RECKLESS with Mary-Louise Parker discussion thread

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 10/14/04 at 12:46pm

Because there has to be a thread on this damn board that isn't about musicals! AND I would love to hear opinions of the show. Please venture outside of your BROOKLYN/WICKED/RENT obsessed little worlds and see something different...
Anyone...?

[sweeedboy]

Posted: 10/14/04 at 12:51pm

I am really excited to see this show. I was in it last year and its such an amazingly wierd and fun show. From the very beginning you know you are in for the ride of a lifetime and the show never lets up its intense hold.

[Al Dente]

Posted: 10/14/04 at 1:27pm

While I enjoy Parker a great deal, I can't imagine what she could do to make this show watchable. I so deeply loathe the movie and find it so far above surreal (and not in a good way), that were I in NYC, I doubt I'd be rushing. I, too, am interested in hearing thoughts from people who've seen the show, which I fear we'd be hard pressed to find on this board. Mia Farrow bothered me the most about the film, her one note, whiney, neurotic schtick, is never more obvious and painful than in Reckless, so perhaps at least Parker has brought some warmth, charm to the role it it's current incarnation?

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 10/14/04 at 1:30pm

Did anyone see the original production in the eighties with Robin Bartlett?

[pab]

Posted: 10/14/04 at 1:47pm

Well first of all, how many movies that are made from plays are ever as good or better than the play? I know of very few. I saw "Reckless" on Saturday night and I thought that it was a very good production and as for Mary-Louise Parker, she was brilliant!

[BreakingTheCircle07]

Posted: 10/14/04 at 2:29pm

I'm hoping to see "Reckless" this Saturday. Her interview was so insightful and sweet, like her! I cannot believe she's 40! She looks so freakin' young, esp. in "Angels."

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 10/14/04 at 2:47pm

Here's a great interview with Craig Lucas, who basically discovered Mary Louise:


Craig Lucas Interview

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 10/14/04 at 3:28pm

I saw it last night. Parker and the rest of the cast is outstanding, as is Mark Brokaw's direction and the Allen Moyer's set design. The play itself, though, I'm still sorting through (I didn't see the original production or the movie).

SPOILER QUESTION --

Was anybody else bothered by her abandoning her children, apparently never thinking about them again, yet the last scene indicates she still has feelings for her son? Why did she never try to see or speak to her children again (it bothered me the whole play)? Is she a Blanche DuBois type, only able to deal with illusion and fantasy? If so, was it that her husband's betrayal so shattered her happy domestic illusions that she made herself forget it ever happened and ran away, rather than confront the very flawed and messy reality? Or is she just a jerk?

[BwayTheatre11]

Posted: 10/14/04 at 3:30pm

This play sounds extremely interesting. Is there a movie, Al? I would love to watch it.

[magruder]

Posted: 10/14/04 at 3:48pm

Couple of spoilers here, so don't read any further if you are going to see the show...

The play is about a number of things, but in particular, it's the evolution of a woman. She's childlike and flighty at the beginning of the play, but at the end, after the talk show incident and in the play's final scene, she's a fully realized human being. She also learns that rather than everything happening for a reason, sometimes bad things happen for no reason at all. I think that only when she is brought to her senses is she able to truly be a parent and a real human being. As such, in the final scene with Tom Jr., she tells him, twice, "I'm sorry I kept you waiting" in both senses of the phrase.

As for the children, in Act One, she makes two phone calls to her friend Jeanette, saying to look after the boys, so I think she's clearly concerned about them, but won't make an attempt to contact them for fear of her own life.

[little_sally]

Posted: 10/14/04 at 3:53pm

Ah, I can not wait to see this show. I love Mary-Louise Parker.

[Al Dente]

Posted: 10/14/04 at 8:45pm

Yes, Bway11, there is a movie and you can rent it on VHS only. It stars Mia Farrow in the (now), Parker role and in the role now being played by Rosie perez, Mary-Louise Parker, plays "Pooty" in the film.

[BwayTheatre11]

Posted: 10/14/04 at 10:03pm

Thanks.

[Broadwaylady]

Posted: 10/14/04 at 10:13pm

I am seeing it the end of November!!!!!!!!!!