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Monday, October 06, 2008
Patrick Page, Broadway’s Grinch, Returns as Henry VIII in ‘A Man for All Seasons’
NYTimes.com: "Since coming to New York in 1993, Patrick Page has been known mostly for cartoonish roles, including more than three years as Lumiere in “Beauty and the Beast” and three more as Scar in “The Lion King.” But in regional theater he is known as a Shakespearean leading man."
I really appreciated this article because it brought some legitimacy to shows that many readers of this blog enjoy ripping into without ever having actually seen the shows. It shows the amount of work that an actor will put into playing The Grinch in a show that clearly is about making money, but still can have a strong artistic element to it. People need to take into account the artistic efforts that go into these Broadway shows, even if people may find them "unoriginal". The fact that they are transferring these shows to the stage for the first time gives them an originality, and each of the actors clearly takes their own risks in creating the roles, like Patrick Page did in The Grinch and Beauty & the Beast.
ReplyDeleteOn an unrelated note, that reminded me, why do the same people that rip into these musicals that rip-off movies also praise The Lion King? doesn't make sense
I very much hope to see this show. This summer I had the pleasure of working with the show's lighting designer, David Lander. I was able to see some of the drawings by Santo Loquasto and am very interested to see how his unit set is able to be transformed by the lighting. Also - seeing Patrick Page would be wonderful - especially in a not-so-disneyesque show.
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