Day 43: I Feel Pretty

[anarchist_nomad]

Went to the Oxford Playhouse last night with my beloved cheshcat to see the Oxford Operatic Society's production of My Fair Lady. These are the same people who put on such an excellent production of Chess last year -- introducing me to that wonderful play! Indeed, many of the cast members were the same... including the same lead actress playing both Florence Vassey and Eliza Doolittle.

Last night's show follows a production of West Side Story that I saw the Oxford University Dramatic Society put on last Friday. It is a very good thing to be seeing a couple of big musicals; I have seen a lot of theatre of late... but, until the past week, not many musicals. Given that musicals are probably my favourite sub-genre of theatre, tis good to redress this imbalance!

One point that both of these productions drove home is the importance of proper accents. Of course, In My Fair Lady, accent is everything! Last week, in West Side Story a group of Brits managed flawless US and Mexican accents. Some were so good that I questioned whether they were really British... until I heard the actors talking outside after the show! Well done!

In contrast, I am increasingly incensed at the so-called "definitive" version of Chess recorded at the Royal Albert Hall last year. Josh Groban and Idina Menzel may have fantastic singing voices... but neither even tried to learn the correct accent for their roles. Josh sounded like a red-blooded American... not even remotely like the Russian Anatoly. As for Idina? Not a trace of Florence's English accent -- she was pure New Yawk! Feh. If a bunch of uni students can learn accents for the stage, I don't see why two highly paid professionals cannot.

At the interval last night, I remarked to cheshcat that it would be interesting to see Idina Menzel perform in My Fair Lady. Correctly understanding my meaning, she shot back: "Why? So we can have an Eliza who speaks with a New York accent that never changes during the show?" Pre-cise-ly!

Comments

Re: *MEEPS!*

[squeektoy42.livejournal.com]

I can of course appreciate! I suspect the only thing worse than and Eliza with a New York accent would be sitting through an entire production of Rent where everyone had southern accents. *shudders*

No worries! I assumed that the time would be insanely busy for you. The romp is still on, though I have to warn you we will have to be very careful and slow. One of the big things that is going on is my back injury decided it wanted to get exponentially worse. I can walk but not to much, have to take it easy and stairs are mildly painful. So I figure we'll just take our sweet precious time! If the wondrous cheshcat can handle as amazingly as she did last year, I figure I can manage with limited walking ability surely!! If you want more details, drop me an email and I will tell you the oh so exciting tale.

P.S. There ya go!! ;-D