www.backstage.com: When Jordan Dean lost his job, columnist Michael Riedel responded with characteristic reserve. From his perch at the New York Post, Riedel had campaigned to have Dean’s character Skipper excised from the new Broadway production of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” starring Scarlett Johansson as Maggie the Cat and Benjamin Walker as Brick. Why the fuss? Because Skipper, an old football buddy of Brick’s, isn’t present in Tennessee Williams’ original work. He and his suicide are referenced often in the play, but he never showed up onstage until previews of this newest incarnation began Dec. 18.
7 comments:
Crucial changes to a classic play tend to be controversial because there is always the debate of how closely a director should stick to a script. The more well known the show, the harder it is for audiences to be able to believe big changes. I mean, CMU's Antigone was the opposite of all of this in that it broke from practically every convention and piece of the original story of Antigone. I could not even guess as to how the original script read.
Of course everything gets more complicated when unions are involved, so I am not surprised that AEA further "tangled" the situation.
I find this article to be very interesting for several reasons. I believe that cutting a character from a play is a difficult choice. If the piece is well established and basically a classic, the audiences WILL know that the show has changed... If the piece is an original, it will only affect several people who know the piece well/are performers in the piece. It is interesting to think about what a plays first incarnation was like. What it was like before the cast read it for the first time...
I always think about how shows began and how they are presented. I look at some of my own writing and I now see that many characters are morphed/added/cut in the process of writing a play.
I was familiar with the fact that an actor can be bought out of their contract with two weeks pay (that's normal to most AEA agreements, including LORT), but I had no idea that the Broadway Leage Production Contract extends that pay to 8 weeks additional if the show is set to run for longer than two weeks. It is a surprisingly accomodating contract that acknowledges the length of continuous employment an actor on Broadway can expect. Unlike LORTs, for which the run may be up to 6 or 8 weeks at max, a Broadway show may provide an actor years of employment, and so the elimination of the role would have serious financial effects for the actor.
New interpretations to more traditional scripts is great thing to bring people who have already seen the show to see a different version. The adding of a role however seems like a risky move, audiences that have already saw Cat on a Hot Tin Roof may begin to be confused. With the cutting of the role it may return it closer to the original text. But I don't believe that actor should have to suffer for his role being cut.
I never really thought about this before. Of course, I've thought about cutting roles from plays and what type of casting would be best for a piece, but I've never been in a situation where someone was cut during previews. This must be a sticky situation for everyone involved. Terrible for the actor, because they have been rehearsing this and are probably excited to open, awkward for the management staff, and weird for whatever unions the performer may be involved in.
I'm not surprised that it can/has happened. I guess it's just not a situation that I have faced so I've never really considered the consequences of it and how it sometimes may be necessary.
Funny we discussed the LORT contract today in class and what happens when either an actor or the theatre terminates a contract for various reasons. Termination at that stage of the process is hardest for the actor who would have been in rehearsals forever and the not have the opportunity to perform. At least he gets compensation but now has to find a new gig.
I don't agree with the move that this particular director set out to make in this production. "Cat" is a huge, well known production by Tennessee Williams, the action of adding a character to the production who was only spoken of in the written play -for a reason I am assuming - is to me, disrespectful. Though, I do believe in directing a show in the way that one wants to, but not changing the content by adding an entire new addition.
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