When did Pirelli become a woman?
When did Pirelli become a woman?
Gothampc
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
#0When did Pirelli become a woman?
Posted: 5/5/05 at 3:53pm
Donna as Pirelli???
https://www.broadwayworld.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=3029
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
#1re: When did Pirelli become a woman?
Posted: 5/5/05 at 3:53pmUnique casting to say the least.
The truly beautiful should be lawfully restricted from wearing clothing; and the truly butt-ugly should be lawfully mandated from going naked.
#3re: When did Pirelli become a woman?
Posted: 5/5/05 at 4:01pm
This happened initially out of necessity.
When the show was first mounted at Watermill, the director couldn't find a man who could sing Pirelli and who could play the piano (and the accordion). So they cast a woman. But as it turned out, it became of the benchmarks of this production and because the show only features a cast of nine, one of the roles had to be cast female otherwise you would have only had three women to six men, which wouldn't work for the "group" sound.
By the way the role is played genderless -- neither Mr. Pirelli or Mrs. Pirelli, etc. There is no attempt to make the actress look like a man, or a woman. She wears a very nondiscript outfit.
Updated On: 5/5/05 at 04:01 PM
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#4re: When did Pirelli become a woman?
Posted: 5/5/05 at 4:07pm
Bennett-
Im just curious, are you involved in any way with this production, or just a big fan.
Tirso de Molina
Featured Actor Joined: 1/1/05
#5re: When did Pirelli become a woman?
Posted: 5/5/05 at 6:49pm
I was also initially surprised when I saw the London Sweeney Todd with a woman as Pirelli, but the casting works in the context of this production's take on the work. All the performers are always onstage, and to some extent they shift in and out of character as they go from playing instruments to participating in their characters' scenes (though the effect is more complex than that). This emphasizes the fact that you're watching performers take roles, rather than going for the naturalistic semi-illusion that the people onstage "are" their characters. In this context, it's no more distracting having a woman play Pirelli or Fogg than it is having the same performer playing both roles -- the actress is simply the performer who's taking those two roles in this onstage theater troupe's performance of Sweeney Todd.
The only possibly negative consequence of the casting, to my mind, was that Pirelli's music did not sound as high and exposed with an actress singing it (I'm not sure if there was a transposition; I don't have perfect pitch), and the opera-tenor parody is lost. But I always find that aspect of the character really annoying anyhow, so it didn't bother me to sacrifice it!
"Sweet summer evenings, hot wine and bread /
Sharing your supper, sharing your bed /
Simple joys have a simple voice:
It says why not go ahead?"
#6re: When did Pirelli become a woman?
Posted: 5/5/05 at 7:05pmChamplin is a very talented performer. I think she will be completely wonderful in this role.
#7re: When did Pirelli become a woman?
Posted: 5/5/05 at 7:06pm
Tirso --
That's a perfect description. By the time we, as an audience, get to Pirelli's character, we are completely aware that nothing about this production of SWEENEY TODD is realistic, so it hardly takes you out of the moment that Pirelli is a woman.
To be fair, the woman in London who played Pirelli was the weakest link of the cast vocally. I don't know that the keys were changed for her, or if she just didn't have the vocal pyrotechnics to make the opera-tenor parody really viable, but Donna Lynn Champlin who is playing the role in NYC is really an extraordinarily fine vocalist/comedian/musician.
She should make something very, very interesting and riotous of the material. And she'll sing the crap out of it.
P.S. Theaterguy -- No, I'm not involved with this production, but I wish I was, because I am a fan of it, and I do expect it to get stellar reviews.
Updated On: 5/5/05 at 07:06 PM
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