Mary Tyler Moore To Return To Broadway After Nearly 20 Years- Page 2

[TxTwoStep]

Posted: 7/24/05 at 10:27pm

again, i just think that kind of advice and perception ("even a first-year acting student...") is pretty glib. Do you find newscasters and commercial actors who use earprompters make "no progress"? what about talk show hosts who use cue cards? it's a skill like any other...the ability to integrate material naturally and spontaneously, even if not completely memorized. Is there really the need for a hierarchy, and to judge a person's career on the single fact that they might need prompting? there's a lot of opera singers who would argue against such easy judgements.

[TheEnchantedHunter]

Posted: 7/24/05 at 10:36pm

She might go "low" during a performance and then where would she be?


TheEnchantedHunter
Ted Hunter, Cane, NH

[jonartdesigns]

Posted: 7/25/05 at 12:15am

she would make a great muriel in drs i think

[Akbar-n-Jeff]

Posted: 7/25/05 at 7:46am

I don't hate Sally Field at all, but my gawd...she really stole that Oscar from Mary Tyler Moore, whose performance in ORDINARY PEOPLE was shattering.

I somehow feeel the Oscar loss put a real crimp in her big-screen career. No subsequent film of hers came close in quality to that.

[lildogs]

Posted: 7/25/05 at 9:48am

TxTwoStep, if you can honestly type that memorization is not the most basic, SIMPLE skill an actor must possess, then these things I hope: that I never have to work with you or for you.

[moljul]

Posted: 7/25/05 at 10:54am

Well don't hate Sally Field because she wasn't the actress who won the Oscar the year MTM was nominated. Sissy Spacek won it for Coal Miner's Daughter.

[lildogs]

Posted: 7/25/05 at 11:21am

sissy spacek is correct, and I wouldn't exactly say that sissy stole the Oscar, considering she won almost every major award for best actress that year

[TxTwoStep]

Posted: 7/25/05 at 1:18pm

LILDOGS, i just don't rate any performance skill in a hierarchy. Little chance of us working together---i prefer people with open minds and reasonable ways of looking at things differently.

Here's an example...i was lucky to see BOY FROM OZ in previews...and it appeared that Hugh Jackman was actually playing the onstage piano (i could see his hands from my seat). i asked a friend with the production about that, and he related that Jackman does play piano and intended to play live, but in the preview period was concentrating on the new lines, routining, and revising vocals and orchestrations. When he settled in, he would learn the piano riffs and do them live. Amazing feat, right? well, maybe some actors use earpieces to get them through a preview period and settle in. When you are performing previews for three weeks straight, rehearsing the changes during the afternoons yet having to keep the evening show the way it was before, and not taking days off (as you might also be rehearsing on the Monday in order to be ready for press opening), THEN you can start judging others who may need some prompting. Again, there is no proof Ms. Moore would need continued prompting once the show was set and running performances only (since it never opened). Until you've gone through that type of prep period, have a little generosity for an established performer whose mind might not have the know-all be-all qualities you obviously think yours does.

[lildogs]

Posted: 7/25/05 at 1:54pm

Dude, I get your point: the ability to learn lines does not make one TALENTED, nor does the lack make one UNTALENTED....it simply marks the difference between a competent professional and someone who is better served by another career choice.

Being a stickler for preparedness doesn't make me close-minded, it makes me a grown-up.

An actor in a Neil Simon play isn't a talk show host reading a cue card, or a commercial actor eating a burger. I would hope that you would know that being in a play means you are telling a story, not selling a product or interviewing Carson Daly.

I understand you have a great deal of affection for Mary, and I respect her accomplishments. But to suggest that an inductee into the television hall of fame is exempted from knowing her lines cold FOR ANY REASON is ridiculous.

I'd like to hear from any professional director, or better yet, playwright, who would agree with you.

[TxTwoStep]

Posted: 7/25/05 at 4:50pm

"Preparedness" might have a broader definition than your personal one. Is an actor who uses a body mic "unprepared" to project their voice?

[TxTwoStep]

Posted: 7/25/05 at 4:54pm

also, LIL DOGS, can you see how you keep assuming that Ms. Moore would need prompting throughout the theoritical run of the show, when we have no proof of that? We even only have hearsay evidence that she needed prompting at all ("it was well-known"). i am a fan of hers, yes, but i'm also someone who doesn't get swayed by conventional wisdom without critical analysis. If you want to be so "competent", don't argue your point with hypotheticals.

i am also a grown-up, and you might be surprised by what i know about "being in a play." Assumptions are very dangerous things.

[pab]

Posted: 7/25/05 at 5:03pm

Oh come on, this is so ridiculous! Calling an actor using a body mic unprepared and comparing them to an actor who does not know their lines makes no sense. I don't care who the actor/actress was. If they are not prepared for a paying audience coming to see a professional production, I would fire them, be it in preview or during the run. As a mater if they were doing it for free and were not prepared I would ask them to leave.

[lildogs]

Posted: 7/25/05 at 5:03pm

TEXAS! Wearing a body mike is not the same as knowing your lines! An actor has no control over the acoustics of a theatre, but COMPLETE control over the functions of his mind.

And if you know that a play isn't like a talk show, then why draw the parallel?

As for Hugh, he was THE SHOW and had all kinds of extra stuff to do besides learning his lines--i will concede that he need not really play the piano no more than a Coalhouse has to be able to play. BUT I am not talking about a performer needing technical help with a performance. I am talking about an unprepared actress who should know better.

[TxTwoStep]

Posted: 7/25/05 at 6:16pm

again, you both are applying your own definitions of "unprepared". It's an assumption to argue that Moore might need prompting on every line, that she is incapable of any memorization, etcetera.

The point about Jackman was that he did, probably, learn the piano parts and put them in when the show was settled, evolving from miming (however skillfully). Moore might have learned all the lines once they were tinkered with, and given up the earpiece when she was ready...her "preparedness" and "professionalism" relative to the challenge at hand specifically and her own skills to meet it.

If the CHICAGO choregraphy is dumbed-down to meet a particular marquee name's skills, does that mean the person is "unprepared" and "unprofessional"? all kinds of adjustments are made, in both rehearsing and performing, using all kinds of technology, which is where the body mic example came from. Linda Ronstadt supposedly had her high notes in PIRATES, if not BOHEME (the first time, not the Baz one), mixed in from someone else's mic. Liza supposedly lip-synched high notes, or long held belted notes as she danced full-out, for THE ACT. Does that make the performances that result so false as to have you dismiss them?

i'd also like you both to note at no time in this discussion have i resorted to exclamation marks or personal attacks. i've never called either of you wrong---just suggested you might be dismissing a performer's potential on a pretty sketchy single point. i've tried to remain reasonable and not judgemental. Can you say the same? This is the last i'll post about this worn-out topic. We just have to agree to disagree.

Updated On: 7/26/05 at 06:16 PM

[Jimmcf]

Posted: 7/25/05 at 8:37pm

Me too Beaverhausen...have been rewatching season 1 in preparation!

Man, what an awesome show.

[gymman]

Posted: 7/25/05 at 9:30pm

give her a break...
she has umpteem emmies, a tony, an oscar nomination
she is a total professional who is a credit to al actors everywhere
she was learning lines that changed every day
have any of you actually been in this situation?