Profile for Friendofethelm

I hate to throw cold water on everybody's enthusiasm, but I must point out that Margaret Rutherford was 52 when she played Arcati in the David Lean film version. Geraldine Page was 63 when she did the 1987 revival. Angela Lansbury will be 83 this Thursday. If she can pull this off, more power to her. But I wish she had played the role twenty years ago, and indeed, she almost did. Back in the late 80s, during her "Murder, She Wrote" heyday, CBS was considering a TV remake of Blithe Spirit with...

Many of the composers listed here have at least had one hit or, if not that, several shows produced on Broadway. IMO, the true hard luck composers were the ones from the 1980s who were very talented but never got the careers (or lives) they deserved because of the AIDS epidemic. If I had to single out one from truly dozens, it would be Michael Devon, the composer of an almost produced adaptation of SHEILA LEVINE. Wonderfully talented, Michael's work languished in the development hell of the 1...

I've never cared very much for 1776. The score is, IMO, mediocre, both musically and lyrically; the book strains for humor and the characters, despite their famous names, are not very interesting. Next, LES MISERABLES. I remember seeing it in 1987, trying to focus on Valjean and Javert, but wound up confused, bored and wondering when it was going to end. Ten pounds of musical stuffed in a five pound bag. Finally, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. Heaven only knows how many children were dragged to that s...

Dear Maktor327, Measures and bars are synonymous. 32 measures and 32 bars are the same thing. Each measure or bar is divided into a certain number of beats, depending on the time signature. Glad I could help. Best, Friendofethelm .

Oh, one more thing. If anyone ever argues that the placement of an intermission is a trivial thing and doesn't change a show, I always use this example. I was involved in a local production of WEST SIDE STORY in my youth and the director convinced everyone that ending Act One with the Tonight Quintet would greatly improve the show! You can imagine the arguments: Act One is too long, the Quintet ends the act with excitement and the audience wondering what will happen at the rumble, the deaths ...

This is a very interesting subject to me. You're right, Patash. Times and audiences do change. That's why the three-act play became out of fashion and the two-act form came in. Now, we seem to be entering a time when plays are becoming shorter and someday no intermission may become the norm. Should we then do all the two-act plays without a break and edit them accordingly? Playwrights may not have freely chosen the act structure for their work, but the good ones designed their plots and act b...

Changing the act breaks of a play or musical not in the public domain is an infringement of copyright. Period. To do so without getting express permission from the leasing organization or the author's estate puts that production in danger of being shut down. Why? Well, the author(s) of any well-constructed three-act play, particularly comedies, very carefully place(s) the act breaks at moments of suspense or after an important plot twist. Look at the act breaks of "The Man Who Came to Dinner"...

The original Act One ending of MY FAIR LADY and the one in the published script is, indeed, Zoltan Karpathy dancing with Eliza Doolittle at the Embassy Ball as Higgins and Pickering look on. The idea was to leave the audience wondering if she would pass the "Karpathy test" or fail as she did at Ascot.

THURGOOD is definitely worth seeing, particularly if the subject matter interests you. Thurgood Marshall's fascinating, historically significant life is well-served by the script and star. And closing performances are usually charged with an extra excitement - so, yes, I'd go for it.

I won't express an opinion on what she said because I wasn't there to hear her exact words or the tone of her voice or to see whether she was smiling or not. What I will say is this: the fact that, nowadays, an off-hand remark made by a Broadway star can be posted anonymously on the internet and made part of the public record for anyone to read and comment on, kinda proves her point - don't ya think?

Right before Angela Lansbury began her long stint on MURDER, SHE WROTE, she starred in a Broadway revival of MAME. It was a lavish, faithful production. Lansbury was as vibrant, glamorous, and exciting as ever, and ... Nobody came. I personally like the show, but for it to work today, I think you'd need to stage and cast it in a fresh way. This might sound mad, but I think it would be very interesting to see MAME given a more intimate production with fluid staging, less sets and a smaller cho...

