm still trying to get them to let me sing it at some performance where we get to sing an excerpt that's gone.
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.
#41John Doyle to Helm PASSION at Classic Stage Company in 2013
Posted: 4/19/12 at 11:50am
GAH!!!!!!! JUDY KUHN AND MELISSA ERRICO!!! This casting is exquisite.
http://www.playbill.com/news/article/165078-Judy-Kuhn-and-Melissa-Errico-Will-Star-in-CSCs-Passion-John-Doyle-Directs
#42John Doyle to Helm PASSION at Classic Stage Company in 2013
Posted: 4/19/12 at 11:55am
Great casting!
This time, the concept will be arts and crafts instead of instruments.
Fosca weaves on a loom. Clara spins pots and makes those cute little bean dolls. And Gorgio does metal work.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
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#43John Doyle to Helm PASSION at Classic Stage Company in 2013
Posted: 4/19/12 at 12:02pmAmazing news!! Can't wait to see this. Let's hope this is the beginning of Judy Kuhn's comeback.
#44John Doyle to Helm PASSION at Classic Stage Company in 2013
Posted: 4/19/12 at 12:05pm^ Like.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
#45John Doyle to Helm PASSION at Classic Stage Company in 2013
Posted: 4/19/12 at 12:08pmYawn. Kuhn has played it before.
#46John Doyle to Helm PASSION at Classic Stage Company in 2013
Posted: 4/19/12 at 12:15pm
I've always wanted to see Kuhn perform. I hope I can make it up to NYC for this show.
Didn't Ana Gasteyer play Fosca in Chicago?
I did see Gasteyer in Wicked and Passion and she was...okay. Kathy Voytko's Clara actually outshone Gasteyer's Fosca. It was the first time I truly saw Clara as a complex character on an even level with Giorgio and Fosca, truly completing the love triangle. The show is far more interesting when Clara is a bit more sympathetic and the audience shares in Giorgio's emotional struggle. Otherwise, Giorgio comes across less interesting as either shallow or naive for allowing Clara to string him along for so long.
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
#47John Doyle to Helm PASSION at Classic Stage Company in 2013
Posted: 4/19/12 at 12:45pmShe has played it before and was brilliant; what's to yawn about? I swear sometimes posters on this board seem to just live for the excitement of an unexpected news announcement without thought as to the actual production. Kuhn is great casting. And I was just thinking the other day that Errco is perfect for Clara. I'm thrilled with this announcement.
henrikegerman
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/29/05
#48John Doyle to Helm PASSION at Classic Stage Company in 2013
Posted: 4/19/12 at 1:42pmGreat casting. The only thing that might make this better for me would be Cheyenne Jackson as Giorgio.
#49John Doyle to Helm PASSION at Classic Stage Company in 2013
Posted: 4/19/12 at 3:41pmI can't have an opinion and be bored by this casting? LoL, K.
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