Margo, time to answer the ultimate question - are you REALLY real, or REALLY a computer chip?
Come clean once and for all, bitch!!
xoxoxoxoxox
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
What is your favorite way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon?
Alone curled up on my couch watching old movies or reading and snacking on comfort food and maybe chatting with old friends on the phone.
Where did your interest in the theatre start? Was it something that was always there? A gradual interest that built over the years? Or did some incredible performance or individual so totally stun you that you had to move into this world?
My parents started taking me to Broadway when I was 4. Apparently, I was riveted by everything that was happening on the stage. I stared in unblinking awe, never squirming or even moving. I was hooked immediately and since it was obvious I enjoyed it so much and had no problem sitting still and behaving for two and a half hours at a time, my parents began to regularly take me to plays and musicals both on Broadway and at the DC area theatres near where I grew up (Kennedy Center, National, Warner, Arena). No kiddie theatre, mind you (my mother told me that since it was clear that I thoroughly understood everything that was happening in the adult shows, there was no point -- she once took me to some children's theatre version of Alice in Wonderland when I was 5 and I was bored out of my mind, so never again).
I saw the big musicals (Fiddler, Man of La Mancha, The Wiz, Pippin, A Chorus Line), contemporary plays (Deathtrap, Elephant Man, Amadeus) and lots of classics (Long Day's Journey with Robards, Zoe Caldwell and Michael Moriarty, Elizabeth Ashley in Skin of our Teeth and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Plummer and James Earl Jones in Othello) all before I was 16.
What movies do YOU consider old?
::runs from flames::
Hey Margo, you QUEEN for the day ! How are you going to spend it, besides typing answers to all the questions?
Congrats and Merry Margomas!
If you were a flavored condom, what flavor would you be?
Who is your least favorite poster on BWW?
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/2/05
CONGRATS MARGO!
i really look up to you on the boards... you know EVERYTHING... you OWN the main board. it's about time you got this title !
Margo - it's so good to see you here. Believe me, as the Queen of the day you can do whatever you want. You don't have to answer any questions if you'd rather not - I just hope you do!.
I have no idea what your actual profession is - I just know for a fact that you are a great teacher and that's the most important profession there is. Your success lies in the way that you teach - without trying. You simply do every time you show up here. I have no idea why it took this long to get you on this list but I can tell you that naming you was the greatest honor I could have.
Have a completely WONDERFUL day!
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
1. What are your favorite theatrical/entertainment biographies and why?
I've always loved Moss Hart's Act One since I was a kid. There's just something beautifully nostalgic and hopeful about the story. I liked Frank Rich's Ghost Light for similar reasons. Helen Epstein's Joe Papp bio is a throughly researched and documented account of one of the most, flamboyant, passionate and larger-than-life figures in the history of the American Theatre. Ditto to Kissel's bio of David Merrick "The Abominable Showman."
Lorraine Hansberry's autobiography "To Be Young Gifted and Black" is powerful and inspiring. James Kirkwood's "Diary of a Mad Playwright" about doing "Legends" on the road with Mary Martin and Carol Channing is a hoot. So is Patrick Dennis' "Auntie Mame" and its sequel "Around the World With Auntie Mame." Oscar Levant's "Memoirs of an Amnesiac is also quite entertaining. Mel Gussow's Albee did a great job of capturing the man's complicated psychology (it became clear to me that Albee's mother is present in nearly every one of his plays).
Martin Duberman's "Paul Robeson" was an intimate portrait of the one of the most fascinating figures of the 20th Century. "Ridiculous!" by David Kaufman about Charles Ludlam and his Ridiculous Theatre Company (as well as Ludlam's own quasi-memoir, The Scourge of Human Folly, which lays out his philosophy of the theatre) both offer illuminating portraits of one of the most important (and copied and imitated) figures in the history of theatre.
There are so many more, but that's what I can think of now.