I totally agree with SMILE by Howard Ashman and Marvin Hamlisch. It's a very strong score with sparkling lyrics and attractive music. I've long worn out my casette copy of the much-boot-legged original cast demo made to sell the show to potential stock and amateur producers. It boggles my mind that the only written-for-Broadway work by one of the best lyricists of his generation, with music by the composer of A CHORUS LINE, is not available to be enjoyed and evaluated alongside BEAUTY AND THE...

In my opinion, it is unwise and unfair to judge any show's quality till one has seen it, and even then, it's a crap shoot, given the fact that theatre, by its nature, always changes. I have seen terrific and lousy performances of the same show (CHICAGO is a good example) and I've seen bad musicals become good ones during its developmental process (KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN). Since its L.A. premiere, 13 has a new cast, director, and a new co-librettist. If the subject matter, the talent and tra...

The Circle-in-the-Square Downtown production of VALLEY OF THE DOLLS (which I saw) was NOT a musical, but, rather, a very funny scene by scene recreation of the movie, a la 39 STEPS. However, back in the 1980's, there was a thinly-veiled musical spoof of VOD called LEGS, produced at the now-defunct Musical Theatre Works. It had the same story and characters, but they were given different names and slight alterations to avoid getting the rights (and being sued!). It was slight, but entertaining...

Several years ago, I was walking my dog on the corner of 23rd and Seventh when the backseat window of a car waiting for the light to turn green opened. There was Valerie Harper, starring in TALE OF THE ALLERGIST'S WIFE at the time, yelling out the window: "You have the cutest dog I've ever seen"! The light turned green and off she went. Now, THAT'S nice!

Infinite Theatre Frenzy, there are three books you may like that come to mind: THE SEESAW CHRONICLES, William Gibson's diary of writing/mounting Two for the Seesaw, THE MAKING OF FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, which is probably out of print, and NO PICKLE, NO PERFORMANCE, an hysterical memoir of summer stock theatre by an author whose name escapes me at the moment.

To put this casting in an historical context, here's a list of actresses (by no means complete) who have played the title role of HEDDA GABLER in high-profile productions on stage, screen or TV: Tallulah Bankhead, Annette Bening, Ingrid Bergman, Cate Blanchett, Claire Bloom, Kate Burton, Judy Davis, Glenda Jackson, Kelly McGillis, Martha Plimpton, Diana Rigg, Fiona Shaw, Maggie Smith, Janet Suzman. It's a notoriously difficult part to pull off and I give Mary Louise Parker a lot of credit for...

Two incredibly funny (and enlightening) books not mentioned above are THE MAKING OF NO, NO, NANETTE by Don Dunn and DIARY OF A MAD PLAYWRIGHT by James Kirkwood. They both are blow-by-blow chronicles of two tempestuous shows (NANETTE and LEGENDS) that went through severe backstage angst with very different results. No other books I know capture as well the highs, lows and lunacies of the theater.

Two of my all-time favorite bad lyrics: From EVITA: "What's the use of the strongest heart in a body that's falling apart?" WHOOPS! THERE GOES AN EAR! From INTO THE LIGHT: "Science without the data's like gazpacho without the tomatoes!"

From Pre-1920's - THE MIKADO (W.S. Gilbert) From the 1920's - SHOW BOAT (Oscar Hammerstein II) From the 1930's - ANYTHING GOES (Cole Porter) From the 1940's - PAL JOEY (Lorenz Hart) From the 1950's - (tie) GUYS AND DOLLS (Frank Loesser) and MY FAIR LADY (Alan Jay Lerner) From the 1960's - SHE LOVES ME (Sheldon Harnick) From the 1970's - The work of Stephen Sondheim From the 1980's - BABY (Richard Maltby, Jr.) From the 1990's - BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (Howard Ashman) From the 2000's - (tie) HAIRS...