I was thinking, Does anyone notice that Pete Polycarpou's accent dosen't sound all that persian? Then, I thought to myself 'What does a persian accent sound like?'
Somebody wanna help me on this one?
Thanks all
BNB
have you heard Eddie Albert's attempt?! Then again, I played Ali Hakim last month and my accent was a cross between that of Eddie Albert, that of Peter Polycarpou and that of Sebastian the crab in "The Little Mermaid", so who am I to criticise? (Infact, I HATE this portrayal, and Ali Hakim definately is persian...)
daniel.
HAHAHAHA!!! Vocalizing Eddie Albert, Peter Polycarpou and Jamacian Crab Sebastian?!?!?! What a mix! I, too, am playing Ali Hakim for a local theater group, and I've struggled with the accent. The earlier posting about Ali not even being Persian is an interesting thought, but I'd rather think Ali spent time in New York before heading west (probably where he learned to speak English, hmmm?).
Gee, I wonder what a cross between Albert, Polycarpou, Sebastian, and Dennis Franz will come out to be!
i just finished watching my brother portray ali on stage tonight. i think he did an excellent job, with the accent and everything. he had commented early on that he wasn't sure if ali was even really persian either but said as he got to know the character that he believed he probably really was persian, just most likely not as persian as he claimed to be. maybe by blood but not so much by experience.
shareGood luck with your performance. I want to play Ali Hakim again, it's such a great part. And I agree with the last comment - he isn't as Persian as he makes out.
daniel.
Why can't Ali Hakim be a Persian if he said so? When Willy Parker attempts to bet again his 50 dollars and is cut short by Ali Hakim, why does he praise "Alah". He sells beautifull things for women... Including dreams of paradise and decision making. He hates fathers with guns and doesn't deal in harmeless toys with blades hidden in then. He believes that to raise against fathers with guns and marriage in mind, would be revolutionary. What does make him other than a Persian? With his ideas of marriage, can he be a Jew, a Russian, an Egyptian perhaps? Persia was associated with flying carpets, and birds of paradise, exotic goods and faraway lands, and bachelor life, the ultimate freedom.
shareHello again,
Ali Hakim doesn't praise Allah in the original script; this is another typical error on the part of Mr. Polycarpou, who I presume put that bit in himself.
daniel.
I've also played Ali Hakim in a local theatre production and did an accent similar to the one in the 1950's movie. My reasoning was that most people who knew the film Oklahoma might prefer to hear an accent that would be more familiar. Since then I've seen the NT version and wished I'd done an accent similar to Peter Polycarpou.
Peter, like most actors, brought Ali Hakim to life with some wonderful adlibs and mannerisms. I think he did a fantastic job.
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I am also playing Ali in our school's version of Oklahoma, can't say I have talked to alot of people with a heavy persian accent, I guess I'm going to have to watch this movie.
shareI've seen the show once and played in the band for a short run of it. I got the impression that Ali Hakim was pretending to be Persian too. Seems to be a common interpretation of this character.
shareyes hes pretending
shareIt would make sense if he were lying, but I don't think he is, and here's why:
When he begins singing (well, speak-singing) "It's a Scandal! It's an Outrage!" before the men chorus enters, his first - hilarious - words are "Trapped! Tricked! HOODBLINKED! HAMBUSHED!"
If he's pretending, and really knows English perfectly well, why does he make those two blunders when he's all alone?
Then again, what do I know? Our Ali in my high school production got kicked out for skipping rehearsal, and his replacement has blond hair and blue eyes, so maybe we'll have to decide that he IS faking...
Clouds have silver linings, but every year, hundreds are struck by lightning searching.
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well maybe in the origianl he did have people around him! or if hes so used to lying its force of habit!
shareWell, the things he said about Persia weren´t Persian AT ALL. I suppose he (or his parents) came from Middle East, and he made himself a Persian (instead od Albanian, Bosnian, Syrian etc), because it sounded good, and everyone knew at least somenthing about Persian tales.
shareIt would sound Iranian.
shareYou guys are forgetting the context that Ali Hakeem is supposed to be in. He is trying to peddle crap to people. His persian persona is called MARKETING! This is a ruse as old as time. Do you think the ladies would want to buy garters from him if they knew they were manufactured in a chicago sweatshop? It's much more romantic for these ladies who live in the dust bowl to imagine that he's bringing them treasures of the far east. Look at the way laurie treasures what basically are "smelling salts" because he told her that's what the pharoahs use.
Maybe he is as some have suggested, persian by blood, or maybe he is some other "ethnicity" like greek, italian, etc that would give him an exotic appearance. PS Persia is modern day IRAN...So some dude in 19th century Iran just woke up and decided hey, I think I'll move to Oklahoma? Some how I doubt it!
saucybetty.blogspot.com
According to Lynn Rigg's and "Green Grow The Lilacs", the peddler is from Syria. I don't know a lot of Middle Eastern history, but I know thatEngland broke up the tradtional boundries and redrew them into the countries we know today. Was Syria a part of ancient Persia?
shareI'm sure I'm repeating this but I didn't really thing about the 1955 version of Ali. When I was little he was just another guy with some strange accent. PP's portrayal seems like a Persian via Brooklyn.
shareLet's talk about bad accents. Senior year, 1983, Oklahoma! was my senior play. Ed something-or-other won the part of Ali Hakim, but unfortunately he was blond, pretty and had no acting talent, so they changed "Ali Hakim" to "Sven." Suddenly, he became Swedish because that was the only accent Ed could do. God, help us.
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Well-behaved women rarely make history.
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his accent doesn't come close. THe best Ali Hakim in my opinion was Aasif Mandvi, who notably appeared in spiderman 2 as the pizzeria owner who fires peter
shareim just saying that I have a copy of the 1943 NY play copy of this (got it 4 xmas) and i think that Peter sounds better than the dude who played him in that version is. Ill try 2 get a copy of the song off the internet.
Yea, I guess so/Why won't he be the king I know he is, the king I see inside?