It's Official: LANGE vs. NYONG'O
It's Official: LANGE vs. NYONG'O
Mark-Alexis
Stand-by Joined: 4/29/16
#1It's Official: LANGE vs. NYONG'O
Posted: 5/13/16 at 6:06pm
This is probably one of the hottest showdowns on Broadway of the season. Let's cut to it.
I don't want to hear your rhetoric and please don't use this as a place to attack me (visit the "JESSICA LANGE Will Win the TONY for LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT" thread for that and have it). End of it.
I'll even refrain from using my oh-so popular GIFs to honor the integrity of this thread.
I want a real, intellectual discourse on the fantastic performances bestowed upon us by these two women, one a legend like no other, one a wonderful, brilliant new actress.
Who's your pick for the Tony win? Why? Why not? Elaborate. Gift me with your true intelligence. Go!
*Note: I'll be posting my well thought-out, laboriously written own thoughts on my own pick for the win (I'm sure you know who already) and why - oh, and why not, i.e. why I don't pick the "other one" for the win.
Updated On: 5/13/16 at 06:06 PM
Mark-Alexis
Stand-by Joined: 4/29/16
#2It's Official: LANGE vs. NYONG'O
Posted: 5/13/16 at 6:13pm
I also don't want to read any cop-out replies (e.g. I want Lupita to win to honor "Eclipsed"; Well, "Long Day's Journey into Night" is the best American play, so Lange should win," etc. etc.).
I want real, observant replies, i.e. you've seen the work by each actress that we're discussing here.
Updated On: 5/13/16 at 06:13 PM
Mark-Alexis
Stand-by Joined: 4/29/16
#4It's Official: LANGE vs. NYONG'O
Posted: 5/13/16 at 6:39pm
lmfao!
Bastard!
You know I can't break my own rule and reply in GIFs, lol.
Gawdamn meanie! Reply properly! (Though I take it you probably haven't been blessed enough to see either performance, so you probably can't really reply with an intelligent answer.)
"It hurts to look at you." xoxo
Updated On: 5/13/16 at 06:39 PM
#5It's Official: LANGE vs. NYONG'O
Posted: 5/13/16 at 6:40pm
I've seen them all. And my vote would be for Okonedo, who's better than both of them.
Mark-Alexis
Stand-by Joined: 4/29/16
#6It's Official: LANGE vs. NYONG'O
Posted: 5/13/16 at 6:43pm
Um, okay...
Why? I'm serious, too. Not just baiting. I want you to write to me why you pick Okonedo to the point where you can convince me to vote for her myself.
When you pick someone FTW (i.e. for the win), you should be able to passionately articulate why you do.
#7It's Official: LANGE vs. NYONG'O
Posted: 5/13/16 at 6:48pm
Because in a play I've seen a thousand times, I've never seen anyone act the role the way she did and mesmerize me for the entirety of the play. It's the best performance of that role I've ever seen a person give and all Elizabeth's that I see from now on will be judged by the new standard she's set.
#8It's Official: LANGE vs. NYONG'O
Posted: 5/13/16 at 6:49pm
Another vote for Okenedo here. She finds truth in an otherwise hokey, concept-driven production, and elevates what's a rather drab evening otherwise. It's a stunning performance.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
Mark-Alexis
Stand-by Joined: 4/29/16
#9It's Official: LANGE vs. NYONG'O
Posted: 5/13/16 at 7:19pm
Okay, I'm really liking where this is going.
What makes her superior to Lange and Nyong'o? I'm still sensing more infatuation with the play than the performance itself, i.e. no one's performed this role better.
#10It's Official: LANGE vs. NYONG'O
Posted: 5/13/16 at 7:27pm
Where in hell are you getting "more infatuation with the play than the performance itself" from what Jordan or I wrote?
Why, if I had a vote, would I cast it for Okenedo over the other choices? Well, for one, Nyong'o is not play a leading role, so I wouldn't vote for her as Best Actress in a Leading Role.
