Word: ferrers
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Cyrano de Bergerac (translated from the French of Edmond Rostand by Brian Hooker; produced by Jose Ferrer) drops in on each new generation-Walter Hampden accompanied it in the '20s-as a reminder that high romance once lived in the world, or at any rate in the theater. Brightly tricked out, Cyrano is always welcome, for it offers playgoers the satisfaction of witnessing a "classic" and at the same time reveling in shameless sentiment, noble gestures and high theatrical hokum...
...keep Cyrano from seeming far too long, or press out all its wrinkles. But last week's production was robust and properly flamboyant; its duel, for instance, looked like a real duel. And its Cyrano - who is after all the whole show - was a good Cyrano. Jose Ferrer (who has ranged on Broadway from a hilarious Charley's "aunt" to an impressive lago) caught the human being in Cyrano as well as the ham. As the monstrous-nosed, self-sacrificing lover who eloquently poured out his feeling for the beautiful Roxane in another man's behalf, Actor...
...record stalls looked as gay as well-appointed nurseries last week; an unprecedented flood of children's albums was ready for the Christmas trade. The newly recorded daydreams and nightmares ranged from Nelson Eddy's bellowing like a whale to Jose Ferrer's reading of Mozart and Schubert biographies with symphonic accompaniment. Best of the lot: a straightforward dramatization of Oscar Wilde's poignant fairy tale, The Happy Prince, starring Bing Crosby and Orson Welles (Decca, 4 sides) and Balladeer Woody Guthrie's original harum-scarum Songs to Grow On-Nursery Days (Disc, 6 sides...
...Enter Ferrer, a rare genius in the American theatre. This is the man who made Margaret Webster's Othello with his real and living Iago. He has at least equalled that triumph with Cyrano. This character, plagued by an obscene nose, must be "all things." After the first act, Ferrer makes the spectator forget that nose. Declaiming with high spirit, he leaves the audience gasping at the arched flight of his slick patter. He is meant to be a swashbuckler, and Ferrer gives it everything as he swaggers and gesticulates in the mixed role of philosopher, poet, soldier, and self...
When he made Cyrano's ugliness so prominent, Rostand took a chance on slipping over into the ridiculous. Ferrer's production strikes the delicate balance between pomposity and farce. At rare moments in the comic scenes there is an overstraining after effect, but this can be blamed on the script. It is when Rostand tries to be another Shakespeare or Racine that the play loses its dash. The death of Christian, the puppet lover, and the end of Cyrano himself in a nunnery are on the edge of ennui. Written at a time when audiences liked their melodrama lush...