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1970s Broadway
Sep 10
2012, 05:13:59 PM
And let's not lose sight of the fact that, in the 50s - 70s, Stritchie could keep her dressing room well-stocked. Another glorious aspect of the era: personal responsibility was in play and alcoholism could still be glamorous.
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1970s Broadway
Sep 10
2012, 02:01:24 PM
Aw, I knew I got the name wrong. Yet I recall: "C stands for cottage cheese, D stands for dungarees, E stands for endocrine glands..." Also, the lovely 'Something Very Strange.'
Did you ever read about the opening night scenario (I think it was in a Coward bio)? James Thurber making a scene at Sardi's, and Dietrich demanding she be allowed in the kitchen to make Noel some soup?
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1970s Broadway
Sep 10
2012, 01:44:15 PM
I love 'Eddie'. Point made. But at least I spared him the full score of 'Sail Away' (which, may God have mercy on my soul, I still know by heart). Anyone wanna join me in a rousing chorus of 'The Alphabet Song'?
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1970s Broadway
Sep 10
2012, 01:25:06 PM
Egad! How lame (or lamer) would I be in my vehemence if I acted with an expectation of being attended to??? How specious a motive! How demeaning to myself.
Re 'Mormon': a million people can say a wrong thing and it is still a wrong thing. Oh, A8, it's not so rough to shout into the howling wind. It's good exercise. And, if you have discernment and knowledge, God damn it, you're supposed to. This is what a civilized theater lover does, just as he fully assumes no one's likely to hear. Lack o
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1970s Broadway
Sep 10
2012, 12:07:35 PM
Whoa. Stritch can say 'f--k' in every sentence, and I get asterisked? WTF?
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1970s Broadway
Sep 10
2012, 12:05:39 PM
(I'm also hot.) I don't think such rage is completely impotent, though. I think it's sort of a generational responsibility, and in my own little life I have seen it make modest ends, even in letting a young person know that the play he thought was original was a rip from an old O'Neill. We are obligated to bemoan. What's funny here is that I'm usually more cynical than you. God knows, I shudder and turn away, most of the time. But I think it's good for us to cry out because MAYBE somebody is li
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1970s Broadway
Sep 10
2012, 11:29:41 AM
I had sort of thought we shape the culture, at least somewhat. Certainly, when people weary of computerized spectacle on stages - and they will, because culture is cyclical - there will be the opportunity to reinforce what the theater is supposed to be about. That can be promoted beforehand, as well, even by this kind of bitching. Is it so ridiculous that, maybe, a bunch of Lupones would change the scene by refusing to sing miked? That an actor (with clout) could change a production by assertin
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1970s Broadway
Sep 9
2012, 09:35:46 PM
Boy, do I agree. Sure, B'way was always after $$$, but there was an old-school, personal style even to the greed. And you isolated what kills me, and truly does define the difference (because there really is a difference, apart from fond memories): it is no longer on a human level. This is irrefutable because, as you say, it's all about movies, and i seriously do not understand that one bit. I am supremely uninterested in a 'Footloose' or a 'Big' or a 'Prada' with songs and dances. Or lasers. I'
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re: I honestly think the best Sondheim score ever is
Sep 9
2012, 01:37:45 PM
I'm sure it's up here elsewhere, but the challenge is impossible because each score is so its own. There's no criterion except excellence, unlike other composers who follow styles and themes. I think PO is the best because of its haunting melodies and sheer power. I think 'Follies' is the best because it's so freaking brilliant all around, and 'All Things...' is, to me, his most exquisite song ever. I think 'Whistle' is astounding. I think 'Assassins' and 'Company' are also his best scores. O
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1970s Broadway
Sep 9
2012, 01:30:30 PM
I always mix up 'Mary, Mary' with 'I Do, I Do'. Don't quite know why.
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1970s Broadway
Sep 9
2012, 09:36:30 AM
Worst of the 70s? My vote goes to 'Raisin!'. Sweet Jesus, that was painful.
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1970s Broadway
Sep 9
2012, 09:00:33 AM
Troll? That's so 70s.
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1970s Broadway
Sep 9
2012, 08:35:47 AM
Understood, A8. Less understood is OP. Am I the OP? Original Poster? Old Phart? I hate acronyms as much as I hate the idea of Matt Broderick as a leading man in musical comedy.
Back to the 70s. Waxing. Favorite straight plays? I liked 'The Au Pair Man' a lot, ditto Albee's 'Seascape', though neither was brilliant. I also remember Albee skulking away down Shubert Albee in a frantic, Groucho Msrx way. Prolly off to meet Glynnis Johns.
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1970s Broadway
Sep 9
2012, 08:08:38 AM
PS Cameron Mackintosh is a tool. A billionaire tool. I love Lupone's reaction to his BS in the McKay doco, about miked singing being essential today. David Merrick was just as greedy, but at least he bowed down to the art he was hustling, rather than reinventing it.
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1970s Broadway
Sep 9
2012, 08:03:27 AM
It is genuinely nice to see calm in the morning. Now, if I can only remember to shut up about hating certain actors and being rude about it, things would be swell. (See how subtly I apologized?)
A8, Ye Who Seemeth to Strike Fear in This Land, I must say only: defining MM as a wonderful show is somewhat intrinsically not dispassionate. Me, I really prefer to love shows and stand by them even while nodding in agreement about badness here and there. Most great shows by far, certainly, are not p
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1970s Broadway
Sep 8
2012, 11:33:15 PM
Thanks. I'm getting scared.
By the way. If I'm such a delusional ass about the 70s theater, why is it the brilliant Amanda Plummer left NYC like a bat out of hell because the scene, as she put it, had become commercial and sterile? Why does Cherry Jones maintain, if every generation of wonderful actors is making wonderful theater, that the only work to be had worth anything in the 80s was in regional theater? I tell you, the tide really did turn.
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1970s Broadway
Sep 8
2012, 11:20:48 PM
Wow, I hit a nerve. I was definitely obnoxious. But I saw Roberts, by the way, and she was pretty bad. I get the stars-die-new-ones-take-over, but I can't see arguing anything with you because your exaltation of ALL those people is as scary - to me - as the Amy Irving thing. Seriously, now. What are your standards for evaluating actors? Then again, I'm pretty harsh. I have never been able to comprehend why anyone thinks Morgan Freeman is worth ****.
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1970s Broadway
Sep 8
2012, 11:05:08 PM
Yee-ha, Jon. Bingo.
I can be very dense and it did not occur to me that y'all have histories. Forget the 70s - I'm back in the 90s and the AOL chat wars.
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1970s Broadway
Sep 8
2012, 10:58:44 PM
Now I have to have that nightmare where my phone rings and Bacall is singing, 'Hurry Back'.
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1970s Broadway
Sep 8
2012, 10:55:11 PM
You kind of make my point by listing Elaine Stritch.
Seriously, I get it and I appreciate that response. I know I was asking for it. But I look over those names and the length of the list obfuscates worth to me. Linda Lavin? Phylicia Rashad? Julia Roberts, who nearly got booed off the stage by critics who love her? My humble list was about actors of serious stature, not celebrities. I realize that opinions differ as to talent. I realize that any 'my actors are better than yours' is absurd
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