Discussion Main / OriginalCastPrecedent

• Rebecca Caine, who created the role of Cosette in 1985, has said that only the original cast will ever know just how much they contributed to the show. The harmonies between Eponine and Marius were created during rehearsals by Frances Ruffelle and Michael Ball, the vocal scale in "I Dreamed a Dream" was thought up by Patti LuPone, and the high grace notes in Cosette's vocals were due to Rebecca - and that's just for starters. This is probably true not just for Les Mis, but for most other theater productions of all kinds.

True, perhaps, but this is not so broad as to be anything the original cast contributes to a show; that would easily absorb all kinds of Throw It In! material.

Can this be clarified please? Are the people who play Hamlet too old or too young?

Quote: "This is probably where the utterly ridiculous tradition of casting a middle-aged man as Hamlet came from: Richard Burbage, who originated most of the titular roles in Shakespeare's tragedies, was in his late thirties or forties when he originated this role. This is mostly justified by the equally ridiculous throwaway line in the uncut text about Hamlet being thirty, or possibly because people feel someone in their late teens wouldn't have the acting range to pull off Hamlet, but even so, some of the actors who have played him have been most definitely not thirty. It long ago reached the point where "I played Hamlet!" is fictional shorthand for "I've done more theater shows than you can count!" "