As for Lange: Long Day's Journey is my favorite play of all time. I've seen a dozen professional productions. I know it backwards and forwards. Lange, while good, does not even come close to the best Mary I've ever seen. So I wouldn't vote for her.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#11It's Official: LANGE vs. NYONG'O
Posted: 5/13/16 at 7:43pm
AC126748 said: "As for Lange: Long Day's Journey is my favorite play of all time. I've seen a dozen professional productions. I know it backwards and forwards. Lange, while good, does not even come close to the best Mary I've ever seen."
Just curious, who is your favorite Mary?
#12It's Official: LANGE vs. NYONG'O
Posted: 5/13/16 at 7:43pm
Uh...okay...I guess it's an interesting take to get all the tone and opinion policing out of the way before anyone writes their post...
I'd give it to Okendo or Lange. Okendo brings a raw emotional specificity to a broad, gimmicky, vague production. Lange is masterful in a more straightforward and consistent revival. She found colors in Mary's performative and manipulative tendencies that I have not heard before. I was very chilled by her. Nyong'o was quite good but I don't think she was even the standout performance of that play. Did not care for Williams, and Metcalf did great work, but the show she was surrounded by was just too dumb.
#13It's Official: LANGE vs. NYONG'O
Posted: 5/13/16 at 7:46pm
While I ultimately think Lange is out front to win, I dont believe Lupita is runner up or the person in a place to take her down.
Eclipsed is a true ensemble piece. And for the first half of the play, Nyong'os co-stars steal the whole show from her. The character "girl" doesnt get to do the big emotional heavy lifting until the end of the play. Compare that with Lange's constant emotional outbursts, monologues, and the characters' descent into addiction. Or with Michelle Williams' battered survivor full of tics who never leaves the stage and has a huge monologue. Or Okonedo with lots of truthful moments in an otherwise artificial production. Lupita is not bad by any means, she's great in the role. But the other women just have more material. And its material that provides them with memorable "Tony moments".
#14It's Official: LANGE vs. NYONG'O
Posted: 5/13/16 at 7:47pm
JBroadway said: "AC126748 said: "As for Lange: Long Day's Journey is my favorite play of all time. I've seen a dozen professional productions. I know it backwards and forwards. Lange, while good, does not even come close to the best Mary I've ever seen."
Just curious, who is your favorite Mary?
"
Vanessa Redgrave, by 10 miles. It was as if the role was written for her.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
Updated On: 5/13/16 at 07:47 PM
Borstalboy
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/9/04
#15It's Official: LANGE vs. NYONG'O
Posted: 5/13/16 at 10:14pm
Just chiming in again to remind you that awards are meaningless baubles that turn the painstaking work of an artist into a capitalist show-pony product for the brainwashed consumer.
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
~ Muhammad Ali
RippedMan
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/14/05
#16It's Official: LANGE vs. NYONG'O
Posted: 5/13/16 at 11:21pm
I know she won't win but Metcalf was SOOOOOO good.
#17It's Official: LANGE vs. NYONG'O
Posted: 5/13/16 at 11:26pm
Borstalboy said: "Just chiming in again to remind you that awards are meaningless baubles that turn the painstaking work of an artist into a capitalist show-pony product for the brainwashed consumer.
SHUT UP' You suck the fun out of everything!
BroadwayConcierge
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/24/15
#18It's Official: LANGE vs. NYONG'O
Posted: 5/13/16 at 11:30pm
Borstalboy said: "Just chiming in again to remind you that awards are meaningless baubles that turn the painstaking work of an artist into a capitalist show-pony product for the brainwashed consumer."
Mark-Alexis
Stand-by Joined: 4/29/16
#19It's Official: LANGE vs. NYONG'O
Posted: 5/14/16 at 12:40pm
Loving the replies! Hope more of you theatergoers will continue to reply.
