Worse British/American Accent

[Dallas Theatre Fan]

Hello all,

Earlier this week I caught the Young Vic production of Fun Home in London. The cast, especially Young Alison played that night by Brooke Haynes knocked out it out of the park. Jenna Russell's "Days By Days" rivals Judy Kuhn's.  The show only had one weak spot and that was the Accent Zubin Varla used for Bruce.  The accent didn't seem natural at all, at some points he sounded like he had food in his mouth and at other times it seemed like he was trying to make sure each word sounded American as possible. Varla's Bruce is still pretty good but the bad accent was bothering me all night.

What are the worse American or British accents y'all have seen? 

 

EDIT: I want to add that on the other side of the spectrum Brooke Haynes did one of the best American accents I've heard.

[GeorgeandDot]

Varla's accent in Fun Home is the worst I've ever heard by a long shot. It made me wonder why they didn't just ask Cerveris to reprise his role over there.

As for English accents, I've heard some atrocious ones come out of Kinky Boots from various cast members.

[LLW2]

I suppose it is ancient history but ... A Chorus Line London production, 1978, the dancer who was supposed to be from El Paso did a weird southern belle accent. Forty years later I still remember it because it was so jarring. (If OP is from Dallas, OP probably knows El Paso natives have no discernible accent at all, apart from standard American.)

[Gorlois]

I haven’t seen every Nicole Kidman performance, but those that I have, her native Australian accent always comes through at some point.

But accents to me are kind of like the icing on the cake. What matters is the substance of the goods inside and she generally gives very good performances regardless of her accent.

[CATSNYrevival]

Bernadette Peters in Song and Dance. I'm sure she gave an excellent performance in the theatre all things considered but I can't listen to the album without cringing.

There's also the British cast attempting southern American accents on the Whistle Down the Wind cast album. It's terribly distracting.

[BroadwayRox3588]

It's not theatre, but is it too obvious to say Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins? xD

[GeorgeandDot]

I'll second Nicole Kidman. She's a wonderful actress, but her American accent is dreadful.

[Dancingthrulife2]

I saw Ugly Lies the Done at National Theatre, and the entire cast was struggling with the American accent. There’s a unique rhythm to every accent, but the cast never managed to grasp that. You can hear the try-hard American r’s and o’s, but the tone and pitch were never quite right.

[DramaTeach]

I think Russell Tovey is a great actor and usually my favorite in whatever I’ve seen him in, but his American accent in A View From the Bridge was no good.

[lilac3]

Lauren Ambrose sounds Geordie at the start of Rain in Spain. She's great for the rest of the recording but I just found that funny.

I've also heard some BAD accents in many Kinky Boots clips

[TotallyEffed]

I saw the first preview of Merrily We Roll Along in London a few years ago and the American accents were tragic. I’ve noticed that English people sometimes do a southern thing when attempting an American accent.

I’m sure they cringe when they hear some Americans attempting English accents.

[jbird5]

Incognito was a trove of bad accents. I even thought Charlie Cox’s accent was bad and he’s English. Ari Gaynor in Yen was like nails on a chalkboard. Most of the time I think it’s better just to let people use their own accent.

[NotTheComfyChair]

It's a hard thing as the quality of the accents depend a lot on the writer, director, producers (who often don't want to pay for accent coaching!), and then finally - more rarely than you might think - lazy actors.

The worst accents for me are when they are jarring enough to draw me out of the piece. Inaccurate accents I can take provided they aren't being done self-consciously.

Worst British accents in American productions - Kinky Boots. Even the actors know how bad the accents and I've even heard them apologize for them. That says to me it's more down to the creatives rather than the actors. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest - Dreadful (with a couple of notable exceptions) through almost the entire cast. The Play That Goes Wrong  - replacement cast only were very self-conscious.

Worst American accent in British productions - Merrily We Roll Along. Some were good but some were horrible. Little Foxes at the RNT way back when.

I've little to no idea how the accents are in the current LCT My Fair Lady. For a musical in which much of the plot hinges on accents, I've heard and seen very little comment and video posted. What little I've seen doesn't inspire me to TKTS the show.

[GeorgeandDot]

There's one particular cast member in the ensemble of My Fair Lady that doesn't even attempt an English accent. You can hear it on the recording too. It's very strange.

[poisonivy2]

I'm overall happy I got to see Angels in America live but several members of that production struggled with an American accent. Denise Gough in particular seemed to think that a nasal whine = American accent.

[bekk99]

Susan Brown’s Scottish undertone all throughout Angels was beyond distracting!

[ImAProphet]

poisonivy2 said: "I'm overall happy I got to see Angels in America live but several members of that production struggled with an American accent. Denise Gough in particular seemed to think that a nasal whine = American accent."

I also noticed Susan Brown struggling with a certain "o" sound a lot. For example, "long" would sound like "lahhhhng".

It wasn't that big a deal overall, but the show being near-perfect makes me pay more attention to its imperfections...

 

[Dollypop]

Happy to say that Charlie Stemp does a great job sounding American in HELLO, DOLLY!

[Dollypop]

Happy to say that Charlie Stemp does a great job sounding American in HELLO, DOLLY!

[BwayJudd]

Dollypop said: "Happy to say that Charlie Stemp does a great job sounding American in HELLO, DOLLY!"

He really does!  There’s only once inthe show, when Cornelius says that he will use the word “pudding” and Barnaby questions “pudding?” back to him, that I hear his British accent slightly!  And that took quite a few times of seeing him to pick up on that.  

[Solipsist234]

Matilda.

Now, I give that show some slack, considering it wasn't only written by British authors, but is also supposed to be set in England (as opposed to the Danny DeVito film), but some of those accents on the Broadway cast recording were... oof, really not that great!

I give those Broadway kids a pass, because I'm sure it was very hard to remotely try to teach them how to actually be British (some fared better than others), but I absolutely hated the 'mixed American-British accent' they came up with to handle the situation. I saw the tour, and hearing Matilda pronounce the hard r's was really grating and very noticeable.

The Wormwoods are a completely different story, what with their exaggerated British accents, especially compared to the more simple/eloquent British accents from Miss Trunchbull and Miss Honey, which you could argue is based more on how they were raised and whatnot, but I think the point of the Wormwoods' exaggerated accent comes from how exaggerated and comically horrific they are as characters, so there's that.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

I thought Susan Brown’s accent as Hannah Pitt in ANGEL was so awful and distracting. It was the only flaw I found in an otherwise brilliant production.

[SmoothLover]

J. K. Simmons in The Snowman. One of the worst attempts I have ever witnessed in film. Made me chuckle out loud.