By Harry Haun
02 Nov 2007

They opted for the Anthony Burgess adaptation of Edmond Rostand's play — a version that Burgess originally wrote for Plummer to do straight and which was retained for the musical treatment which Michael J. Lewis composed for Plummer. "We looked at several translations," Leveaux allowed, "but there was just something about Burgess that seemed more direct and contemporary to us than the others. It seemed more muscular."

Then came the hurdle of locating the right nose for the title character. "It took a long time to find a nose that was both credible and preposterous. We tried to find a fine balance. Kevin has a great eye, so we sat around and tried different lengths, different sizes. We didn't want it to be so subtle people would think he just has a psychological problem."

Euan Morton, who made his Broadway debut in Taboo as a dead-on Boy George, almost became a dead drunk at the last critics' preview. "I set fire to myself," he announced lightly. "There are live candles on stage. I was playing a drunk in the tavern. I leaned back, and my hat caught on fire. It was Max Baker [Ragueneau] who saved my life."

Cast adversarially as a modified, rather gray-hearted villain (Comte de Guiche), Chris Sarandon said the rehearsal process "was a joy for me. Kevin gives you so much."

Kline hand-picked his own opponent for the big swordfighting sequence, and Carman Lacivita is grateful as all get-out for the shot: "If it weren't for Kevin, I wouldn't have had the opportunity. He saw something in the rehearsal, working with me, that allowed me to have that part. He said he was more comfortable working with me. It was a real gift. He was fun to work with, but we didn't take chances. Right off, he told me, 'Listen, Carmen, safety is number one for me. I put a guy's eye out before, swordfighting him.' He did, in college. He cut somebody in the eye in a swordfight, and he feels terrible about it. That's why it's important to him to be safe. He's a real pro, and I learned a lot from him. He was like a blade of grass. He feels every vibration and responds to it, and that allows you to do so much. I feel, just being in a scene with him, my own acting ability is better."

Most of the opening-night star power came from the spouses of the play's leading players: Tony-winning Joanna Gleason (with three Sarandon stepchildren), Ben Affleck and Phoebe Cates [Kline]. Even one of Kline's screen wives was glitteringly in attendance: Glenn Close, who was Oscar-nominated in that capacity in "The Big Chill."

Affleck, trying to stay on the backburner as hubby of the evening's leading lady, surrendered politely to the paparazzi who promptly went into flickering spasms when he hit the red carpet. He was receiving compliments on "Gone Baby Gone," his excellent movie-directing debut. "I'm really enjoying the way it's being received," he admitted. "It just came out, and it takes a lot of work to go around and try to promote the movie and try to get it out there. I just got back from Europe, and I'm a little punchy from the process."

Other first-nighters included composer Frank Wildhorn (who has a Pulitzer Prize winner — Anna in the Tropics' Nilo Cruz —working on his next musical, Havana), columnist Roger Friedman, Patrick Vaccariello (conductor of the recent Gypsy), Richard Easton (who'll be starring at Classic Stage Company in January in a new David Ives play about Spinoza, called New Jerusalem, directed by Walter Bobbie), Frank and Kathie Lee Gifford, Ray Wills (set for the York Theatre salute to Joseph Stein Nov. 12), director Jack O'Brien and choreographer Jerry Mitchell (both just back from the London launch of their Hairspray), lyricist Sheldon Harnick and composer Jerry Bock, Never Gonna Dance's Peter Gerety (Hollywood-bound for a Clint Eastwood movie, The Changling: "I play a psychiatrist who tells Angelina Jolie she's nuts!") and Essie Davis.

The show began with fair warning: "Swords are used in this production, so please turn off your cell phones."