LOVE! VALOUR! COMPASSION! - Who saw it?

[rlbgbc]

Posted: 2/7/05 at 1:50pm

I just saw this film on the tube this weekend, and it raised questions that I hope some of you brethren can answer.

I never saw it on the stage. I understand that the original cast was used for the film, save for Nathan Lane -- Jason Alexander stepped in there.

What are the differences between the stage version and the film version? I know they opened it up for the film as usual. Is it a one-set show? How was the twin thing handled -- were they ever onstage together, i.e. using a double with his back to the audience or something lame like that? Is there nudity in the stage version -- I mean, the most of the nudity in the film centered around the lake, which would be highly improbable on stage.

Any wisdom out there?

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 2/7/05 at 2:02pm

From what I remember the film retained most of what the stage version did (with the exception of the "settings"). There was never a double onstage for the "twin" sequences. The actor playing both parts was simply amazing. The change of character (when both were invovled with the same scene) was indicated through him turning around in his chair.

Hope this helps.

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 2/7/05 at 2:15pm

I don't want this to sound obnoxious, but...

I saw Nathan in the Broadway production.

And there was no point to see the film if he wasn't in it.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 2/7/05 at 2:18pm

The main difference is that Nathan Lane was much funnier than Jason Alexander. There's a point in the movie where Alexander realizes that it's ok for the character to camp it up and then he takes off. Lane camped it up from the second he set foot onstage and hit every conceivable laugh in the script.

"Is it a one-set show?"

It was a bare stage and a lot was left up to the imagination.They slid things on for indoor scenes (chairs, etc), they used a trap door for a canoe, they used a special lighting for hiding in the closet, etc.

"How was the twin thing handled -- were they ever onstage together, i.e. using a double with his back to the audience or something lame like that?"

Mostly it was handled through costume changes, but they were onstage together one time when the mean twin confronts the good twin. In that moment, the actor was basically talking to an empty wing-back chair. The chair was facing upstage with its back to the audience.

"Is there nudity in the stage version"

The only reason it sold so many tickets and ran as long as it did on Broadway was because at some point every actor was nude.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 2/7/05 at 2:36pm

The show opened with the cast singing together in front of a miniature version of the house -- about the size of a doll's house -- and that was the last time we saw the "house" in its entirety. Afterwards, it was a minimalist set design, employing single pieces to suggest a given location inside or out. The lake was suggested by an elevated platform up stage center which became the dock in the middle of the lake as characters climbed onto it to sunbathe (and flirt) in the nude.

Unlike the movie, the play was structurally a memory play, with several characters stepping in and out of the drama throughout, addressing the audience directly and commenting on action about to happen in the play, making it clear that everything in the play had already happened at some point in the recent past.

John Glover handled playing the twins well, although the confrontation scene between the two of them in Act III (with Glover going back and forth between being seated in a chair to standing up and acting TO the chair, in order to suggest each character) seemed overly gimmicky and too much of a self-conscious "star turn" to me.

It's success was due not only to the nudity, but also that it won the Tony for Best Play, unaccountably beating out Stoppard's Arcadia.

Updated On: 2/7/05 at 02:36 PM

Posted: 2/7/05 at 2:40pm

What ever happened to Randy Becker?

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 2/7/05 at 2:46pm

Aside from a few forgettable B movies (I've seen him a few times on cable) and some bit parts on tv, I don't think Becker has done much. Not to be unkind, but I don't think his "acting" was the primary reason he was cast in the play and movie of Love! Valour! Compassion! (as those of us who remember the dock scene can attest to

Posted: 2/7/05 at 2:56pm

Margo I couldn't agree with you more!!! What a cutie though.

[robbiej]

Posted: 2/7/05 at 3:06pm

Frank and beans! Yee Haw!

Updated On: 2/7/05 at 03:06 PM

[brdlwyr]

Posted: 2/7/05 at 3:14pm

Margo - was that from memory, or do you have notes?

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 2/7/05 at 3:22pm

All from memory, kid -- I don't have any notes on anything (I could have gone on.....). Apparently all of those vodka-soaked nights in the 90s didn't kill my theatre brain cells.

[brdlwyr]

Posted: 2/7/05 at 3:29pm

Thank you for the "kid" reference. Your wealth of knowledge never ceases to amaze me.

[ProducersFan]

Posted: 2/7/05 at 3:47pm

Wait! Nathan was naked? Onstage? And I missed it?

Oh man... If only I hadn't been like 12 at the time... rats! :-P

~Jessica

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 2/7/05 at 3:55pm

I believe (hope) he wore an apron...

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 2/7/05 at 3:57pm

Yes, Nathan wore an apron.

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 2/7/05 at 3:58pm

He did wear an apron.
And he looked quite handsome in it, too.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 2/7/05 at 4:21pm

ProducersFan, check out the 1995 Tony Awards. Nathan appears on them in the apron costume he wore and cracks "If I did a cartwheel, the ratings would soar".

[eslgr8]

Posted: 2/7/05 at 7:57pm

I don't always agree with you, Margo, but I find your posts quite fascinating. You have a great knowledge of theater, and unlike myself, a crystal clear memory of what you have seen even years ago. Most impressive! How I wish I'd seen LVC on the stage. Maybe I will someday. Would love to play the twins too, if I could face upstage in the final scene!

[WISHIHADATONY]

Posted: 2/8/05 at 2:50pm

I thought the play was great, Terrence's best since THE RITZ, in fact... I just loved LOVE! VALOUR! COMPASSION!

JOHN GLOVER won a very richly deserved Tony for his performance as the twins....

and of course all that weenie onstage was very nice indeed. I love the fact that Anthony Heald went on to so much television work including the assistant principal on BOSTON PUBLIC and his guest appearances on THE PRACTICE as the brutal judge who STRONGLY prounounced the word..MASS A CHUSETTTESSSSSSS when the PRACTICE team was outta state and in his courtroom.

As for Randy Becker, me too, I only recall seeing him in one or two, shall we say, non mainstream films since he was in the film version of LOVE VALOUR.

[robbiej]

Posted: 2/8/05 at 2:59pm

I saw the show twice. First, with the original cast, sans Nathan (thought Cantone was pretty good). It was lovely to see Heald get out of his variations on a villian phase he encountered in all those early 90's films. His replacement, T. Scott Cunningham was spectacular and should work a helluva lot more!

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 2/8/05 at 3:13pm

where are these other films that Randy Becker has done???

[sipos]

Posted: 2/8/05 at 4:58pm

I was pissed honestly when I found out Nathan wasn't in the Broadway theatre transfer (isn't that what happened?). But I shut my young mind up quickly when I saw Mario. He was excellent.
That play was the most heartfelt thing I believe I've seen in NY.
It was beautiful.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 2/8/05 at 5:02pm

Nathan was in the Broadway transfer. Cantone replaced him when he left. Didn't Anthony Heald replace Stephen Spinella for the Broadway transfer?

Updated On: 2/8/05 at 05:02 PM

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 2/8/05 at 5:05pm

Nathan certainly DID transfer with the play to Broadway -- I saw him in it at the Kerr. I believe he left the play after about six months and he was replaced for the last couple of months of the run by Mario Cantone.

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 2/8/05 at 6:15pm

well...i think the movies gives a good idea about what the play was.even tho it doesnt have that much nudity.