Word: casnoff
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Well, she did it her way, and the result is far from a disgrace. The singer's controversial life gets surprisingly tough-minded and balanced treatment. Philip Casnoff, who reproduces the young Sinatra's lean, hollow- cheeked look without blatant mimicry, creates a convincing, full-blooded portrait. And in the end, we have the music...
When the music stops, Sinatra sags, but luckily that isn't very often. Casnoff lip-synchs more than 20 classic Sinatra recordings, from early Big Band numbers to '60s hits like That's Life. Director James Sadwith uses the music shrewdly and liberally, often as background for narrative montages (You Make Me Feel So Young accompanies his courtship of Mia Farrow). It's the most lavishly entertaining TV movie of the year...
...relieved laughter and sustained applause that greeted Philip Casnoff as he spoke that line were partly to honor the melodramatic stage effects. But much of the response was to salute the actor for his brave return to the stage on what was to have been opening night of the year's biggest Broadway musical, Shogun, the Musical -- an $8 million extravaganza of sword fights and fireflies, earthquakes and snowstorms, based on James Clavell's best-selling novel and TV mini-series. In a preview two days before the scheduled opening, as he readied himself to sing the second-act number...
...else, the creators recast the leading role, a marooned English seaman who must make a life in Japan. Clavell originally wanted a Briton and hired Peter Karrie. Mounting discontent with him led the creators to turn to Casnoff, 37, who had sung the role ably at an informal audition but at the time struck them as too young, little known and American. Casnoff took the job but wanted further changes: "I was kind of outspoken because they had so much work to do in so little time. They were between an opera and a book musical, neither fish nor fowl...
Nunn has wisely downplayed the London theme that the U.S. and the Soviet Union are morally -- or amorally -- equivalent. He focuses instead on three people who have paid a huge emotional price for success, only to realize that glory does not bring contentment: an American (Philip Casnoff) who has reached ! the world chess finals; his Soviet counterpart (David Carroll); and the American's adviser and erstwhile bedmate (Judy Kuhn), who falls in love with the Soviet. Theirs is not a charming Ninotchka-style romance: the CIA and the KGB hover on the periphery, exploiting the players and the game. Offsetting...