Lillian Hellman on 1974 Candide

I just read "The Ballad of John LaTouche," which is a fascinating and quite extensive biography of the lyricist of "The Golden Apple" and many other works. He was also an early lyricist for the original 1956 production of "Candide." In the book, the author mentions that Lillian Hellman could be homophobic (despite the fact that she had some gay friends), but I was quite surprised to read Hellman's vitriolic reaction to the 1974 revisal of "Candide" that, by her own edict, didn't contain any of the work she had contributed to the original production. Here's what she wrote: "I was horrified that night I went to sit on those hard benches to see that piece of s**t that appeared. It was as if Mr. Prince had taken out his penis and waved it at a gaggle of fags and Mr. Hugh Wheeler stood right behind him doing the same thing. It was a trashy mess and a disgrace to be seen. Lennie Bernstein's description of how successful it was with people shouting and jumping up and down does not impress me. Diet books have been successful and so has Herman Wouk."

Updated On: 12/26/17 at 12:27 PM

Lillian Hellman has done some great work, and appears to have been a very interesting person who lead an interesting life. Since her book was the primary target for most of the criticism directed at the original production of Candide, her dismissal of the Prince version seems like sour grapes to me. However, it is worth noting that Ms. Hellman was never known for her light touch; it is altogether possible that she would have disliked the revisal of Candide just as much, even if she had not written the script that was thrown out). Nevertheless, people should sometimes just keep their mouths ****, because they end up looking petty; especially when the original work she is defending was widely trashed.