Randi Graff not nominated for fantine,but Anne wins?

[broadway guy]

Posted: 3/19/13 at 12:38pm

What's up with that? I mean yeah,Anne totally blows alot of other fantine's out of the water.Anne completely changed how viewers see Fantine now.Her performance is iconic and legendary.She didn't try to be a lea Solonga Wannabee,she just went for it and it paid off.Poor Patti lupone and randi Graff

[Unknown User]

Posted: 3/19/13 at 12:42pm

Sorry, but I really disliked Randi's performance. I remember being very disappointed that Lupone wasn't coming to Bway to do Les Mis. Two completely different performances and yes, I saw both.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 3/19/13 at 12:45pm

Love Graff (she was so amazing in DAMN YANKEES at Encores! a few years ago, where is she now?), but her Fantine--at least on the recording--can't hold a candle to Hathaway's or, especially, LuPone's or Ruthie Henshall's. I wasn't surprised she wasn't nominated for it, and I'm sure people at the time were disappointed LuPone decided not to come to NY with the role.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 3/19/13 at 12:50pm

Randi was supposed to come to Bway in the cancelled revival of Funny Girl as Fanny's mom.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 3/19/13 at 1:10pm

Apples and oranges.

I don't recall Graff's stamp on the role being memorably personal, much less a tour de force. She gave a proficient and arguably generic performance.

Hathaway's was a Marie Falconetti radical study in suffering. Whether everyone loved or admired her performance is another issue. Still a great many people, including me btw, were very impressed.

It may also be that Graff, so very talented, warm and likable, and certainly a woman with range, wasn't, for whatever alchemical reason, a particularly interesting fit for Fantine.

[chinto1984]

Posted: 3/19/13 at 1:21pm

I don't think Anne's Fantine is iconic, but then again I don't give out the oscars. To me, her fantine was "cry". Every scene, every time you open your mouth cry. On mass, people see that an actor who cries as amazing. She is also very pretty and made herself ugly. Oscars love that (Halle Berry, Charlize, and Nicole Kidman). Don't get me started on Anne's singing. If you want a Fantine who can cry watch Debra Bryne. She at least adds subtext and singing ability

For Randy, She is by far not my favorite Fantine. Though I did enjoy her in Damn Yankees. In '87, there were only 3 nominees for lead actress. It seems they consciously left her out if she would've been considered a "lead". If not a lead, she would have been up against Frances and Judy in featured. The other two nominees were from Me and My Girl. At that time, there seemed to be a cap at 4 nominees per category. Imagine if they had nominated Randi, Frances, and Judy and only one from Me and My Girl. There may have been backlash. Her and David Bryant were the only ones of the main cast, exluding thenardiers, that were not nominated.







Updated On: 3/19/13 at 01:21 PM

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 3/19/13 at 3:48pm

I can't imagine anyone playing Fantine being put in the lead category for an award. Terrence Mann was nominated for the lead actor Tony but that was a real stretch.

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 3/19/13 at 3:51pm

I can't imagine anyone playing Fantine being put in the lead category for an award. Terrence Mann was nominated for the lead actor Tony but that was a real stretch.

[ABitOnTheSide]

Posted: 3/19/13 at 4:12pm

Broadway guy, you are aware that Patti LuPone did win an Olivier Award as the original Fantine?

[newintown]

Posted: 3/19/13 at 4:16pm

"On mass, people see that an actor who cries as amazing."

I think you mean en masse, but you have a very good point. Crying has come to be seen as the ne plus ultra of acting, when it's little more than a relatively easy trick like a somersault.

Let the waterworks start flowing, though, and it seems herds of folks start kvelling about "truth" and "realness of emotion."

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 3/19/13 at 4:16pm

Well LuPone's Olivier award was jointly for her work in THE CRADLE WILL ROCK and LES MISERABLES, not just for playing Fantine.

[chinto1984]

Posted: 3/19/13 at 4:27pm

newintown--thanks for correcting me and giving me a new phrase. i knew it sounded weird. just couldn't figure out why.

Let's fantasize for bit. Let's say Patti did play Fantine on Bway. Do you think:
1) She would have been nominated? and for which (lead/featured)
2) Would she have won?




