Forget Tyrion — this is the role Peter Dinklage was born to play

Peter Dinklage has found the role of a lifetime — and its surname isn’t Lannister.

The “Game of Thrones” actor will play Cyrano de Bergerac, the famed fictional French poet with a long nose, this summer at Goodspeed Musicals in Connecticut, the theater announced this week.

It could very well be the best casting choice in a decade.

If you don’t know the 1897 play, or the 1987 Steve Martin film “Roxanne” that’s based on it, the titular Cyrano is a renowned Parisian wordsmith, swordsman and cultural connoisseur.

His one flaw? That mondo schnoz, which, the audience surmises, hurts his chances with the gorgeous Roxane.

Meanwhile, a hot but dumb guy named Christian also has his sights set on the bombshell. Kindly, Cyrano feeds him lines to woo her. Roxane falls in love with Christian’s intellect and sensitivity — so, really, she unknowingly falls for Cyrano.

One obvious reason why Dinklage will topple many of his illustrious predecessors is that he’s an actor of short stature. He’ll lend the conflict more believability and poignancy than the usual prosthetic-nosed thespian.

But it’s also his CV that makes him such a stellar choice. As Tyrion on “Game of Thrones,” Dinklage has been a master of dry wit, a brave fighter and a jovial drunk. He’s ably tried romance on for size as well — with Shae, the funny former prostitute.

Playing the clever bastard child on “GoT” has, in many ways, been a six-year audition for Cyrano, one of the most titanic roles in all of Western theater.

I only wish that he was doing the play — there’s a fantastic translation of it by Anthony Burgess (“A Clockwork Orange”) — instead of this new musical version with songs by the National. Although Dinklage is apparently a fine singer, the material has a checkered past with being set to music. A 1973 musical called “Cyrano” ran for just a month on Broadway, with many critics considering it a kind of “Man of Blah Mancha.”

A formidable actor, Dinklage definitely has the ability to carry “Cyrano de Bergerac” without ambient rock music piping in every seven minutes.
Still, this will be a performance to pay attention to.

Summer is coming.

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