“When she returned for her encore, LuPone winked at the event and her reputation as the Terminator of poorly-behaved audience members. While she sang “The Way You Look Tonight,” she was snapping photos — with a flash! — using a disposable camera. The crowd waved and cheered and posed.”
Joe Brown, in the Las Vegas Sun on Patti LuPone’s performance of her solo show The Gypsy in My Soul, where an audience member got LuPwned for texting
For some inane reason or other I missed the Kennedy Center Honors in 2002, even though I knew Chita Rivera was on the dais. However, a good friend taped it for me just in case, so I had a save. (For you younger folk out there, this was before the youtube). About six weeks later, I was back from college in order to have my four wisdom teeth out.
After the surgery, I came home and waited for the painkillers to kick in (I was Violet Weston that weekend, kids…), I popped in this video to ease my discomfort as the novocaine wore off. That was a memorable morning kids, for various reasons (hear my brother tell the story of how I fell out of a chair).
In spite of the pain I was feeling, I picked myself off the couch and rewound the tape again and again. I still get chills seeing it.
Charlotte d’Amboise, Donna Murphy, Valerie Pettiford and countless dancers pay tribute to the Queen of the Gypsies.
Now this, Tony folks, is how you do a Broadway medley:
It’s been a week since the revival of Guys and Dolls closed at the Nederlander Theatre. The week prior, the cast performed the eleven o’clock number “Sit Down, You’re Rocking the Boat” on the Tony telecast, which is incidentally the same number performed by the company of the 1992 revival on their respective telecast. The hit 90s revival is still relatively fresh in the minds and hearts of many theatregoers, so perhaps it was a poor choice to use the same number for the Tony Awards. The difference in style, tone, energy, choreography is considerable. For instance, as General Cartwright, Ruth Williamson accomplishes more with a high C than Mary Testa with her entire spanking section.
1992:
2009:
Which one is the best? You decide…
Yvonne De Carlo:
Carol Burnett:
Dolores Gray:
Eartha Kitt:
Karen Morrow:
Ann Miller:
Polly Bergen:
Elizabeth Ashley comments on playing opposite both Estelle Parsons and Phylicia Rashad in August: Osage County in an interview with Theatremania:
“They are both great actresses, no doubt about it. Estelle was dangerous and brutal; she was like an assassin laying in wait and you always saw her intelligence. Phylicia is different; with her Violet, you see the vulnerability, the loving mother, and the fall from grace when she is clutched by her demons. You see the entire spectrum of the woman. I’ve always believed that with brilliant writing there is no right way to play any part — although there are wrong ways — and actors with creative imagination, which is the greatest gift we have, can find their own way to serve the text.”
On playing Violet Weston:
I might give it a shot someday, but having worked with Estelle and Phylicia, even I might be cowed by the assignment.
A news item twittered via our good friend Steve alerted me to the fact that the failed musical Glory Days will be recording an original cast album. The show, an export of the Signature Theatre in Virginia, opened and closed on the same night in May 2008. Out of town reviews were encouraging (if constructive) and a transfer to NY, especially without any revision was a wholly haphazard thing to do. The original cast will reunite in a recording studio next month to lay down the tracks. Incidentally, Glory Days was the first musical to fold after one performance since the 1985 Goodspeed revival of Take Me Along at the Martin Beck.
It got me thinking about what other one performance wonders (as I like to call these fast flops) have received an Original Broadway Cast Album…
This is what I found:
Here’s Where I Belong – opened and closed at the Billy Rose Theatre on March 3, 1968. Ambitious musical adaptation of John Steinbeck’s allegorical masterpiece East of Eden was penned by Terrence McNally (who requested his name be removed prior to opening), with music by Robert Waldman and lyrics by Alfred Uhry. There was considerable reticence on my part to include this one here as the cast album on Blue Pear LP appears to be a glorified bootleg, however, I since there is an LP with artwork that was available, here it is.
The Utter Glory of Morrissey Hall – opened and closed at the Mark Hellinger Theatre on May 13, 1979. You may recall that I brought this one up to Marilyn Caskey at Angus McIndoe’s after the closing performance of Gypsy this past January. Written by Clark Gesner of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown fame, the show had a well received engagement in San Francisco in 1976 starring Jill Tanner as a British headmistress driven to insanity by the pranks of her students. Three years later, the show was revamped for its new star Celeste Holm, who was dreadfully miscast and out of her element (which can be evidenced on the record). The show stayed a week at the Hellinger, though it managed to get out an album and is licensed by Samuel French (I have the libretto!)
Onward Victoria – opened and closed at the Martin Beck Theatre on December 14, 1980. Larger than life historical figures have often made for interesting musicals. 1776, Gypsy, Fiorello!, among others come immediately to mind. However, this musical about Victoria Woodhull, a millionaire stockbroker turned suffragette presidential nominee didn’t quite live up to the standard. Starring Jill Eikenberry as Victoria, the show had music by Keith Hermann and book & lyrics by Charlotte Anker and Irene Rosenberg. Woodhull had long been considered for musical theatre, with proposed shows starring Lisa Kirk, Carol Channing and an out of town failure Winner Take All starring the sublime Patricia Morison.
Cleavage – opened and closed at the Playhouse Theatre on June 23, 1982. The show was a bawdy camp piece written for the Sheffield Theatre Ensemble that had a brief tour in the South before transferring to NY for its brief tenure. The score was by comedy writer Buddy Sheffield and the book was co-written by Sheffield and David Sheffield. It appears to have played successfully in New Orleans and it transferred to NY cast intact for literally a week. It featured such memorable moments as Jay Rogers in drag singing “Boys Will Be Girls”… it was that sort of show.
