| re: Shaffer Substitutes. | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 02:41 pm EST 12/07/24 | |
| In reply to: Shaffer Substitutes. - portenopete 10:04 am EST 12/06/24 | |
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| In 1983, the entire original National Theatre cast of Amadeus reunited for a radio broadcast. I am linking it below. (I guess it may start a few seconds into it since that’s when I copied the link, and it sometimes seems to work that way.) It was re-aired around 8 or 10 years ago and was available for download. I took the download and tracked it quite thoroughly. What's on youtube is said to be "HD Remastered." I don't know if the sound, which was fine, has really been improved. Some people who do these things make the sound worse, at least to my ears. This sort of thing is quite common with reissues of classical recordings (and cast recordings). People who listen to lots of classical recordings obsessively often feel that later reissues that have been remastered don't sound as good as earlier ones, and that's when the work is done by professionals. Frank Finlay replaced Scofield in London when the production moved for a commercial run. At least one critic preferred him to Scofield. But I agree that Scofield is pretty terrific in the excerpts he did on television and also on the radio broadcast. I saw the Suchet production on Broadway. I saw it on opening night when, despite being in the relatively small Music Box, there were tickets available at the TKTS booth. In fact, the Music Box mezzanine was far from full. Not a good sign for a long run. I found the revival underwhelming. Suchet was too reserved. Showiness doesn't seem to come naturally to him, and it's a showy role. There is a balance that must be struck, to be sure. You don't want too much showiness either, which was one reason why I waited till McKellen left to see Amadeus. Shoot me, but that's how I feel about him onstage. I often like him on film and television. I thought Michael Sheen as Mozart, on the other hand, was too showy. For me, David McCallum stole the show. I wish I'd seen him when he did the Manhattan Theatre Club production of The Philanthropist, a play I love, back in the 1980s. Later, of course, destroyed by the Roundabout, with a pretentiously designed production that had been a success in London, mostly recast here, with a disastrous performance from an astoundingly miscast and misdirected Matthew Broderick, who was so bizarre in the role that you could barely notice the other actors. And I do like him sometimes. Speaking of The Philanthropist makes for an easy segue to replacements in the first Broadway production of Equus since Alec McCowen was the first actor to play Philip in The Philanthropist (how I wish I'd seen that but it closed so quickly) and the first actor to play Dysart, and of course later played it for a brief run as a replacement on Broadway. I saw the original cast, Perkins and Hulce, and McCowen and Michael Snyder. For some reason, I wasn't interested in seeing Burton. My favorite Dysart was certainly McCowen. Hopkins seemed like he was having a big, loud nervous breakdown in the role. He hardly seemed a man who buries his feelings. (I know that Hopkins is a good actor, and I've thought he was excellent in some things, but something about him often turns me off. I think it's that I sense that he thinks he's really good.) I barely remember Perkins. Tom Hulce was good, but I liked the more tortured Peter Firth more. McCowen really did portray this man who had intense feelings that he kept deeply buried. He was very businesslike, but you could just feel the churning underneath. It also seemed more like a detective story with McCowen, which I think is right. I'm sorry to say that I don't remember Michael Snyder at all, but then I also barely remember Perkins. It was also less pretentious with McCowen. I should add something to what I wrote earlier in reply to bobby2 about Amadeus: Seeing it well into the run, almost the entire original supporting cast was still there, and they were still stellar. |
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| Link | Amadeus |
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