2. What are some of your favorite performances and why?
Oh man, way too many to name. I did compile a list that's in my blog and part of my Best of 2005 thread that you can access here:
https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.cfm?page=3&thread=881818&startthread=1751484&boardname=bway
3. What's the most exciting trend that you see in American theatre today?
Hmmmm..... a positive trend? Let me get back to you on that one.
Congratulations, Margo! A well-deserved honor.
I love reading your reviews, and I feel that I've learned so much about theatre from reading your posts.
Now for question... hmm... What upcoming pruduction are you most looking forward to seeing, and why?
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/2/05
Margo - I remember that list now - thanks!
It's almost scary how many of the same shows in the same areas and time-frames we've seen - and how many of the same ones stayed with us LONG after the fact. Of course, YOU actually learned from and formed well-rounded opinions on theatre because of it, I on the other hand still just like what I like - that's why I'm really glad you're exactly what Mamie said, an excellent teacher.
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
How did you discover BroadwayWorld?
I discovered BWW when looking for a new theatre board after a major site renovation at All That Chat slowed the board traffic down to a crawl and the discussions became less lively (I know there are a few of us who discovered BWW around that time). I had also gotten sick of the bitterness and nastiness of ATC. There are a lot of brilliant people over there and I've learned a lot from them, but I just could take the meanness and pedantry anymore (though I still look in daily and post occasionally).
Congrats, again, Margo!
Is there a show on Broadway (or off) that you missed that you wished you could have seen?
The idea of Margo having missed anything, based on Margo's Year in review from the main board is mind-boggling!
Or, perhaps, a show from before Margo's time that he would have loved seeing.
Margo,
If you were a bird, what bird would you be and why?
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
Margo...who is your favorite performer?
Not sure. There are lots of people I really enjoy. Of the people currently alive and presumably I could go see again at somepoint (gotta limit this somehow), there's Vanessa Redgrave, Dench, Zoe Caldwell, James Earl Jones, Maggie Smith, Mary Testa, S. Epatha Merkerson, Jeffrey Wright, Nathan Lane, Stritch, Angela Lansbury, Rosemary Harris, Charles Dutton, Aretha, Gladys Knight, Dallas Roberts, Keith Nobbs, Mary-Louise Parker, Patti Labelle, Chaka Khan, Al Green, Jennifer Holliday (yes she's self parody and I lover her for it), k.d. lang, Jimmy Scott, Leontyne Price (technically retired, but alive), Deborah Voigt, Dolora Zajik, Renee Fleming, Cassandra Wilson, Prince, Rufus Wainwright, OutKast, Kiki & Herb, Jackie Hoffman, Eddie Izzard, Lily Tomlin, Dame Edna .......... I'm getting dizzy....
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/14/05
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
Vodka tonics. They're like mother's milk to me
Margo, what was your first Broadway show and the impression it made on you?
What was the first show you were disappointed with and why?
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/14/05
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
What upcoming production are you most looking forward to seeing, and why?
There are several, but at the top is a production of Angels in America in Chicago that I'm flying out to see in April. One of my best and oldest friends is starring as Prior. He was born to play the role and it's a dream come true for him, as well as me (we've talking about him playing it for YEARS). It's going to majorly put him on the map and I couldn't be happier.
In addition, there's:
-- Hedda Gabbler at BAM with Cate Blanchett
-- Well by Lisa Kron (one of my favorite plays of the last few years finally makes it to Broadway)
-- Grey Gardens at Playwrights
-- Faith Healer with Cherry Jones and Ralph Fiennes
-- Mame in DC with Baranski and Harriet Harris (and I may check out a local production of Caroline or CHange while I'm down there)
-- Awake and Sing! (happy to see Mark Ruffalo back on stage; and Zoe Wannamaker and Ben Gazzara are legends)
Congratulations to Margo on his special day on BWW! You are extremely knowledgable and well versed with regard to NYC Theatre and its history. I really do enjoy reading your posts. Thanks for sharing your musings on theatre with us - you are appreciated.
Margo..if you could interview one person (alive or dead) who would it be and what questions would you ask them?
Ignore my questions, will you? I will snatch that crown off your head faster than you can say "Mary Queen of Queens!"
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