VOA标准英语2010年-Hollywood Stars Act Up on Broadway

If last June's Tony Awards for the best on Broadway looked a little bit like Hollywood's Academy Awards, it was no accident. A lot of the winners were movie stars: Denzel Washington, Scarlett Johansson and Catherine Zeta-Jones. And there are more big stars coming to Broadway this fall, in smaller scale productions.

Last September, Broadway's hot ticket was for Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman in a one-act play called "A Steady Rain."

 

"When you had James Bond and Wolverine in a two-character play that was [a] terrible, terrible play...didn't matter," says Jeremy Gerard, a theater critic for Bloomberg News. "It was completely sold-out for its 12 week run, everybody made a lot of money and audiences went home happy."

Bankable stars

This fall, Broadway producers hope to duplicate that success with two star-studded revivals¹ of intimate, short plays. Well-known TV stars Patrick Stewart and T.R. Knight² appear in David Mamet's "A Life in the Theatre" while film legends Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones star in the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Driving Miss Daisy."

Gerard expects Redgrave and Jones to draw big audiences.

"It's undoubtedly³ going to be a sell-out. If I were the producer, I'd probably be kicking up my heels," he says. "I, as a critic and an audience member, would go see those people in anything that they do."

Jed Bernstein is the producer kicking up his heels. Group sales have been brisk, even though rehearsals⁵ for "Driving Miss Daisy" have only just begun.

 "I think everybody got very excited about this production very, very quickly and certainly it seems that the general public has shared that excitement because the pre-ticket sales are going very well," says Bernstein.

In Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones, Bernstein has not just bankable Hollywood stars - he's got two stage veterans who make it a point to come back to Broadway every few years. This time, they've both signed for a limited engagement of 16 weeks, in the first-ever Broadway staging of this three-character, one-act play.

Winning formula

Gerard, the critic, says it's one of Broadway's winning new formulas. "You've got shorter plays and you've got stars and the third thing is short runs. [The actors] come in for 12 weeks, maybe 16 weeks, including the rehearsal⁴ period, and then they're gone. First of all, it creates audience demand and the runs sell out. Second of all, they can do it between movie assignments."

For his part, Jones says much of the appeal of appearing in "Driving Miss Daisy" - apart from sharing a stage with Vanessa Redgrave - is it looks back at a period before and during the civil rights movement.

Jones well remembers being unable to use the bathroom at gas stations in the South, when he was an Army private in the 1950s. "And my line in the play is, 'Colored can't use the toilet in no Standard Oil. You know that,' he says to Miss Daisy."

Jones says the play - which was done off-Broadway with only a couple of chairs - is a short, but tasty ride.

"It is a very simple story. You might say it's a sparse⁶ meal, for theater. It doesn't have any act breaks. It just starts and then it ends."

Quick Ride

David Mamet's "A Life in the Theatre" is another quick ride: two characters, 85 minutes, a backstage comedy about a mentor/apprentice⁷ relationship between actors in a repertory theater. Patrick Stewart and T.R. Knight, while well-known for their TV roles in Star Trek⁸: The Next Generation and Grey's Anatomy⁹, are both theater vets¹⁰.

Stewart says rehearsals have been a singular experience. "I've never before in my life rehearsed a play where we will finish running a scene and then we will have a conversation pretty much exactly like the scene we've just been in, because we are in rehearsal, rehearsal for a play about two actors who are in rehearsal, all the time, for plays."

Knight, who as a very young actor was an apprentice at Minneapolis' Guthrie Theatre, says he can completely relate. "Well, the wonderful thing and the hateful thing about this play is how it sends our life up and, you know, how insane we are, just to do this for a living. And, just like the narcissism¹¹ of the actor, it's just... so much of it is in there. And it's just, um... it's a little painful."

Staging a show on Broadway is expensive, and, Bernstein, producer of "Driving Miss Daisy," says smaller does not mean cheaper.

