Elling

[edjames]

A very odd and quirky production, originally from the West End, where it received an Olivier Award nomination for best comedy, this show stars the wonderful actors Denis O'Hare, Brendan Fraser and Jennifer Coolidge. Alas, the reviewers didn't love it. It received poor reviews and will close tomorrow!

 

I had to agree with the reviwers. A comedy about two newly released mental asylum patients is really quite odd.

 

Alas, the hunky, suave Brendan Fraser from the Mummy triology is a pale, pudgy, and dishevelved mess throughout this show. He looks like his preparation for this role was to gain about 25 pounds and completely stop any exercise program. Gone is the swashbuckling handsome hero of those action movies or the young hunk lusted over in "Gods and Monsters." He's a real mess, literally, in this. There is a scene in the second act where he changes his filthy underwear in the second act and I couldn't help but wonder what kind of view the folks down in the first couple of rows, stage right, got. Alas, when he did exchange his dirty boxers for a pair of tighty whities the package wasn't impressive! (Well, there goes my fantasy! And to his credit, it was chillty in that theater!) I will say I did enjoy his performance.

 

BTW, speaking of chilly theaters, many have complained that they have turned UP the air-conditioning at the Stephen Sondheim Theter where Pee-Wee Herman seems to be having some success with his show. Friends say it is absolutely freezing and complaints to the management have fallen on deaf ears with the reply " that Mr. Rubens has requested the temperature be set very low." If you go, bring a coat and gloves, you'll need it.

 

ED

 

 

 

 

 

 

ED

 

itely the odd couple of the year.

[Guest alanm]

I saw Brendan Fraser as Brick in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" in London in 2001. Brendan did not raise the bar for every actor who followed him in the role, but he held his own. It's a shame that someone else played Brick in the revival when the play come to New York. I assume Fraser was tied up with making films. That's the part that Broadway audiences should have seen; he looked the same as he did in "Gods and Monsters."