Updated On: 3/19/13 at 04:27 PM

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 3/19/13 at 4:37pm

Deena Jones, I'd have loved to see her as Fanny's mom. I'm still bummed out that the revival didn't happen, the cast was to die for (yes, huge Lauren Amrbose fan over here).
I didn't think Hathaway gave the best supporting actress turn this year by any means and I'm of the opinion that she shone so brightly because she was surrounded by a mediocre cast in a mediocre film. However, her Fantine was specific and fully realized, even if it was very one note, she elevated the material in many ways, whereas Graff's Fantine (again, this is just based on the recording, I never saw her live) just revealed how generic the material can be without someone like LuPone lifting it to another level.

[SweetLips]

Posted: 3/19/13 at 5:13pm

Thank you Chinto for saying exactly how I felt about Annes' performance-plus--Debra Byrne shows suffering without the histrionics[?]-it's all there in the voice[listen to her Norma Desmond to be convinced].

Updated On: 3/19/13 at 05:13 PM

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 3/19/13 at 5:23pm

I didn't know Randi was going to play Rosie, but I (gloat, gloat, gloat!) suggested her as the ideal choice during bww's Lauren-as-Fanny wars (of dreaded memory).


prescient me! Updated On: 3/19/13 at 05:23 PM

[chinto1984]

Posted: 3/19/13 at 5:27pm

if anyone has not seen randy with seth on playbill's obsessed. it's a good watch.

[bobs3]

Posted: 3/19/13 at 5:39pm

As I recall several critics who had seen LuPone in London compared Graff unfavorably to LuPone. It may have been Frank Rich who wrote that LuPone acted the song while Graff belted it like a Broadway showstopper.

Updated On: 3/20/13 at 05:39 PM

[best12bars]

Posted: 3/19/13 at 5:43pm

Randy was fine in the role on Broadway. I saw the full OBC four days after it opened. There was a big disappointment that LuPone wasn't recreating her role from the London production.

So it was more like:

"In the role of Fantine .... not Patti LuPone."

And who is going to nominate the actress known as "Not Patti LuPone?"

[OperaBwayLover]

Posted: 3/19/13 at 8:05pm

As far as recordings go, I can't stand her Fantine. She's just loud loud loud the whole time. And while I understand that a dying woman's last words would not be pretty, her "And I'll see her when I waaaaaaaaake!" is just painful.

No offense to the Randi Graff Fantine fans. But personally I don't care for her.

[PlainMushroomWit']

Posted: 3/19/13 at 8:14pm

I'm sure I'm in the minority, but I never liked Fantine as a character, the 3 times I saw LES MIZ on stage. I always waited for her to die so we could get to "Confrontation." For me, the character worked a lot better on the big screen. For the first time, I actually felt for her and her plight.

I loved Randy Graff in CITY OF ANGELS.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 3/19/13 at 8:28pm

I think Randi Graff was miscast. Her Fantine was underwhelming, even though she is a great performer.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 3/19/13 at 9:00pm

The question to ponder though is if Patti had done Les Miserables on Broadway would she have been available for Anything Goes, which began previews only six months after the opening of Les Mis. Does anybody know if Anything Goes was built around Patti, or would Lincoln Center have simply cast somebody else and moved on if she had been unavailable or uninterested due to being in Les Mis at the time?

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 3/19/13 at 9:05pm

I'm almost positive I've read that Patti auditioned for Anything Goes, so I don't think it was built around her. So had she done Les Mis, I doubt she would've done Les Mis (she also said she probably wouldn't have done two musicals back to back anyway).

ETA: Although he had seen her work, Zaks had never met Ms. LuPone before he invited her to audition last spring. Her voice was not an issue -he wanted to hear her read from the script. She began her audition by holding her Ethel Merman photo in front of her face. 'I was struck by the fact that she was very up-front,' Zaks states. 'She had vitality, a sense of humor, and a willingness to try things.' After her initial reading, Zaks suggested some changes in presentation. 'She listened,' he recalls, 'and she dove in.'
She's the Top - New York Times

Updated On: 3/19/13 at 09:05 PM

[Leadingplayer]

Posted: 3/19/13 at 10:49pm

Frank Rich panned Randy Graff. Tony people seemed to stick pretty close to his review excluding David Bryant and Randy Graff from nominations in favor of Michael McGuire and Judy Kuhn in smaller roles.

It shows you how powerful (and feared/hated) Rich was back in the day. (even if the Tony nominating committee was only subconsciously influenced by his review.)
Frank Rich on Les Miserables

[RippedMan]

Posted: 3/20/13 at 12:08am

I'm surprised. I'm sure Lupone could have made a TON of money off Les Miz. But instead she went with the non-profit. Good for her.