"I don't think you necessarily, as a producer, sit down to say, oh, you know, 'Give me one person and a stool, because that's gonna save me lots of money.' It will, I suppose save money, if you really just did have one person and a stool," he says. "But, on the one hand, if you don't have a compelling story and a compelling actor telling it, saving the money isn't going to help you, because people aren't going to want to come and see it. And you'd also be surprised how expensive one actor and stool can be - depending on who the actor is and what the stool looks like."

Both "A Life in the Theatre" and "Driving Miss Daisy" begin performances on Broadway this fall.
 

1 revivals   

n.复活( revival的名词复数 )；再生；复兴；（老戏多年后）重新上演

参考例句：

• She adored parades, lectures, conventions, camp meetings, church revivals-in fact every kind of dissipation. 她最喜欢什么游行啦、演讲啦、开大会啦、营火会啦、福音布道会啦--实际上各种各样的娱乐。 来自辞典例句
• The history of art is the history of revivals. 艺术的历史就是复兴的历史。 来自互联网

2 knight   

n.骑士，武士；爵士

参考例句：

• He was made an honourary knight.他被授予荣誉爵士称号。
• A knight rode on his richly caparisoned steed.一个骑士骑在装饰华丽的马上。

3 undoubtedly   

adv.确实地，无疑地

参考例句：

• It is undoubtedly she who has said that.这话明明是她说的。
• He is undoubtedly the pride of China.毫无疑问他是中国的骄傲。

4 rehearsal   

n.排练，排演；练习

参考例句：

• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。
• You can sharpen your skills with rehearsal.排练可以让技巧更加纯熟。

5 rehearsals   

n.练习( rehearsal的名词复数 )；排练；复述；重复

参考例句：

• The earlier protests had just been dress rehearsals for full-scale revolution. 早期的抗议仅仅是大革命开始前的预演。
• She worked like a demon all through rehearsals. 她每次排演时始终精力过人。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 sparse   

adj.稀疏的，稀稀落落的，薄的

参考例句：

• The teacher's house is in the suburb where the houses are sparse.老师的家在郊区，那里稀稀拉拉有几处房子。
• The sparse vegetation will only feed a small population of animals.稀疏的植物只够喂养少量的动物。

7 apprentice   

n.学徒，徒弟

参考例句：

• My son is an apprentice in a furniture maker's workshop.我的儿子在一家家具厂做学徒。
• The apprentice is not yet out of his time.这徒工还没有出徒。

8 trek   

vi.作长途艰辛的旅行；n.长途艰苦的旅行

参考例句：

• We often go pony-trek in the summer.夏季我们经常骑马旅行。
• It took us the whole day to trek across the rocky terrain.我们花了一整天的时间艰难地穿过那片遍布岩石的地带。

9 anatomy   

n.解剖学，解剖；功能，结构，组织

参考例句：

• He found out a great deal about the anatomy of animals.在动物解剖学方面，他有过许多发现。
• The hurricane's anatomy was powerful and complex.对飓风的剖析是一项庞大而复杂的工作。

10 vets   

abbr.veterans （复数）老手，退伍军人；veterinaries （复数）兽医n.兽医( vet的名词复数 )；老兵；退伍军人；兽医诊所v.审查（某人过去的记录、资格等）( vet的第三人称单数 )；调查；检查；诊疗

参考例句：

• I helped train many young vets and veterinary nurses too. 我还帮助培训了许多年青的兽医和护士。 来自互联网
• In fact, we've expanded mental health counseling and services for our vets. 实际上，我们已经扩大了退伍军人的心理健康咨询和服务。 来自互联网

11 narcissism   

n.自我陶醉，自恋

参考例句：

• Those who suffer from narcissism become self-absorbed.自恋的人会变得自私。
• The collective narcissism of the Kerouac circle is ultimately boring.凯鲁亚克和他周围人物的集体自我陶醉欲最终使人厌烦不已。