Customer Reviews

Cyrano de Bergerac (Broadway Theatre Archive)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I actually saw this version on TV back in the '70's and, at that time, I was astounded by Donat's performance. He is so natural, so believable, and so grand. Cyrano de Bergerac is my favorite play, and the director and actors have captured the beautiful spirit of Rostand's work. I have taught this play in high schools over the years and used other fine film versions as part of the class, but I always wished I could find a copy of the Donat version. Now I have. It was worth waiting for.

I, too, saw this production on PBS in the 70's and I felt it was of the highest quality. NO ONE does Cyrano better than Donat the younger, and Marsha Mason shows true emotion as her true love dies. The duel in the tavern is spectacular, NOT for the swashbuckling, but for the way the wit and wisdom of Cyrano dispatches his foe. This is a must see of must sees.

When this was first shown on PBS over 25 years ago, I thought it was the best thing I'd ever seen on television, and nothing that has happened in the interim has changed my view. Peter Donat makes a brilliant Cyrano, as good as anyone else has ever played it, but the jewel is Marsha Mason as Roxanne. Roxanne is usually portrayed as a lightweight ingenue, and it's hard to understand Cyrano's affection, but not here. Here is a Roxanne with the wit, grace and style to match Cyrano's own. It makes that aspect of the play more credible, which makes the last scene unbelievably poignant.

I despaired of this ever being on DVD, and it's release is a cause for joy. Buy several copies and give them to your firends.

I am so excited! I first saw this ACT presentation of Cyrano on A&E in the '80's and I fell in love with it - I have emailed everywhere to get a tape/DVD of this, and gave up - I couldn't find my play version of Cyrano, and when I searched for a copy on Amazon, I saw listed the Peter Donat/Marsha Mason 1972 version I had seen on A&E!!! If you are a fan of Cyrano, get this - It ranks up there in it's interpretation of Cyrano - The beauty of the word. The genius of Rostand!
You can truly get just about anything on Amazon!

Having recently viewed this DVD of Cyrano by the ACT of San Francisco, I was very impressed with Peter Donat as Cyrano. Compared to Jose Ferrer, Donat is a more convincing Cyrano due in part to how animated he is when gesturing. Ferrer, in my opinion, was very stiff and to loud. Although the duel sequence in the first act was better performed in the Ferrer version. Cyrano's duel with Valvert in the Donat version was a little skewed and turned into a comedy rather than a serious duel where two men's lives were at stake. Marsha Mason, who plays Roxanne, shows a lot more emotion in her love for Christian. Compared to Marla Powers in the 1950 version, this Roxanne is more intellectual and sophisticated. Marla Powers played the role just fine, but was just reciting lines. There was no emotion in her words. Marc Singer also does an excellent job of playing Christian, whom Roxanne falls in love with. Any fan of Cyrano will also be pleased to know that this staged version is more faithful to the original play than the Ferrer version was. I thought that the ommison of Lingere and Le Bret from the 1950 version did the play a great injustice. The reason I compare this theatre version with the 1950 version is because they both use the Brian Hooker translation. I preffered the Anthony Burgess translation because its more poetic and detailed as far as words are concerned. The Hooker translation is a little dumbed down. To get a sense of what I mean check out the Derek Jacobi version of Cyrano. It was made in 1984 by the Royal Shakespeare company and is only available on VHS at this time. And for the ultimate Cyrano adaptaion, check out the Gerard Depardieu version which was made in 1991. It was nominated for 4 Academy Awards including best foregin picture and will stand as the definitive version of Cyrano.

A brilliant cast in a classic play. This version is far superior to the 1950's Jose Ferrer movie. Highly emotional and played to the hilt!! I highly recommend it.

Cyrano de Bergerac (Broadway Theatre Archive) [VHS]

Like ellen (9/18/06), I "fell in love" with this performance of Edmond Rostand's classic Cyrano de Bergerac, when I first saw it many years ago. Like Rosemary Heilemann (10/4/05), I was thrilled by Peter Donat's interpretation of Cyrano, because "he is so natural, so believable, and so grand." I agree with Gavino (3/19/04), who felt that "NO ONE does Cyrano better than" Donat. Also, with A Customer (2/24/03), who found that Donat "makes a brilliant Cyrano, as good as anyone else has ever played it," and with Michael Hoffman (4/16/05), who called Donat's portrayal "peerless." In rating Donat the best, I am comparing him with the other Cyranos I've watched: Jose Ferrer, Derek Jacobi, Gerard Depardieu, and Kevin Kline.

Stresspuppy (9/18/03) strongly disagrees, putting Donat at the bottom of his list of Cyranos. He finds Donat, "while sensitive, to be weak. There is no command in his voice or definitive inflection in his delivery." For example, he argues that "the refrain of the duel at the Hotel de Bourgogne," which should have been dramatic, punctuating the end of the duel, "is delivered in the same bantering manner Donat used" for the whole ballade, "not really bad but bland and uninvolving." Also, he contends that Donat's delivery of the "What would you have me do? Seek for the patronage of some great man... speech or even the balcony scene where Cyrano finds 'his own voice' was not dynamic and didn't resonate"

No command in Donat's voice or definitive inflection in his delivery? If true, these would be grave faults, so I checked my tape. At Donat's first entrance, his speeches abound in command and inflection as he alternates sternness and comedy to expel the actor he hates, and to win over the crowd. If by inflection one means a change of pitch or loudness in the voice, the famous Nose speech is a riot of deft and munificently varied inflection. Stresspuppy, indeed, is right that Donat's version of the duel-ballade REFRAIN continues the bantering manner of the verses, rather than following the Rostand's direction that it be solemn. But that bantering manner contains a wealth of changes in pitch and volume, as does the rest of Donat's Act I.

