Seriously, Aren't they just too old?- Page 2
Seriously, Aren't they just too old?
Wilmingtom
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/18/11
#25Seriously, Aren't they just too old?
Posted: 1/29/14 at 4:03pmYes, Denzel is too old for the role. He is also a major movie star and a good actor. I do think a Walter in his 30's is more compelling and has more at stake, but that's not to say that this excellent play rises and falls on Walter's age. The material is sturdy enough to support Denzel's age, and he may shed new light on a moment or two. Let's see.
#26Seriously, Aren't they just too old?
Posted: 1/29/14 at 4:06pm
Walter Lee Younger.
Younger.
YOUNGER!
Wilmingtom
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/18/11
#28Seriously, Aren't they just too old?
Posted: 1/29/14 at 4:12pm
Good exclamationpointstigating, Wilm.
Sutton Ross
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/20/13
#29Seriously, Aren't they just too old?
Posted: 1/29/14 at 4:16pm
"To me, the biggest hitch in a 59-year-old Walter is that his younger sister, Beneatha, needs money for her education."
Why do you think the actor's age will be the same age as the character's? It makes absolutely no sense. You're just going off the actors that have played the role before.
Updated On: 1/30/14 at 04:16 PM
#30Seriously, Aren't they just too old?
Posted: 1/29/14 at 4:25pm
The character is obviously supposed to be 30ish. Washington is 60. It's ABSURD to cast him in that role. So, what, there are no talented black actors in New York who can handle it? They need to import a senior citizen from Hollywood?
The whole thing stinks, imo.
theatreguy
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/31/03
#31Seriously, Aren't they just too old?
Posted: 1/29/14 at 4:31pm
Actually, the playwright does specify the ages of the characters. In my copy of the script ...
Ruth is "about thirty."
Travis is "ten or eleven."
Walter is "in his middle thirties."
Beneatha is "about twenty."
Mama is "in her early sixties."
Of course, how old an actors looks is more important than their actual age. Anika Noni Rose, for instance, can probably still pass for early 20's onstage even though she's about two decades past that in real life.
#32Seriously, Aren't they just too old?
Posted: 1/29/14 at 4:32pm
Wouldn't it be great if they revived it every year with a progressively older cast?
Next year, it could be Morgan Freeman and Cicely Tyson. I would enjoy that.
#33Seriously, Aren't they just too old?
Posted: 1/29/14 at 4:36pm
And then James Earl Jones and Ruby Dee.
#34Seriously, Aren't they just too old?
Posted: 1/29/14 at 4:42pmI'm sorry but playing younger is just not something an actor can accomplish. Washington is wise, he can't unlearn all he knows. A 60 year old just has a certain tone of voice, a certain gait that cannot be overcome. He's wasting his (and our) time playing this role.
Sutton Ross
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/20/13
#35Seriously, Aren't they just too old?
Posted: 1/29/14 at 4:52pm
"I'm sorry but playing younger is just not something an actor can accomplish."
That may be, quite possibly, the dumbest thing anyone has ever written on BWW. An actor pretends to be someone he is not, that's....that's what acting is. He doesn't look his age, and again, he is an actor. He becomes someone else. You know... acting! Just don't see it if it's simply NOT acceptable to you.
Updated On: 1/29/14 at 04:52 PM
FishermanBob
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/9/12
#36Seriously, Aren't they just too old?
Posted: 1/29/14 at 4:53pm
"He's wasting his (and our) time playing this role."
Well, he would disagree with you since he's agreed to take the role. So would the Producers who've agreed to hire him. So would audiences who will no doubt sell out the theater night after night and more than likely very much enjoy his performance. Such a shame the producers didn't run their casting decisions by you first.
#37Seriously, Aren't they just too old?
Posted: 1/29/14 at 4:53pmSo why isn't anyone complaining about Diahann Carroll being cast as Mama Younger? She's almost 20 years too old to play that part.
#38Seriously, Aren't they just too old?
Posted: 1/29/14 at 4:56pm
Because her casting undoubtedly hinged on Denzel’s casting, so he’s the root of the evil here.
FishermanBob
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/9/12
#39Seriously, Aren't they just too old?
Posted: 1/29/14 at 5:02pm
Root of the evil or more accurately the Axis of Evil
There you have it, the axis of evil: North Korea, Iran, Denzel Washington.
#40Seriously, Aren't they just too old?
Posted: 1/29/14 at 5:03pm
#41Seriously, Aren't they just too old?
Posted: 1/29/14 at 5:09pm^ O M G....that gif is hilarious! I spit out my coke zero!!
#42Seriously, Aren't they just too old?
Posted: 1/29/14 at 5:13pmWell then they should cast Vanessa Williams as Ruth and Anika Noni Rose as Beneatha and call it a day.
#43Seriously, Aren't they just too old?
Posted: 1/29/14 at 5:14pmI hear they are changing the title to A Prune in the Sun
Sutton Ross
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/20/13
#44Seriously, Aren't they just too old?
Posted: 1/29/14 at 5:16pmSamuel Jackson played Martin Luther King Jr. in The Mountaintop, even though he is 25 years older than King was when he died. Cathy Rigby is, at age 60, still playing the "eternal boy" Peter Pan. Vanessa Redgrave, 75, and James Earl Jones, 81, played the lovers Beatrice and Benedick in a production of Much Ado about Nothing at the Old Vic, characters normally thought to be in their 30s. This happens all the time and it's not a big deal.
#45Seriously, Aren't they just too old?
Posted: 1/29/14 at 5:51pmIn a play like Raisin it just won't work. Sorry.
Sutton Ross
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/20/13
#46Seriously, Aren't they just too old?
Posted: 1/29/14 at 6:23pmRight, to you it won't work. As you've said many, many times now. I don't think they'll miss you. It's going to be huge, make tons of money, and I'm sure the cast will be exceptional in the parts. That's really the bottom line.
#47Seriously, Aren't they just too old?
Posted: 1/29/14 at 6:28pmI'm just looking forward to the reviews.
#48Seriously, Aren't they just too old?
Posted: 1/29/14 at 6:46pm
I'm bracing myself for all the "Younger" jokes Brantley and co. will inevitably make.
Edit: Beaten to it (several times!).
Updated On: 1/29/14 at 06:46 PM
FishermanBob
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/9/12
#49Seriously, Aren't they just too old?
Posted: 1/29/14 at 6:55pmlovebwy, I'm sure the reviews will be fine. Washington is a Tony Award winning actor and he'll give an intense performance. But even if they're not, what difference does it make? It's a 3 month limited run, they will sell out every night and the producers will make a pantload of money which is after all, the whole point of for-profit theater. They'll be counting the money and you'll be sitting in your studio walk up apartment muttering over and over to your pet poodle Merman, "see, I told 'em. I told em".
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