Cate Blanchett as Margo Channing in ALL ABOUT EVE — Page 2

MrsSallyAdams said: "I saw a concert of Applause last year and there is a big structural problem. Margo doesn't carry the story yet the musical keeps her onstage with nothing to do.

Margo carries the first half of the film. Once Eve takes her part her story is done. The focus shifts to Eve's blackmail of Karen and her *** spoiler? *** clash with Addison DeWitt. Margo doesn't confront her again or plan any sort of revenge.

In Applause we keep going back to scenes of Margo arguing with Bill in her apartment. Bacall never got a duet with Penny Fuller. She had to settle for the bland "One of a Kind" and the terrible "Something Greater."

I'll be curious to see if the new play gives Blanchett more to do or if it takes the spotlight off of her for the final scenes.



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I too saw a concert version about 10 years ago and your analysis is spot on. (Though I think there are plenty of poorer songs in the show than "Something Greater".)

I would only add that in 2017-18, are we still asking whether a woman can have a career and a successful marriage? That dramatic question was pretty creaky even when APPLAUSE first opened.

Meh, more interested in seeing Ivo van Hove's evisceration of Ayn Rand's THE FOUNTAINHEAD at BAM in November.

Updated On: 10/17/17 at 12:05 AM

I'm pretty in love with this idea. I'm not usually one for movie adaptations for stage (this seems to be that even if the film itself was adapted from the play The Wisdom of Eve which was an adaptation of the short story), especially with five-star near-perfect films, but for some reason, this one is seriously interesting to me.

The Mankiewicz.screenplay is structured like a play, befitting its theatrical setting, and I think is a natural for a stage adaptation. It doesn't require a great deal of embellishment or structural rehab to make it stageworthy. Writing its adaptation is really an editing job, the character development and plot being fine as is. Blanchett seems a good choice to me, so believable in any period, but it's Eve's story. That's the casting news I'm really eager for.