The Playgoer: When Norm is the norm?

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Wednesday, March 28, 2007

When Norm is the norm?

"The voice came from the middle of Row F in the orchestra section at Sacramento's Community Center Theater during a recent matinee performance of 'Twelve Angry Men' — rather loudly, in fact:

'Can you look at him and not think of "Cheers" ' ?"

- Read on for more from the LA Times, on the road with "Twelve Angry Men," starring George Wendt and Richard Thomas.

Joking aside, Wendt and Thomas are decent enough actors. Even decent stage actors. (Thomas particularly, has admirably devoted himself to playing The Great Roles over the years, and enabling plays to be done at various regionals, thanks to his...um, "celebrity." Yeah, I don't see how "The Waltons" counts anymore. But the "celebrity" bar in theatre is pretty low.)

And the fact that bona fide plays like "Twelve Angry Men" and "Doubt" are touring at all... is a good thing.

2 comments:

June said...

Thomas (no relation!) is a damned good actor. His turn as the libidinous conductor in the second half of Terrence McNally's Stendhal Syndrome a couple of years back was really a tour de force.

Anonymous said...

I agree: Thomas is a decent stage actor. What impresses me is that he seems to want to act, not to act only when it pays him well or affords him prestige and visibility. In the last couple of years or so, I saw him do a good job in Michael Frayn's Democracy (transferred in but partly recast from the National Theatre production), and I saw him do a good job in a reading of something at Red Bull, either The Roman Actor or The Man of Mode. I admire him more for doing the latter, but I was glad to see him in both.

The guy who made the remark from the audience must've spent too much time watching shows like Cheers in his living room. You can do stuff like that in your own house. In someone else's house, please, no.