Word: cyrano
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...Cyrano. Anthony Burgess's clever script is reduced to a devil of a state, but a little of Rostand's panache slips in and out between the songs. Christopher Plummer is terrific. 7:30 at the Colonial...
...problem with adaptation is that the values of the play are not timeless. The sense of glory the play exudes depends on the director's faithful recreation of the romantic atmosphere of an earlier century. Love songs which accentuate the martial metaphors for love and sentimental ditties which undercut Cyrano's depth of feeling erode the play's force as a triumph of the heart...
CONSEQUENTLY, Cyrano is most entertaining when it most closely approximates Rostand's play's. Plummer, as Cyrano, is throughly moving in the play's balcony scene, wooing Roxana from the darkness while she thinks he is young Christian. The other players fall far short of Plummer's commanding performance. Leigh Beery, as Roxana, is a better singer than an actress. In his role as Christian. Mark Lamos projects little personality. Some of the finest performances come from supporting players-- Arnold Soboloff as the poet Ragueneau, and James Blendick as Le Bret, the captain of Cyrano's company...
...BETTER ADAPTATION might have relieved the play of some of its cumbersome artifices, especially the falling leaves in the final scene: the death bell peals, the leaves fall, Cyrano enters for the last time...
...musical maintains a satisfactory pace because of Kidd's eye for stage movement and because Christopher Plummer does Rostand's lines so well. It would be far, far better to see Plummer in the original play, but as Cyrano's opponents discover, in swordfights or musicals, you take what you're stuck with...