Dance a Little Closer – opened and closed at the Minskoff on May 11, 1983 and was jokingly referred to as Close a Little Faster by its detractors. The musical was an adaptation of Robert Sherwood’s Idiot’s Delight starring Len Cariou, George Rose, Liz Robertson and Brent Barrett with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Jule Styne. The creators updated the antiwar play by putting the characters at the brink of nuclear annihilation. The show’s cast album was recorded two weeks after the closing but was left unreleased until 1987.
Two other shows would receive later recordings. Kelly (February 6, 1965), quite possibly the most notorious of all the one-night stands, received ample coverage in Lewis Lapham’s legendary Saturday Evening Post article (and reprinted in Steven Suskin’s Second Act Trouble) got a studio cast album in 1998 restoring the composer and lyricist’s deluded intentions for the utterly misguided, misdirected and misproduced effort. Heathen! (May 21, 1972) resurfaced in New Zealand in 1981 under a new title Aloha! and that cast took the show into the recording studio.
It was announced late this afternoon that the smash hit play August: Osage County will be closing on June 28 at the Music Box Theatre after 18 previews and 648 performances. The play won five Tonys including Best Play and the coveted Pulitzer Prize for Drama and is one of my most treasured theatrical experiences of all time.
The closing announcement comes as a bit of a surprise, especially since new star Phylicia Rashad has received so many raves for her performance as Violet. The play, which imported from Steppenwolf in fall 2007, was originally to be a sixteen week limited engagement at the Imperial Theatre, but proved to be such a huge success that it transferred next door to the Music Box for an open ended run in April ’08. For a three act play without any stars and a running time of three hours and twenty minutes, this run is quite a feat.
I’ve had a special affinity for the writing of Tracy Letts, the direction of Anna D. Shapiro and the acting of the ensemble, from Deanna Dunagan and Rondi Reed to Elizabeth Ashley and Rashad, all the while in utter awe of Amy Morton. It has been a show and a production that will stay with me always, with so many moments of sheer tragedy and sheer comedy forever etched on my mind.
Those of you who never got to NY for the play, never fear: Broadway replacement Estelle Parsons will be headlining the national tour starting this August. Plus, Hollywood is working on a film adaptation (though I still think the original production should have been filmed for PBS). For fans of Steppenwolf and Letts, there are reasons to celebrate as they are bringing his latest play Superior Donuts to NY this fall.
I have been blessed to have been there for August on its opening night at the Imperial on December 4, 2007, so it feel right that I’ll be there at the final performance. So as John Cullum and Kimberley Guerrero take their seats in Beverly’s den on June 28, I will experience the show for the seventh and last time in this incarnation, a beautiful and cathartic bookend.
A play like this comes along so rarely. Plus, there are some great discounts if you want to rush to see it before it goes! I hope to see you there…
There has been some interesting conversations among my fellow bloggers about the appropriateness of shows when bringing kids to the theatre. Shows generally offer suggestions pertaining to the age appropriateness of plays and musicals, which I think is a good thing. While certain shows bring up immediate red flags, like Spring Awakening and Hair, it’s good to have a disclaimers available for other shows such as August: Osage County or Billy Elliot.
I have been in some houses where I wonder what the parents were thinking bringing their children out, either because of the subject matter or because of the behavior of said children. I did a double take when I saw a 12 year old taking his seat when I saw Hair. But I’ve also been at shows where the kids aren’t the problem, it’s the parents, or just the adults in general. But when it comes down to it, I think it’s entirely the parents’ call. It reminds me of a story…
Picture it: Westchester, NY 1993. I was ten, a friend and I went to the local library to borrow Gone with the Wind. However, the librarian refused telling us we were too young and that the 1939 classic had far too many “adult themes” for us. As a result, I took the greatest offense when someone told me I wasn’t old enough to see or read or hear something. The next movie we borrowed was Doctor Zhivago, another classic with a PG-13 rating for a little adulterous suggestiveness. The same librarian ironically enough saw no problem lending us that one…
When it comes down to it, if your kid’s gonna be restless or if you feel in your discretion that the content is not right, then don’t bring your child to that show. On the other hand, if you have an old soul for a child (such as Yours Truly), don’t underestimate their ability to understand, engage and think a little more maturely than the rest. I for one would have been riveted by Mary Stuart when I was ten. But then again, my best friend at the time would not have been. C’est la vie. Parents, trust your judgment and remember that if you’re going to the spend the money for a theatre experience, you’re not alone in your living room and be mindful of the hundreds if not thousands of people with whom you’ll be sharing the experience.
All the talk has reminded me of Roger Ebert’s final note in his review of Billy Elliot back in 2000, in which he directly addresses the R-rating of the film and its language:
“Note: Once again, we are confronted by a movie that might be ideal for teenagers near Billy Elliot’s age, but has been slapped with the R rating. While kids will gladly sneak into R-rated movies they hope will be violent or scary, the R barrier only discourages them from films that could be helpful or educational. In the case of Billy Elliot the movie contains only mild violence and essentially no sex, and the R is explained entirely by the language, particularly the “F-word.” The filmmakers believe that is a word much used by British coal miners, and I am sure they are correct.
There are two solutions to the linkage of the F-word and the R rating: 1). The MPAA should concede the melancholy fact that every teenager has heard this and most other nasty words thousands of times, or 2). Filmmakers should sacrifice the F-word in order to make their films more available to those under 17.”
One of the funniest moments in early television, here is the famed golf bit from The Honeymooners with Tony winner Jackie Gleason and Tony nominee Art Carney.
