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Theatre Thu Feb 19 2009
Dennehy Falls, Gets Back Up
Brian Dennehy practiced a lot of banana-peel-induced near-pratfalls this summer in Krapp's Last Tape in Stratford, Canada. Maybe that's what prepared him for Tuesday night's performance in Desire Under the Elms at the Goodman. During a pivotal scene, with a baby in his arms, Dennehy took a step too far and fell off the stage. Stage construction prevented him from landing in the audience and the "baby" in the scene was just a doll. Still, house lights came up and stage hands rushed out, but the tenacious Dennehy (he's 70!) waved them away and continued with the show. He did two shows on Wednesday, too. As one poster so eloquently summed up yesterday on Chris Jones' blog, "You won't catch Jeremy Piven doing that."
