Macbeth Confusion
Macbeth Confusion
#1Macbeth Confusion
Posted: 5/7/13 at 10:48pm
Am I the only one who is both confused and a little pissed off that Macbeth with Alan Cumming was not even nominated for a tony?!?
What the What?
Let me be your star, now wouldn't that be lovely?
#2Macbeth Confusion
Posted: 5/7/13 at 10:55pmNo.
Words don't deserve that kind of malarkey. They're innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other, so if you look after them you can build bridges across incomprehension and chaos. But when they get their corners knocked off, they're no good anymore…I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.
#2Macbeth Confusion
Posted: 5/7/13 at 11:55pmbroadway guy, is that you?
"Pardon my prior Mcfee slip. I know how to spell her name. I just don't know how to type it." -Talulah
#3Macbeth Confusion
Posted: 5/8/13 at 2:23amDefinitely perplexed, upset, and disappointed. Cumming's performance was bravura and beautiful.
dramamama611
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/4/07
#4Macbeth Confusion
Posted: 5/8/13 at 6:06am
I'm guessing the nominators agreed with the reviewers -- it was more about Cumming than it was about the story, and they didn't like it.
If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it?
These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.
Ed_Mottershead
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/20/05
#5Macbeth Confusion
Posted: 5/8/13 at 3:24pmThere's no questioning that Cumming is performing a tour de force, but I'm of the same mind as Samuel Johnson (I think) when he stated that the wonder of a dog walking on its hind legs is not that he is doing it gracefully, but that he is doing it at all.
BroadwayEd
Brian07663NJ
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/21/06
#6Macbeth Confusion
Posted: 5/8/13 at 3:26pm
My cousin loves Macbeth and he loves Alan Cumming...after 45 minutes he had enough...got up and walked out.
I mentioned to him that I heard Alan speaks in a Scottish accent.
He said - yeah so much so that even though I know the play it is difficult to even understand him!
Phyllis Rogers Stone
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/16/07
#7Macbeth Confusion
Posted: 5/8/13 at 3:34pmI love awards season so much. It never ceases to amaze me that so many people don't realize that ultimately all nominations/awards are subjective.
#8Macbeth Confusion
Posted: 5/8/13 at 3:36pmHow do you think I feel? Betrayed, bewildered... wrong response?
"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."
#9Macbeth Confusion
Posted: 5/8/13 at 4:03pm^^ for the win.
Words don't deserve that kind of malarkey. They're innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other, so if you look after them you can build bridges across incomprehension and chaos. But when they get their corners knocked off, they're no good anymore…I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.
#10Macbeth Confusion
Posted: 5/8/13 at 9:32pm
Truth?
I went ... To see the play.
Alan Cumming's performance was extra incentive.
My evening, last Friday, was breathtaking, THOROUGHLY enjoyed.
I'm really upset that the show was overlooked.
Beautifully executed.
#11Macbeth Confusion
Posted: 5/8/13 at 11:35pm
yea we need more one man Shakespeare Shows on Broadway,
Can't wait for Harvey Fierstein to play Othello
on a southern plantation next season..
It's great when as Othello he strangles himself as Desdemona. Hope he'll be nominated.
by the way.. nobody is more upset over this omission than
Producer KLen Davenport and Alan Cumming himself but that's show biz.
#12Macbeth Confusion
Posted: 5/9/13 at 1:22am
The sound design was snubbed.
I thought it was an incredible production all around. And I understood Alan Cumming with his Scottish accent. It's The Scottish Play, so why not?
#13Macbeth Confusion
Posted: 5/9/13 at 1:46am
HeyMrMusic - Agreed re: the sound design! I was sitting in the back row of the orchestra and could hear every word and effect perfectly, and the sizzle/crackle of the television screens/white noise was harrowing in just the right way for the tone of the piece.
I personally didn't get the "ego trip" vibe from Cumming during this show. Actually, I felt that the play felt "at home" in this setting. *Macbeth* is arguably the Shakespeare play most centered around madness as a means, not just an end--and (if memory serves me) it's the only play in which a doctor attempts to treat it. The "Can'st thou not minister to a mind diseased . . ." question and the doctor's pointed response chilled and inspired me when I first read it meany years ago, and I've never experienced a more affecting delivery than in Cumming's performance.
**Full Disclosure** I was an English major with a concentration in Shakespeare, and I've had much experience working with people struggling with mental illness in a number of settings, so perhaps what I brought to the show primed me more than most to process and enjoy it as Cumming and Davenport intended. There's a LOT more I'd love to say about the play and this production of it in particular, but this post is long enough. :)
#14Macbeth Confusion
Posted: 5/9/13 at 1:57amLuminousBeing, it's obvious we saw the same production. I agree on all points!
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