Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Happy 200th, Charles Dickens

He wasn't gay, he sired 12 children, but he is one of my favorite writers. If you have glanced on my profile on Blogger or FaceBook, he is always mentioned. Charles Dickens would have been 200 years old today.

I consider myself an ideal Dickensian actor, really, I look like I stepped out from one of his Victorian novels. I am not sure why I was not cast in more Dicken's adaptations, but I did get to play Fagin in Oliver!. It remains my favorite role, one of my few leading roles, although the character does not appear for the first 40 minutes of the musical & in the production I was in, the talented young man playing Oliver Twist had the final curtain call.

It is not The Husband's favorite of my performances, but playing Fagin meant so much to me. It was truly my dream role & I got to play it without sleeping with the director or producer. I was only 26 years old, convincing in the part without a putty nose or even a lot of makeup, other than soot. Like Richard Harris in Camelot, Yul Brynner in King & I, or Carol Channing in Hello, Dolly!, I could have played the thing for decades, touring to every little city & going through generations of Fagin' s boys.

Your host on the right

33 years later, I am still friends on FaceBook with my Artful Dodger, Oliver Twist & several of the little pickpockets. A nice memory for me this evening... by the way, I was rather terrific in the role.

Casting directors, I could be persuaded out of retirement for Vincent Crummles, Ebeneezer Scrooge or Mr Micawber.

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