Theatre
Casnoff began his career touring in the 1972–73 national company of Godspell where he understudied Jesus and Judas. He was cast as understudy for the title role in the 1976 Broadway production of Rockabye Hamlet, a rock musical version of Shakespeare's play, but the show closed after only seven performances.
In 1988, Casnoff starred as Freddie Trumper, an arrogant American professional chess player in the short-lived Broadway production of the musical Chess and received warm reviews for his performance. "Remarkably fine", wrote New York Post, "does justice to the role", commented New York Daily News, "wonderful singing", mentioned The New Yorker. It brought Casnoff the Theater World Award for Best Debut Performance.
Casnoff created the lead role of John Blackmore in the Shogun: The Musical (1990), based on the popular book and miniseries by James Clavell. During the previews of the show, he suffered minor injury when struck by a piece of scenery but quickly recuperated and returned to the performances after just one day-off. The production, unfortunately, survived only for 12 previews and 72 performances, but Casnoff received a lot of critical acclaim. "Mr. Casnoff had the swaggering self-assurance of a star in complete command of a vast production", wrote Frank Rich in The New York Times.
He returned to Broadway as Billy Flynn in the musical Chicago on January 15, 2007, succeeding Huey Lewis in the role and stayed with the production through March 25, 2007.
Read more about this topic: Philip Casnoff
Famous quotes containing the word theatre:
“People fall out of windows, trees tumble down,
Summer is changed to winter, the young grow old
The air is full of children, statues, roofs
And snow. The theatre is spinning round,
Colliding with deaf-mute churches and optical trains.
The most massive sopranos are singing songs of scales.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“The theatre is the best way of showing the gap between what is said and what is seen to be done, and that is why, ragged and gap-toothed as it is, it has still a far healthier potential than some poorer, abandoned arts.”
—David Hare (b. 1947)
“Mankind’s common instinct for reality ... has always held the world to be essentially a theatre for heroism. In heroism, we feel, life’s supreme mystery is hidden. We tolerate no one who has no capacity whatever for it in any direction. On the other hand, no matter what a man’s frailties otherwise may be, if he be willing to risk death, and still more if he suffer it heroically, in the service he has chosen, the fact consecrates him forever.”
—William James (1842–1910)