I'll revive an idea I proposed in another thread -- in the original Fosse production, sex was a barely concealed subtext to everything that happened in the show. And it was watching Martha Raye's rendition of the role that convinced me one had to go a slightly different route with the role.
Watching her deliver the lines about frolicking and "I know what
I need, Pippin" caused me to go back to the script and re-read it. It hit me that there is the barest hint of innuendo in the lines, and in reading it, I wondered if maybe Berthe was supposed to be sexier. Maybe Fastrada didn't exile her from court because of a personality conflict, but because she was a threat in the seduction department. The fact that her scene of telling Pippin not to worry about life because there's no point to it, so just enjoy it, leads into the frightening orgy that grows out of "With You" only reinforced my point to me.
So... in the movie in my mind, I decided to maybe cast the role in a way that would up the ante on that. It needed to be someone that you don't think grandmother of when the name is mentioned. Someone who is clearly old enough for the part, yet still looks like a knock-out. Someone who could give an extra charge to those lines, suggesting that Pippin's immediate family aren't the only messed-up ones. To be blunt, and excessively crude, for a moment, someone who turns around and her tits nearly hit him in the face, y'know? Where you're struck with the stateliness and voluptuousness of the person, but they're older. A fitting legendary actress/singer from a generation or two back.
Here's the list of possibilities I came out with:
*
Debbie Harry. (Shockingly she sneaked up to the right age.)
*
Linda Ronstadt.
*
Raquel Welch.
* When I initially thought of
Dolly Parton, it was a joke, but the more I thought about it, she seemed kind of right for what I had in mind. I began picturing a country singalong "No Time at All," a great surreal moment not unlike her fantasy sequence in the
9 To 5 film... Berthe in a cute little cowgirl outfit, fastening Pippin to the chair with her lasso as she lectures him and the film audience about letting her sing the verses.
* And last but not least, the inevitable "safe" casting choice. Someone that the suits would insist on for the "funny old lady with vim, verve, and charm" part twenty seconds after they heard about it. It doesn't really hit the hallmarks of what I planned, but if she resurrected her Sue Ann Nivens sensibility,
Betty White could work.
Formerly gvendo2005
Broadway Legend
joined: 5/1/05
Blocked: After Eight, suestorm, david_fick, emlodik, lovebwy, Dave28282, joevitus, BorisTomashevsky, Seb28
Updated On: 5/9/13 at 08:44 AM