Jan Maxwell changed my life in the Kennedy Center's production of Follies. I had never before seen someone with so much access to their talent - I remain shaken by her Phyllis.
I'm really enjoying the clips posted in this thread of Jan in performance but many may not know the wit and humor the lady herself possessed. Here's a delightful interview with Seth Rudetsky that Jan gave while she was starring in Follies on Broadway:
This is a loss that is and will be deeply felt, but let her humor, talent, and compassion live on.
"Ephraim, let me go. It's been long enough, Ephraim. Every evening for all these years I've put out the cat, I've locked the door, I've made myself a little rum toddy and before I went to bed I said a prayer thanking God that I was independent, that no--one else's life was mixed up with mine. Then one night an oak leaf fell out of my Bible. I placed it there when you asked me to marry you, Ephraim. A perfectly good oak leaf but without color and without life
I'm at intermission of the 7/2 sat eve perf and this is a stunning show. I'm in the front row and the detail and quality of the costumes is stellar - a new outfit for every song basically. I'll update later with my full impression but this is a special moment for me as I'm such a huge Patti and Christine fan.
My friends and I have been playing the B-list Dolly game for awhile now, to no satisfying results.
I think Susan Lucci would be a spectacular 3-a-week Dolly. She's theater trained, age appropriate, a big enough name, and the matinee ladies would be head-over-heels to see Erica Kane in person.
I'm aware that that her show has been off the air for a few years, but she's a pop-culture icon, if only for the Emmy thing. And she&#
Tomorrow evening, I'll have the privilege of seeing Mr. Hal Holbrook in his legendary one-man show about Mark Twain. I scheduled my visit home specifically to see his appearance at the University of Missouri and am really looking forward to seeing this show in Twain's home state.
Since Mr. Holbrook has been performing as Twain since 1954 I was wondering what the BWW Community's experiences were with this show?
MR: "Did they fire up the massive pipe organ especially since it was a silent firm?"
They did!
AND there was an organ recital during pre-seating/seating. The last, or maybe next-to-last, song before the anniversary show began was 'Phantom'. You've never experienced the Phantom vamp until you feel the rumble of one of the largest-ever theater organs with all the stops out. You can literally feel it in the floor and walls. I still get chills remembering it.
Edit: Found a decent clip of the late, brilliant Stan Kann playing a Phantom/Bach medley. If you use headphones there are a few points in the clip where you can get a sense of the vibrations coming off that thing. It's stunning:
This is a wonderful 8 minute PBS package on the history of the Mighty Wurlitzer of the St. Louis Fox with a bit of history of the theater itself:
I described Riedel's style as precise because he manages to accurately document concurrent events in a non-confusing way. I never lost track of who was who in the Shubert organization or the Nederlander office, or any of the many, many other personalities Riedel profiles in the 80 or so years this book chronicles.
If anyone in RAZZLE DAZZLE, or a member of their family, has publicly refuted any claims made by Riedel, then please, respond with links to
Mr Roxy said: "Hard to believe Riedel wrote a very good book in Razzle Dazzle"
It's not so hard to believe.
Riedel's self-satisfaction and overall off-putting persona overshadow his talent as a writer. I don't agree with 90% of his reviews or enjoy any of his articles blatantly sucking up to industry big-wigs, but his style and technique is engaging and precise.
newintown said: "...Some like to see Follies as a parade of old folks strutting their stuff in flashy, old-fashioned musical numbers. But Follies (need it be said again?) is about how life takes us all to places we never expected or wanted to go.
A friend from high school married his first love, had several children, has worked the same respectable job for decades, is now a still-happily-married grandfather; and yet time and again, he'
SHOP BROADWAY
