A big nose, a big hat, a big fight -- Cyrano

James McAvoy in rehearsals for Cyrano.
Photograph: Marc Brenner

Tonia met Wyona and me at the theatre tonight so that we could see the NT Live production of Cyrano de Bergerac from the Savoy.

Before the show started, the usher announced that it had been taped earlier in the day, and that there had been some glitches, so he hoped we would stay and watch the show, and if we did, we would still get a free pass so that we could come back and watch it again without the glitches at the Encore.

Those were good instructions, or maybe just a great warning, so that I wasn’t overwhelmed with disappointment, thinking the show was stopping at those moments when the screen pixelated and then came back for us.

Rebecca is the one who gave me the head’s up that an amazing production was coming. I have been home for about two hours now, and I find myself still taking deep breaths and then letting the air out slowly since I found the show overwhelming.

I guess I will talk about the little things before I try to get at what it was in the performance that made it such an amazing show. So directly to Rebecca, whom I think must have gone:

1. How did you like the shoes on Roxane. Wyona thought those must have been $300 runners. I told her that I thought they had special lifts to make the heroine (or was she the hero) of the show just tall enough so that we wouldn’t notice a height difference between her and those to whom she spoke.

2. How did you like her costuming – those rolled up overalls, the white stitching on them, the softness of the blouse with its tie collar. Wyona thought there were shoulder pads involved. I didn’t see that.

3. What a fabulous diversity in the actors: tall, short, large, small, one wearing a scarf that reminded me of Palestine, the black shirt that seemed to become a friar’s frock, the use of the microphone, even turning it into a skipping rope, the use of the stage, and how did they turn it into a battle field, a classroom, a private room for an early morning breakfast, a place to write letters. I think the only real scenery was the Gothic lettering – I can’t remember, did it say something like “words are everything”. I don’t think I got that right, but I am close.

4. James McAvoy. Enough said.

5. And how did you like the rewriting of the old script. Now that was a modern adaptation of old words. I only wish they could have changed the ending of the show. Why do we have to be faithful to the old ending? Except, it wasn’t that faithful, was it? Roxane asks the right questions.

6. The faces of the theatre patrons were shown at half-time. Wasn’t there anyone over 50 in the house? I know the actors said that there was one row of students, but they all looked like students to me. And what an introduction to the cast! I don’t know when it was that we moved from the introduction and into the show. Maybe it was all show.

... on the way into the theatre ...
We bought tickets for two shows:
Knives Out and Cyrano de Bergerac.
What a pairing
No use in driving to the theatre twice.

Well, that is it from me, though there is much more to say. Wyona said to me, “They didn’t spend a lot on costuming.” I had to say, right, no pearls in that show.

 I reserve the right to say only pearls of the metaphorical kind.

I heard Tonia laughing a number of times. 

Sometimes she laughs when I was not laughing. I didn’t get the joke about Steve Martin, for example.

For a more complete review click here to get to The Hollywood Reporter.

And now a few more deep, slow breaths.

Arta