Smart Alec
Two Halves of Guinness (Guildford and National Tour)-- Guest Review by Doctor Terror
The seventies were a fascinating time when it came to actors' salaries. Under studio pressure to include a big star in National Lampoon's Animal House, director John Landis brought in Donald Sutherland for a day's work as a jaded college lecturer, offering him a flat $35,000 or only $20,000 plus 2% of the film's gross. Sutherland opted for the former and missed out on what would have been around 20 million.
No such regrets for Sir Alec Guinness, though: though he didn't much like Star Wars and only saw it once, he took George Lucas's offer of $150,000 and 2.5% of the film's gross (negotiated down to 2.25 by a wily Gary Kurtz). This made him around $95 million and made him Britain's highest paid film star. Until him, respectable film publications will try to tell you it was Roger Moore, but it was almost certainly Robin Askwith.
All this is brought to vivid life by the amazing Zeb Soanes, whose voice as Guinness is perfect and who also does Lucas and Kurtz, along with every other character (John Gielgud, David Lean, Edith Evans, Omar Sharif, Noel Coward, James Dean etc). This alone is a remarkable feat as he takes you through the key moments in his life and acting roles. The music certainly helps, from the Star Wars theme to Colonel Bogey from Bridge Over the River Kwai to Lara's theme from Doctor Zhivago to Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy's choirboys.
I have seen several such one-man shows over the years, where you spend time in the company of an actor playing a star so well that suspension of disbelief suspension of disbelief turns to hardened concrete. Subjects ranged from Orson Welles to David Tomlinson with the odd unusual twist: Charles Hawtrey was portrayed by an actress and Ron Moody by...er...Ron Moody. This play deserves to be up there with the very best of these.
It starts with the famous incident where Guinness promised to say 'The Force will be with you. Always,' to a besotted young fanboy who had seen Star Wars 100 times on the condition that he never did it again.
Rumour has it that the boy has a new name for him: Obi 'Wanker' Nobi.