New York Times
July 31, 1984
Stars of Summer Firmament
By ELEANOR BLAU
John Vickery felt like a ''slow child'' and Caroline Lagerfelt got a black eye. Jamie Ross posed as a doctor and Frank Converse groped for the stage.
All were preparing to take over key roles on Broadway, as actors do at this time of year, replacing stars who take off for film or other commitments. And recently the four reflected on the perils - and advantages - of stepping in, shrugging off the inevitable comparisons with their predecessors.
''I'm not competing with Jeremy,'' said Mr. Vickery, who replaced Jeremy Irons in ''The Real Thing'' as the verbally adroit playwright who has something to learn about love. Mr. Irons, who won a Tony for the part, ''got marvelous things out of the show,'' Mr. Vickery said, but the portrayal ''has to come from me.''
''We are different people,'' Mr. Vickery added. ''I'm probably slightly less gentle and suave than he was in the role. I think of it as a tag team race. Jeremy has handed me the baton.''
A Lot of Stage Business
What made Mr. Vickery feel ''a bit like the slow child'' was that the director, Mike Nichols, the playwright, Tom Stoppard, and the technical crew all knew the show, when he was just feeling his way. In Mr. Vickery's opening scene, he's involved in a lot of stage business, leaving for a kitchen, bringing people champagne or orange juice, turning off a record player. ''I felt,'' he said, ''like I was doing 'Noises Off,' '' the zany show about a performance in which everything goes wrong.
Miss Lagerfelt, his lover in the play and successor to Glenn Close, had not become familiar enough with the revolving set by opening night; she bumped into a piece of scenery, resulting in the black eye. ''It was looking like purple eye shadow,'' she recalled, ''so I matched it on the other side.''
Miss Lagerfelt, who played a little boy in ''Cloud 9,'' a sad schoolteacher in ''Quartermaine's Terms'' and a tortured gang-rape victim in ''Other Places,'' was a standby before stepping into ''The Real Thing,'' as she had been in ''Betrayal'' before taking over Blythe Danner's role in that play.
Mr. Vickery was not standing by, and says he auditioned just to show Mike Nichols his work. ''I thought they were looking for someone with a bigger name. Two hours later, they called me and I got the part and was astounded,'' said the 33-year-old actor, who rose to attention in 1981 as Prince Hal in a Central Park ''Henry IV, Part One'' and was the Red Baron in ''The Death of von Richthofen as Witnessed From Earth.''
Most of Cast Changed
Because most of the cast has changed, neither Miss Lagerfelt nor Mr. Vickery had the problem of fitting in; only the scenery and technical matters were pre-set. ''They treated us as a brand-new company,'' Miss Lagerfelt said.
The actors also had the unusual advantage of help from both the director and playwright, who ''kept popping in and out,'' Miss Lagerfelt said; replacements who arrive after the director has left often work only with the stage manager. Mr. Nichols, she recalled, told the co-stars: ''I want you to have your little private jokes - as actors and as friends,'' to develop their intimacy on stage. It helped, she said. ''I'm in love with John eight times a week, twice on matinees.''