|
|
Post by Martin Stett on Jun 9, 2017 20:42:37 GMT
My personal favorite novel is The Westing Game, and I could definitely see it work on stage. A lot of the ingenious wordplay would have to be rewritten or cut, but a good writer could make a great standalone adaptation if s/he worked at it.
|
|
|
|
Post by Martin Stett on Jun 9, 2017 22:05:47 GMT
My personal favorite novel is The Westing Game, and I could definitely see it work on stage. A lot of the ingenious wordplay would have to be rewritten or cut, but a good writer could make a great standalone adaptation if s/he worked at it. Who would you cast as sandy?. Anyone, really. It's not a movie in which you need a star, it's a play in which you just get whatever local actors will work for the role. And why Sandy, anyway? His role isn't exactly the biggest or most important. Turtle is the biggest role, with Angela and Grace also being vital to the story. Everyone is just about equally important after that, save for the people that have the smallest roles (Denton Deere, Sun Lin Hoo, Otis Amber, Ed Plum). Even inside of his team, Judge Ford is a more important and bigger role than Sandy. Spoilers for novel (Spoiler tag isn't working, so I'm using rot13): V trg gung Fnaql vf Jrfgvat, ohg pnfgvat n snzbhf npgbe va gung ebyr whfg znxrf vg pyrnere gung lbh'er fhccbfrq gb jngpu uvz, naq pbafvqrevat ubj yvggyr rzcunfvf ur trgf, vg jbhyq or n qrnq tvirnjnl gung ZpFbhguref vf bhe zna. I don't have anyone in mind to play any of the roles, really. They're all normal people that defy movie star casting. Something a play could do to improve upon the source is giving Sun Lin Hoo a bit more stagetime, and changing her infantile thought processes. I understand that Raskin was trying to create initial impressions of every character that were stereotypical just so she could flip those stereotypes on their heads later, but with Madame Hoo she missed the boat. I think Chinese people know who Mickey Mouse is, Ellen. I love the idea that her primary motive for everything she does is to collect money to go home (her exchange with Jake in which she points outside and simply says "China" is pretty damn heartbreaking), but she comes off as mentally challenged in the way she goes about it. |
|
|
|
Post by Martin Stett on Jun 10, 2017 0:05:31 GMT
Anyone, really. It's not a movie in which you need a star, it's a play in which you just get whatever local actors will work for the role. And why Sandy, anyway? His role isn't exactly the biggest or most important. Turtle is the biggest role, with Angela and Grace also being vital to the story. Everyone is just about equally important after that, save for the people that have the smallest roles (Denton Deere, Sun Lin Hoo, Otis Amber, Ed Plum). Even inside of his team, Judge Ford is a more important and bigger role than Sandy. Spoilers for novel (Spoiler tag isn't working, so I'm using rot13): V trg gung Fnaql vf Jrfgvat, ohg pnfgvat n snzbhf npgbe va gung ebyr whfg znxrf vg pyrnere gung lbh'er fhccbfrq gb jngpu uvz, naq pbafvqrevat ubj yvggyr rzcunfvf ur trgf, vg jbhyq or n qrnq tvirnjnl gung ZpFbhguref vf bhe zna. I don't have anyone in mind to play any of the roles, really. They're all normal people that defy movie star casting. Something a play could do to improve upon the source is giving Sun Lin Hoo a bit more stagetime, and changing her infantile thought processes. I understand that Raskin was trying to create initial impressions of every character that were stereotypical just so she could flip those stereotypes on their heads later, but with Madame Hoo she missed the boat. I think Chinese people know who Mickey Mouse is, Ellen. I love the idea that her primary motive for everything she does is to collect money to go home (her exchange with Jake in which she points outside and simply says "China" is pretty damn heartbreaking), but she comes off as mentally challenged in the way she goes about it. He was a character i really enjoyed honestly. He was cool, but I don't even think I'd put him in the top half. To rank them, I'd probably go like this: 1. Angela Wexler, person  2. Turtle Wexler (by virtue of being awesome) 3. Grace Windsor Wexler 4. Sydelle Pulaski 5. J.J. Ford 6.-13. Otis Amber Flora Baumbach Berthe Erica Crow Doug Hoo James Shin Hoo Alexander "Sandy" McSouthers Theo Theodorakis Jake Wexler 14. D. Denton Deere (easy to forget he even exists, but I like what we see of him) 15. Chris Theodorakis (he's more interesting as his brother's "crutch" than as a character in his own right) 16. Sun Lin Hoo The middle section is made up of excellent, but not drop dead amazing characters like the top 5. As you can tell, Table 8 is definitely my favorite (Sydelle is a hoot and her innocence and goodness is the perfect match for Angela's Stepford depression), and Table 3 is my least favorite because they have so little to do. Heck, Table 1 gets more development and neither of them are even playing.  |
|
