Rex Reed's Old Man "Get Off My Lawn!" Rant About Puppets On Broadway

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/11/15 at 3:26pm

I Guess We Know After Eight's Real Name Now.

[aj88]

Posted: 4/11/15 at 3:29pm

Oh Rex Reed. Such charm and grace and wisdom.....

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 4/11/15 at 3:33pm

AE is not this eloquent.  He is, however, as insignificant.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 4/11/15 at 3:38pm

He also needs to learn how to fact check. He claims that Mulligan makes a riveting stage debut, when her Broadway debut was in fact as Nina in 2008 Seagull revival. 

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 4/11/15 at 3:44pm

I like the critic who references Henson, apparently unaware that he worked on the first season of SNL and was pretty daring for his time despite being primarily associated with children's entertainment. That's not to say that Henson would have written Hand to God, but there's definitely a clear line from his work to Askins. 

 

Not that Rex Reed's opinion particularly matters though- he's an irrelevant relic of the past and sort of an asshole, so who really cares what he thinks? 

[pmensky]

Posted: 4/11/15 at 3:45pm

Rex Reed is infamous for not fact checking. I expected nothing more from this irrelevant, bullying thief.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 4/11/15 at 3:48pm

Not to mention her Drama Desk, Drama League and Lortel nominated Karin in Through a Glass Darkly at The Atlantic and her London stage credits.

 

 

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/11/15 at 5:09pm

JC said it on here before, but I really think he's After8.  His movie reviews have become a joke (I dunno if they ever were taken seriously, but now a movie has to be really desperate to use a pull quote from him which didn't use to be the case.)  One blog pointed out that his reviews over the past year nearly all were the inverse of the majority of critics (I'm not saying the majority of critics are right, but in this case...)

What's funny is last Dec he went on a Sondheim rant (like I said, After8?) starting with his Into the Woods review which basically complained that Sondheim didn't want people to live happily ever after, and ending in several related pieces about how un melodic Sondheim's writing was, how it was for snobs, etc.  And to be clear, he made it very clear he was talking about Sondheim's work as a whole--not just ITW. 

I recently was looking through the booklet of the last reissue of the OBCR of A Little Night Music.  In a new piece written in 1999, the liner note writer ends it with a paragraph long quote from someone reviewing the album back in 1973.  It goes on and on about how complex, beautiful, etc, the music is, how sophisticated, and *actually* says--and I paraphrase--how yes, some of it is not hummable but anyone who thinks music has to be hummable to be good and moving isn't worth talking to.  OK--I'm sure you all guess who wrote this quote.  Rex Reed.

(Did Sondheim turn him down sometime between then and now?)

Updated On: 4/11/15 at 05:09 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/11/15 at 5:12pm

I remember watching Rex, with his typical eye shadow and liner, reviewing Purple Rain:  "And Prince.  What is THAT?  He looks like Maria Montez in a Cobra Woman movie."

Yeah, well, she's the one, boy.  She's the one.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 4/11/15 at 5:36pm

And when his television show was on in the eighties, he lavished praise on duds like EXTREMITIES and BLIND DATE while panning films like MOONSTRUCK, BLUE VELVET, DO THE RIGHT THING, and PLATOON.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/11/15 at 6:30pm

Namo's post clears something up...  I know Maria Montez was a camp common ground at the time, but still...  In Gore Vidal's brilliant sequel to Myra Breckinridge, called Myron--Myron is OBSESSED with her and her Cobra Women movies--it's a huge subplot (he time travels to the movie sets, fooling around with the men under their togas while frozen, etc--ok it's a weird book.)  That's a big part of the parody.

Vidal was on the shoot of Myra (the awful/great movie,) and has spoken about what a parasite he found Rex during their encounter.  Rex played Myron...  Clearly the sequel was a take down on Rex Reed (who of course I still think is After8 and is why A8 can afford to see every single god damned show--whatever newspaper Rex works for gives him tickets--and why he's so bitter especially about Sondheim.)  It all makes sense.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/11/15 at 6:33pm

Thank you for that info.  That's what I call a REAL "The More You Know…" moment.

[tazber]

Posted: 4/11/15 at 7:29pm

Ha! Now I'm really wondering......

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 4/11/15 at 7:39pm

"Ha! Now I'm really wondering......"

 Now we find out if After Eight will keep posting here.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 4/11/15 at 8:01pm

Those scenes where Myron travels in time to the Maria Montez movie sets are out of control. If I remember correctly isn't he stuck in a time loop where they just keep filming the one movie over and over again like Groundhog Day? 

And isn't there an Indian reservation nearby and Myron has some very steamy sex scenes with "the chief" or something?!

I thought Myra Breckenridge was a brilliantly hilarious trip, but Myron was a convoluted mess ha. 

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/11/15 at 8:14pm

Whizzer I admit I haven't read it in over ten years (probably time for a Myra/Myron re-read) but that sounds right.  I'm laughing to myself just thinking about it (especially with Rex/A8 in the role.)  The Indian reservation sounds about right too.

I like Myron--but a mess is right (it doesn't help that I find the use of long gone political figures Gore hated in lieu of dirty words.)  I think he was trying to outdo Myra, but by then the scandal Myra caused seemed old fashioned already, and the public was indifferent to the shocks...

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 4/11/15 at 8:41pm

Oh that's right! Instead of using swear words he put in the names of Supreme Court Justices for some reason. 

Myron and Myra were constantly fighting with each other to take control of the body they both inhabited. Sometimes Myron would wake up in the morning dressed in women's clothes, wearing tons of make up. He would be furious with himself and tried to figure out who was supplying him with the women's clothing that he would hide or destroy the next day. 

I think at one point Myra took possession of the Maria's body and tried to film some the movie scenes as her. I can't remember how Myron got back to his correct time period and escaped Myra and Maria's looped film set...

i would reread Myra, but don't know if I could handle the sequel again. I think you're right that Vidal wanted to be even more shocking the second time around and it just turned into a silly mess rather than the sensationalistic blockbuster the original was. 

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 4/11/15 at 9:21pm

A keen-eyed poster could look out for Rex at the next first preview if they really wanted to investigate further. Of course everyone's entitled to their privacy, etc. etc.

[morosco]

Posted: 4/11/15 at 11:31pm

Rex provides a pretty good pull quote when used out of context.

The audience explodes with laughter so loud and raucous that it echoes from the Booth Theatre through Shubert Alley, all the way to Sardi’s.

 

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/12/15 at 12:05am

Ha, Whizzer all of that has brought it right back to me--maybe there's no need to re-read...  (I haven't read Myra in even longer though, and I do remember it being brilliant.)

As for the Court Justice thing or whatever was due to the ones he named trying to pass a censorship bill or something and Myra came up in the court (or something similar...)  It shows how much changed between 1968 and 1974 in the US in terms of what was deemed offensive or not.

[mamaleh]

Posted: 4/12/15 at 1:42am

Maria Montez is also referenced in Mart Crowley's THE BOYS IN THE BAND:  " Maria Montez was a good woman."  The play predated the MYRA BRECKINRIDGE movie.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/12/15 at 1:51am

Oh, I know--as I awkwardly tried to say, I know she was something of a gay camp touchstone back then.  Though probably on Reed was still referencing her on TV in the 80s...

 

Reading fully PJ's original link--the writing really DOES seem remarkably similar...

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/15/15 at 12:03am

After Eight has been missing since the day I posted this....

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/15/15 at 12:06am

No he did post something so I followed it with "Hi Rex!".

[brdway411]

Posted: 4/15/15 at 12:09am

I loved Hand To God, RR needs to remove the stick from his arse.