Regarding the "What would you have me do?" speech, I agree that Donat is less powerful than Ferrer, and, during the balcony scene, not only a bit hoarse, but much less passionate than Jacobi. Nevertheless, Donat has imagined and expressed a character who is strong, commanding, versatile, brilliant, witty, learned, courageous, formidable, loving, funny, independent, whom we love despite his also being sometimes a killer and a bully, and often a liar.

The rest of the Donat cast ranged from OK to very good. I liked especially Joseph Bird's meddler (staring transfixed and terrified at the Nose in profile), John Hancock's pickpocket, Henry Hoffman's Ligniere, Robert Mooney's Ragueneau, and Elizabeth Huddle's Duenna. Marsha Mason as Roxane was lovely, but no match for Synead Cusack, the Roxane of the Jacobi production. Cusack was beautiful, and, as the play's author clearly specified, a blonde. Anne Brochet, in the Depardieu Cyrano, was lovely to look at while she watched the action in Act I, but lacked the spunk of Cusack and Mason in Acts III & IV.

By choosing the Brian Hooker translation of Rostand's play as their point of departure, the Ferrer and Donat productions made a great start. Hooker's translation is clear, succinct, powerful, noble, beautiful, and faithful. However, in both productions, the text as performed is quite different from the translation as written. This is partly because the French text is very long, taking rather more than three hours to perform. The Ferrer Cyrano runs slightly less than two hours; the Donat Cyrano, slightly more. That means sacrificing a third of the play. Moreover, a large number of the remaining lines were revised.

Now, you expect this to happen when people make a movie from a play, even a very great play. Lines are sacrificed to make room for movement and action, and revised and simplified to reach a wider audience. So the transformation in the Ferrer movie was painful, but par for the course. But the Donat Cyrano was produced and performed, AS A PLAY, by the acclaimed American Conservatory Theatre of San Francisco. It was then televised by PBS as an "example of American theatre at its best."

The theatre company chose a splendid leading man, and the best available English translation of a great French play. After this excellent beginning, the producers decided to amputate and alter, up and down, all around. If you find this hard to believe-- which I would have-- buy an inexpensive copy of Hooker's translation, choose your symbols for indicating cuts and revisions, turn on the play, and mark away. Judge for yourself: Is this American theatre at its best?

"These are things you might have said if you had some trace of wit or letters with which to color your discourse, but of wit you have none, and of letters you have but three: a-s-s."

That's a quote from Cyranno's repartee before the opening swordfight in this magnificent version of Rostand's play, from the golden days of PBS and its "Theater in America" series, hosted by Hal Holbrook. Here one encounters the snappiest dialogue and Peter Donat's peerless portrayal of the hero as soldier-poet and Platonic lover. If you are a serious Cyranno fan (meaning you cherish language as much as he did), this is the Cyranno for you. Bid Jose's dumbed down, B movie treatment (Oscar or no) -- as well as Gerard's sluggish fat guy -- adieu, and celebrate Donat's Cyranno, the lean fighting machine of language, combat and altruistic love, according to the highest ideals of the West.

In my opinion, the best version still remains Jose Ferrer's 1950 classic when he won an Oscar for best actor as Cyrano (a role he had already won a Tony award on stage), then comes the Derek Jacobi version with the Royal Shakespeare Company, followed by Girard Depardieu's version before this presentation with Peter Donat in the title role.

Adapting the Brian Hooker translation (my preference over the Burgess and wasn't 'dumbed down' as the prior reviewer states but translated and intrepretated by a young American poet to make the play accessible to the English speaking audience -- sometimes literal translations lack 'panache' and overall continuity of language) of the Edmond Rostand play, I found Donat's protrayal, while sensitive, to be weak. There is no command in his voice or definitive inflection in his delivery... for instance, the refrain of the duel at the Hotel de Bourgogne, that was fairly dramatic as the punctuation(!) to the end of the duel is delivered in the same bantering manner Donat used for the entire ballard... not really bad but bland and uninvolving. Likewise the scenes in Ragueneau's shop, where Cyrano delivers the 'What would you have me do? Seek for the patronage of some great man...' speech or even the balcony scene where Cyrano finds 'his own voice' was not dynamic and didn't resonate like I believe it should. These were long, confident, almost rallying speeches that seemed to lack conviction in this production.

As for the two other main roles in this production I've made a quick comparison to the Jose Ferrer version (the only other that used the Brian Hooker translation). Roxanne, Marsha Mason is probably a hair better in her delivery, although Marla Powers probably 'acted' more like Roxanne in her glances and gestures. For Christian, this is difficult because his character isn't really as defined by Rostand but I prefer William Prince... because IMHO, the character of Christian isn't a simpleton like the way Marc Singer played it, he just didn't articulate well around women -- we've all experienced the difficulty with speaking to someone we're are interested in; while William Prince didn't make the Christian character particularly strong, he didn't babble through the entire play either. after all, Christian did discern Cyrano's secret and confronted him at the Siege of Arras in Act 4 while torn between his highest desire for Roxanne and the probable loss of this in doing what is right; he had one of my favorite lines in the book, where he tells Cyrano to let Roxanne choose between the soul and the physical shell because, 'I'm tired of being my own rival.' the guy was clearly forthright and can think.

I understand that artistic interpretation is highly subjective, and that's why I am in disagreement with the previous reviewer. In reading the play and watching some of the other productions of Cyrano, I can't imagine Cyrano as anything but decisive (even confidently arrogant due in no small way by his skills and his Gascon pride)... with the except of opening declaring his love for Roxanne. That's why I feel the 1950 version is vastly superior under the Brian Hooker translation and likewise, the more dynamic (and better acted) portrayal by Derek Jacobi is better as well to this production. All in all not a bad production, just not distinguished.