According to the Internet Movie Database, Peter Dinklage has over 80 acting credits starting back in the early 1990s. His vita includes many awards, primarily for Game of Thrones. But my husband and I became Dinklage fans before that blockbuster HBO series wowed so many viewers around the world.  In 2004, we thought Dinklage gave a great performance as a shy dwarf who inherits an abandoned railway station in The Station Agent. 

He starts out as a loner, an introvert obsessed with trains and ends up with two friends who help him enjoy life. Dinklage convinced us of his character’s mixed feelings throughout the film. After that wonderful performance, we thought he could take on almost any role, which he proved in the last movie we saw him in before Cyrano. It was I Care A Lot, released earlier this year with Dinklage portraying a secretive and dangerous crime boss involved in a brutal battle with a woman who has mistreated his mother. He convinced us again. Still, we never thought Dinklage could play a key role in a musical. And that’s where Cyrano comes into the picture.           

Cyrano de Bergerac began as a play written by Edmond Rostand back in 1897. The main character – a poet, romantic, and swordsman – falls in love with Roxanne, a beautiful lady. But Cyrano’s appearance (a bulbous nose) keeps him from romancing her. Instead, he decides to help Christian, a more handsome man, woo Roxanne by writing dialogue, poems and letters for him to use in his courtship. Needless to say, complications ensue.

Several Cyrano movies have been made. The ones I am familiar with include: a 1950 production co-starring Jose Ferrar and Mala Powers; a 1987 film titled Roxanne with Steve Martin and Daryl Hannah ; and a 1990 French offering with Gerard Depardieu and Catherine Deneuve. The Roxanne release takes place in modern times with the Cyrano character turned into C.D. Bates, a poetic chief fireman. It's no surprise that comic Martin wrote the screenplay.

But the best comes last! It’s Cyrano, a MUSICAL co-starring Peter Dinklage and the awesome Haley Bennett with an original music score by Bryce Dessner and Aron Dessner. And, you guessed it! Dinklage sings so well it goes right to the heart. Directed by the creative Joe Wright from an adapted screenplay by Erica Schmidt, this eagerly awaited MGM film opens in late February (2022).     

I sing, not to hear the echo repeat, a shade fainter, my song! I think of light and not of glory! Singing is my fashion of waging war and bearing witness. And if my song is the proudest of songs, it is that I sing clearly to make the day rise clear! --- Edmond Rostand