Mulgrew as Cleopatra. Any thoughts?

[JanewayRulz!]

My problem is I keep thinking of Liz Taylor as Cleopatra and Mulgrew as Janeway, or at the minimum as Hepburn.

My other problem is I don't think I ever read the Shakespearean play. (Un-cultured... I know. Pity me and "move on". )

 

[Adm_Hawthorne]

She's the perfect age to play Cleo in his play. This part requires an air of over-the-top dramatics that quite fits Kate.

I think it's great casting.

This is a play that isn't really done a lot. It gets passed over for The Bard's more well known plays, and I think it's a pity because I consider it one of his better plays.

I would give my left arm to go see it not only because Kate is in it but because of how rare it is to see this play live on stage.

 

[JanewayRulz!]

She's the perfect age to play Cleo in his play. This part requires an air of over-the-top dramatics that quite fits Kate.

This was the only reason I could come up with this week, and it was a good enough reason that I decided my friends and I needed a "weekend away" this fall so we're going.

Luckily 3 of them ARE Mulgrew fans (the fourth doesn't know the difference between Star Trek and Star Wars! ) so it was an easy sell.

 

[Adm_Hawthorne]

Please come back and report because I really would like to know how well she does with this one.

 

[JanewayRulz!]

IIRC, you are bound to hear two reports, since I believe someone else from the board will be going.

 

[T.D. Possum]

OMG everyone here is making me jealous today!

 

[kathrynjaneway]

I would LOVE to see her as Cleopatra, just because Kate was so passionate about it. At a Con she said that was THE part she'd love to play and now she really gets the chance to do it. I'm sure she'll do a fantastic job so please make sure to tell us all about it

 

[CorporalClegg]

Um... Doesn't she have the wrong completion? Even Taylor was hardly close and that was with a heavy helping of makeup.

 

[Adm_Hawthorne]

That was a bad makeup artist. Technically, Cleo was actually Roman and would have had a lighter complexion than her subjects.

 

[JanewayRulz!]

Cleo was actually Roman

Roman or Greek? I thought the dynasty was started by one of Alexander the Great's Generals who took over Egypt as his personal fiefdom (After Alexander died) 300 years before Cleo.

(Ancient history is not my speciality, that's for sure!)

 

[Madzilla]

I was so pleased to see she was doing this, because as kathrynjaneway said, Kate mentioned it was the one role she still badly wanted to do. I loved that she got all capslocky about it in her recent message on her website (http://www.totallykate.com/opms0610.html)!

I'm making the pilgrimage over the first weekend. I haven't read it either, JanewayRulz, nor have I seen the movie, so I shall be totally unprepared. Maybe I should get hold of the Cliff's Notes beforehand?

Before that she's also in the more light-hearted Love, Loss and What I Wore off-Broadway, starting in 2 weeks (lovelossonstage.com).

Can't wait for it all!

 

[JanewayRulz!]

Don't deny yourself the chance to see Taylor as Cleopatra... although I would suggest you do it after the play so the spectacle of the one doesn't overshadow the stage presence of the other. Its a long movie, and I needed two nights to get through it. But, WAS it EVER worth it!

I will be going later in October... so enjoy the opening without me!

 

[SpyOne]

My problem is I keep thinking of Liz Taylor as Cleopatra and Mulgrew as Janeway, or at the minimum as Hepburn.

My other problem is I don't think I ever read the Shakespearean play. (Un-cultured... I know. Pity me and "move on". )

Okay, which Cleopatra?
Because the one Liz Taylor famously played was at most 20-ish, but at that time in Hollywood films were much more about theater than realism.
Now, if we're talking the Cleopatra of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, then she'd be quite a bit older. Still, she died at 39, so ....

I'm not saying she won't be wonderful in it. In fact, she's a remarkably good pick for a modern production: Cleopatra should be a woman who's old enough to have an adult son, but it should be obvious that she was a hottie when young and she's still pretty smokin'. A milf who happens to also be pharaoh of Egypt.

Who's playing Antony?

 

[Lynx]

Well, it will give me a reason to come up with some splendid theory about Cleopatra being an ancestor to Janeway.

 

[JanewayRulz!]

Marc Antony will be played by John Douglas Thompson. If I googled correctly, he's played Othello off Broadway in 2008.

His bio from a 2009 article...

Last season, John Douglas Thompson electrified Off-Broadway audiences with his performance as Othello (Theater for a New Audience), winning critical acclaim as well as an OBIE and Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Lead Actor. Mr. Thompson's Broadway credits include CYRANO DE BERGERAC with Kevin Kline and Jennifer Garner and JULIUS CEASAR, opposite Denzel Washington. Other notable Off-Broadway credits include WOMEN BEWARE WOMEN (Red Bull Theatre) and Classical Theater of Harlem's KING LEAR, for which he received an AUDLECO nomination. Thompson is currently {2009} starring in THE EMPEROR JONES at the Irish Repertory Theatre.


Read more: http://www.broadwayworld.com/articl...n_Matthew_Rauch_on_119_20091021#ixzz0twnHMkGe

And a slew of photos from Othello are here.

http://www.playbill.com/multimedia/gallery//346/?pnum=4

 

[Guy Gardener]

Amazingly I found a "cam" of Wicked on broadway recently, so the same illegal technology which brings you illegal cinema can also bring you the theatre if you have the bandwidth and the criminal inclination. I can only assume there's a vast database somewhere, I just don't know where to look.

Cleopatra was on an episode of Voyagers!, she wanted to marry Calvin Coolegde.

 

[Mr. Scott]

A white Irish woman as Queen of Egypt? Who is Pharoh, Colm Meaney?

 

[JanewayRulz!]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleopatra_VII

Remember, the "Queen of Egypt" was a descendent of the Greeks who ruled Egypt "as" pharohs for 300 years after Alexander the Great died.

So, the white American woman with an Irish heritage is actually "acting" as a white Greek woman who portrays herself as pharoh and the reincarnation of an Egyptian diety. I guess that's why its called "acting".

Just found this at Wiki re: the play...

Many consider the role of Cleopatra in this play one of the most complex female roles in Shakespeare's work.She is frequently vain and histrionic, provoking an audience almost to scorn; at the same time, Shakespeare's efforts invest both her and Antony with tragic grandeur. These contradictory features have led to famously divided critical responses.

Hmmmm. I wonder which side of the fence I'll come down on, after I see the play. Maybe I should read the darn thing before I go!

 

[Adm_Hawthorne]

Yes, Greek and not Roman. Sorry, it was a long week for me.

 

[vas2009]

FRONT ROW CENTER!!!!! Not meaning to brag... but WOOHOOO!!! I can't wait