Kennedy Center 2012 PAL JOEY- Page 3
Kennedy Center 2012 PAL JOEY
Kennedy Center 2012 PAL JOEY #51
Posted: 10/16/11 at 6:20pm
Actually. I think Ebersole is very sexy and reads mature but well maintained. Ultimately, she is the best fit. IMO.
Marin still reads too young to me. Marin is super sexy though.
Kennedy Center 2012 PAL JOEY #52
Posted: 10/16/11 at 7:13pm
For the record, Marin Mazzie is 51. Vivian Segal was 55 in the original production, Viveca Lindfors was 43 in the 1963 revival, Joan Copeland was 54 in the 1976 revival, and Patti LuPone was 46 in the Encores! production in 1995.
At 64, Stockard Channing was considerably older than most actresses to have played Vera in major productions when she did the Roundabout revival in 2008, so I'd argue that Mazzie is exactly the right age.
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.
Kennedy Center 2012 PAL JOEY #53
Posted: 10/16/11 at 7:16pmI think the question is how old she reads, not her actual calendar age. I don't think Mazzie reads much younger than her age--forties, I'd say--but others may feel differently.
Kennedy Center 2012 PAL JOEY #54
Posted: 10/16/11 at 7:17pm
Right, but I would also say that all those other ladies read pretty comparable then to how Mazzie does now at around the same age.
If anything, I felt like she was pushing it to be playing the mother of a teenager when she did NEXT TO NORMAL (especially since she's about a decade older than Diana was written to be in the script.)
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.
Kennedy Center 2012 PAL JOEY #55
Posted: 10/16/11 at 7:22pm
Ripley was also older than Diana's age in the script. I didn't have trouble believing either, but Mazzie did seem more mature.
Either way, the breakdown lists Vera's desired age as 40s-50, so Mazzie is right in that ballpark.
Kennedy Center 2012 PAL JOEY #56
Posted: 10/16/11 at 7:26pm
I think that between Joey and Vera there has to be an exchange of power. Vera is past her prime, wealthy and lonely. Joey is sexy, virile and hungry.
I think Marin, when made up and gowned up would look far to sexy and viable. Granted even hot woman can be lonely. but Mazzie wouldn't strike me as someone ultimately paying for companionship.
I'd like someone older to be cast. Mary Beth Peil? :)
Kennedy Center 2012 PAL JOEY #57
Posted: 10/16/11 at 7:27pm
i really like the idea of mazzie.
what about rebecca luker?
on a quick side - note, when i'm reading through conversations like this, i'm often brought back to comments made about actresses like eva le galliene or laurette taylor about how they could make audiences see what they wanted them to see.
is age or how an actor reads paramount to whether they'd bring something interesting to the role and that they have the craft to sell it?
i readily agree that how an actor reads is important, but i wonder how much of that is controllable i guess.
Kennedy Center 2012 PAL JOEY #58
Posted: 10/16/11 at 7:45pmI don't know i think mazzie could do it and do it right, i mean yes she'd look sexy but one could argue that maybe the husband is the real lump or that mazzie is a bored trophy wife. Didn't someone mention that they mit be using a new book of some sort, so they could make it make sense.
Kennedy Center 2012 PAL JOEY #60
Posted: 10/17/11 at 1:06am
Bettyboy, you said it yourself- there's no reason at all that Vera still can't be "sexy and viable." It's taking way too much of a surface interpretation of the material to think that her relationship with Joey is based purely on her being over the hill and him seeing dollar signs.
Vera is someone who married a wealthy man as his trophy wife, but, as she's getting older, she's finding that she no longer serves that function, so she turns to a younger man like Joey to find the purpose she doesn't have in her own marriage anymore. Ultimately, even if she knows she's being taken advantage of, she just wants to be able to do something for someone else again, since her whole life has been defined in relation to someone who is needing less and less of her. A woman in her late 40s to early 50s would certainly be able to experience that sort of dilemma, since it's incredibly common in society for men to stray toward younger women when their wives are still very much "viable." The pendulum swings both ways.
If anything, you can argue that it provides a pretty sound basis for some of Vera's questionable judgement to have her at an age where the tricks of her sex appeal are just beginning to fail her for the first time. Someone like Channing, as sexy as she still is in her 60s, would have long since seen that side of the coin. Mazzie, on the other hand, is at the interesting age where you wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see Vera surprised to find herself starting to lose her touch. That could certainly send her into the arms of someone like Joey.
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.
Swing Joined: 8/13/06
Kennedy Center 2012 PAL JOEY #61
Posted: 10/31/11 at 12:57am
Sorry, you are mistaken. Vivienne Segal was 43 years old, not 55, in the original production.
Updated On: 10/31/11 at 12:57 AM
Swing Joined: 8/13/06
Videos
.jpg?format=auto&width=365)
