Question about Cyrano de Bergerac — Page 3

Saw it Saturday afternoon. Hodge is a savior on a sinking ship. There are some nice transitions, but the direction is often bizzare, with intimate conversations happening across great distances. I did, however, enjoy some of the scenery.

Hodge is magnificent. Took me by surprise. And his soliloquies can take your breath away if you focus on how carried away he gets with the poetry.

But his co-stars are dreadful. Christian couldn't act his way out of a paper bag. Roxanne is, frankly, a bore.

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I read Cyrano in high school. I only appreciated it after seeing Steve Martin's Roxanne.

Wait, you made it all the way to high school Jim Colyer, White Supremacist??

From the article I read, this production is happening simply because Todd Haimes, who evidently loved Douglas Hodge in La Cage, asked him what show he would like to do, and Hodge chose Cyrano de Bergerac. See, this is what happens when you give too much power to actors...

...but those transferred productions are usually the best the Roundabout has on their schedule.

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Saw the matinee yesterday. I have never seen Hodge before, and he is a very talented actor but simply not the man for this role. Every Cyrano I have seen loves words, since he is a poet and a wit. Hodge rushes his fences constantly so I kept missing the relish that Cyrano has in using words well. The first act theme and variations on his nose was funny but it should also be rude and shocking and occasionally poignant. The balcony scene with Christian and Roxanne should be unbearably beautiful and lyrical but seemed rash and fast. Oddly, his final scene in the convent garden (although staged with really bizarre blocking) was very touching indeed. The translation is not as bad as I had anticipated. It is relaxed enough prose to give the actors an easier time, but a lot of the poetry is lost. I am glad to have seen this, although it has none of the extraordinary qualities that I found in the Kevin Kline version so recently done.

I think they are relying on the newness of the translation. But the story has not been refurbished in any particularly striking way - the production is grittier than usual, but they haven't brought it to modern times or made Roxanne into Roxbob, or anything.