Sunday, November 22, 2009
New Play About Muhammad Ali
NYTimes.com: "As Broadway waits to see if a new play about Vince Lombardi takes flight next season, the McCarter Theater Center is announcing a world premiere production of a play about another sports legend, Muhammad Ali, starring Ben Vereen and Evan Parke."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
The interesting thing about these plays is the fact that they focus on a cultural figure rather than a story or a fictional character. When looked at in a hundred years, who knows what kind of connotations they will have with society. Shakespeare wrote fictional stories about real people and real events, and adapted them to make them more interesting for the audiences. Perhaps the truth in the modern biography shows will keep them from lasting, or perhaps, as the truth is forgotten, the plays will grow and adapt on their own.
This play would be fascinating to see mostly for Ben Vereen. I know him specifically as the magician from Pippin and this role seems so drastically different. It is always fun to see a well know actor stretch his or herself between roles. I would also love to see how he uses his avid dance skills in relation to boxing. Although they are similar in movement, one is so much more powerful and masculine than the other... I would love to see that contrast in his movement.
I'll admit to being interested in seeing how the play addresses the area of Muhammad Ali the boxer. While I know there are parts of his life that are important other then boxing, that is what he's known for, and I do not believe that a play about Ali can really ignore and not show boxing on stage. Based on that, I could imagine this play being very popular given that if it does feature boxing, it will be more combat heavy then many plays are, which might help draw a traditionally non-theater going crowd.
Post a Comment