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I had the distinct pleasure to watch my old friend ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cavenessity perform Eugene O'Neill's minor masterpiece A MOON FOR THE MISBEGOTTEN. If you have even the slightest chance to see a show this Thursday, Friday, or Saturday, I absolutely urge you to buy tickets now and see it.
Seeing this show is important for a couple of reasons. First of all, Eugene O'Neill is largely regarded as one of the greatest American playwrights of all time. I personally far, far prefer him to Williams and Miller, but that's a rant for later. Problem is, most of his (great) plays are at least three and a half hours long, and that's not really attractive to most theatres (community and professional alike) or audiences unless the production and performances are really stellar. And my god, are they ever stellar. Without going into a full review and analysis, I'll keep it short and sweet:cavenessity does the best work of hers that I've yet seen.
I'm tempted to go more into analyzing the play here, but I suspect that my LJ has even less of an audience for discussion of Eugene O'Neill than it does for my comic book rantery. I hope to sit down with ol' Cavegirl over mixed drinks and tasty comestibles to discuss this play at length, but my purpose here is mainly to sing her well-deserved praises for a hell of a performance. And, of course, to pimp the show in this, its final week.
Because Eugene O'Neill just isn't performed that often, and damn the length, it's a real crime. I was so jealous of Kelley and the rest of the major cast, wishing throughout the show that I could have been a part of that. I so desperately want to face the challenge of playing Jim Tyrone in LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT and again later in MOON, and especially the dream role of Hickey in THE ICEMAN COMETH.
At least those two others have good film versions you can rent (and so, so should), but the film of MOON is utterly terrible. The otherwise-brilliant Jason Robards, man-god of O'Neill actors, must have been seriously hitting the booze really hard and slumming by this point (probably around the same time he did A BOY AND HIS DOG). Colleen Dewhurst is horridly miscast, twenty years too old for the part at least. This was probably why they slathered Ed Flanders, in the role as her father, in such laughable old-man makeup even though he was perfectly age appropriate.
Don't ever watch the film of A MOON FOR THE MISBEGOTTEN, not unless you've had the distinct and rare pleasure of seeing it done fantastically on stage. I've been lucky enough to have, and twice. First with Kevin Spacey and Colm Meaney. And again just this weekend. My stepfather Gordon and I agree that it was one of the finest community theatre shows we've ever seen.
cavenessity perform Eugene O'Neill's minor masterpiece A MOON FOR THE MISBEGOTTEN. If you have even the slightest chance to see a show this Thursday, Friday, or Saturday, I absolutely urge you to buy tickets now and see it.Seeing this show is important for a couple of reasons. First of all, Eugene O'Neill is largely regarded as one of the greatest American playwrights of all time. I personally far, far prefer him to Williams and Miller, but that's a rant for later. Problem is, most of his (great) plays are at least three and a half hours long, and that's not really attractive to most theatres (community and professional alike) or audiences unless the production and performances are really stellar. And my god, are they ever stellar. Without going into a full review and analysis, I'll keep it short and sweet:
cavenessity does the best work of hers that I've yet seen. I'm tempted to go more into analyzing the play here, but I suspect that my LJ has even less of an audience for discussion of Eugene O'Neill than it does for my comic book rantery. I hope to sit down with ol' Cavegirl over mixed drinks and tasty comestibles to discuss this play at length, but my purpose here is mainly to sing her well-deserved praises for a hell of a performance. And, of course, to pimp the show in this, its final week.
Because Eugene O'Neill just isn't performed that often, and damn the length, it's a real crime. I was so jealous of Kelley and the rest of the major cast, wishing throughout the show that I could have been a part of that. I so desperately want to face the challenge of playing Jim Tyrone in LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT and again later in MOON, and especially the dream role of Hickey in THE ICEMAN COMETH.
At least those two others have good film versions you can rent (and so, so should), but the film of MOON is utterly terrible. The otherwise-brilliant Jason Robards, man-god of O'Neill actors, must have been seriously hitting the booze really hard and slumming by this point (probably around the same time he did A BOY AND HIS DOG). Colleen Dewhurst is horridly miscast, twenty years too old for the part at least. This was probably why they slathered Ed Flanders, in the role as her father, in such laughable old-man makeup even though he was perfectly age appropriate.
Don't ever watch the film of A MOON FOR THE MISBEGOTTEN, not unless you've had the distinct and rare pleasure of seeing it done fantastically on stage. I've been lucky enough to have, and twice. First with Kevin Spacey and Colm Meaney. And again just this weekend. My stepfather Gordon and I agree that it was one of the finest community theatre shows we've ever seen.
