Viewing page 7 of 43

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

[[image: color photo of Christopher Plummer as John Barrymore]]
[[credit]] CYLLA VON TIEDEMANN [[/credit]]

The Great Profile

Christopher Plummer, long an admirer of the life and legend of John Barrymore, stars as the actor in Barrymore

Jack's back - only this season he's billed as Barrymore at the Music Box Theatre on West 45th, just a few doors east of the royal-family restaurant.

Yes, the current Barrymore - Christopher Plummer - has been known to frequent Barrymore's on occasion, for an atmosphere soak or whatever. And yes again, he will concede with a lusty chuckle, "it improves my performance enormously!"

The adage about dining out on anecdotes is definitely true here. Two fine actors have managed to make acting feasts for themselves out of the life and legend of John Barrymore. Plummer and, before him, Nicol Williamson are not alone in believing that the late actor's most magnificent performance was his own self, and they have done the maximum to second that motion. Both of them caught The Great Profile at the tail end of his glory trail as he weaved toward the exit in the throes (if not dementia tremors) of dapper dissipation, still mustering a boundless capacity for riotous self-mockery and ribald wit.

"I didn't see Nicol," says this year's Barrymore about last year's Jack, "but I sent my spies, and everyone seemed to say he didn't seem to take any trouble to look like him or sound like him. Good ol' Nicol - I love his eccentricity, and I'm sure he did an interesting evening because he is an interesting and wonderful actor, and he has an interesting and crazed mind. All I can tell you is that I admire Nicol terribly as an actor. I know him. I've had  terrific good drinking times with him. He knew I was going to do it because it was already in the wings, so he decided to gazump me. Well, good luck to him."

A kind of guttural last laugh goes with that tiding. God has dealt Plummer the upper hand. At 68, he still has a pretty darn great profile himself, and his matinee-idol good looks remain heartily intact. With minimum make-up and much art, he affects an uncanny facsimile of John Barrymore; by pushing that only slightly, he achieves precise throwaways of a cranky Lionel or a wispy Ethel.

Barrymore takes place in the spring of '42 - a month before John's death - and playwright William Luce employs the fictional conceit that The Great Man is attempting one last hurrah, a Broadway production of Richard III; to that end, he enters an empty theatre to run lines with an offstage, unseen prompter (Michael Mastro). What they run is rings around a life thoroughly spent and nearing its end. 

"He was creating another character, his last great role," contends Plummer. "If he

by Harry Haun

12

[[end page]]
[[start page]]

[[advertisement]] 
A Dramatic Start.
A Compelling Performance.
A Riveting Conclusion.

And That Was Just The Ride To The Theatre.

[[image: black and white photograph of a 1997 Lexus viewed from side]]

The 1997 LS 400.

[[image: Lexus logo]] LEXUS
The Relentless Pursuit Of Perfection.

©1997 Lexus, A Division Of Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. Lexus reminds you to wear seatbelts, secure children in rear seat and obey all speed laws.

For more information, visit www.lexus.com or call 800-USA-LEXUS (800-872-5398).
[[/advertisement]]