The Ladies Who Lunch Lyric Question- Page 2

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 6/6/12 at 4:28pm

And here is a terrif website of all of the LIFE covers:

http://www.coverbrowser.com/covers/life

It should also be noted that they were known for their amazing photography.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 6/6/12 at 4:29pm

Ha, believe it or not doodle, I got into Follies before I saw The Women for the first time.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/6/12 at 4:30pm

It coulda been Reno Sweeney, couldn't itta been?

[Unknown User]

Posted: 6/6/12 at 4:36pm

I was just thinking of a non-USA, non-English speaking observer trying to fathom the depths of tawdriness of the Reno strip. I don't think you can really appreciate that reference until you've smelled Reno.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 6/6/12 at 4:40pm

But the Reno reference isn't about the tawdriness of it is, is it? I've always assumed Carlotta had been through Reno to get a divorce.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 6/6/12 at 4:41pm

Shirley Temple? Of all the obscure references in "I'm Still Here" why is only poor old Brenda Frazier updated?

BF4Eva

[broadwaydevil]

Posted: 6/6/12 at 4:43pm

^Phyllis, I agree with you and that's consistent with the interpretation on the Follies website (not saying that that makes it definitive - just stating that it supports our position.)

Referring to Reno the city and not Reno as a person also makes sense because it parallels the next line about Beverly Hills. It would be quite odd to say that she was cast as Reno (or perhaps saw the show - not sure which interpretation you were aiming for) and then immediately follow that up by saying she's been through Beverly Hills.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 6/6/12 at 4:44pm

See Phyllis I always saw it more as "I've been through Reno (a godforsaken hell hole where I played three shows a night singing Harold Arlen songs to people playing penny slots), I've been through Beverly Hills ( Where I bought a beautiful house with a pool when I had that TV show).

But that might relate more to my personal experiences than Carlota.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 6/6/12 at 4:49pm

Uh oh Joe, don't let AfterEight see your link to that VF article or you'll become the (second) biggest misogynist on here!

[bobs3]

Posted: 6/6/12 at 4:55pm

Decades before there was Kim Kardashian there was Brenda Frazier.

[broadwaydevil]

Posted: 6/6/12 at 4:56pm

A world without Kim Kardashian?!

I'll drink to that.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 6/6/12 at 6:09pm

Vanity Fair is misogynist?

[Jon]

Posted: 6/6/12 at 7:05pm

I knew Reno as the quickie divorce city from nearly every sitcom of the 1960's and 70's.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 6/6/12 at 7:14pm

"When I pulled my hamstring I went to a misogynist." ~ Brittany S. Pierce

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 6/6/12 at 7:26pm

The Pinter reference is so spot on. A "trendy" playwright who people praised but wrote plays that no one could understand.

Sidebar: when Deb Monk would sing the Pinter line there was a Pinter play which totally fit the bill playing next door at the old Laura Pels (who was like an European Lady who lunched herself). And if you sat thru MOONLIGHT, you could hear the opening number of COMPANY coming thru the cheap walls.

Now let's rediscuss the Seagrams' building.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/6/12 at 9:41pm

Bernadette Peters and Richard Chamberlin perform "Barcelona" from a 1979 television special.

http://www.bluegobo.com/production/2886492/video/10505

I forgot how good this is.

[madbrian]

Posted: 6/6/12 at 9:45pm

I always thought Brenda Frazier was more Paris Hilton than Kardashian.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/6/12 at 10:01pm

She was neither of them, really, because she was a society girl:

[thetinymagic2]

Posted: 6/6/12 at 11:52pm

"beebe's bathysphere".
I had the great fortune, back in 2001, of having Steve S explain this lyric to me in the skanky basement of the Belasco, between shows during previews of the Follies revival. He was fast asleep on a hideous old prop chair next to that telephone booth nr the men's room. He woke up as I passed by, I said hello - we chatted. Real story - I found it really hard to listen to him, 'cause he has these crazy facial tics, and he was very disheveled. I love how he doesn't give a **** about clothing! Anyway, his dad took him to the NY World's Fair when he was about 10, saw the bathyphere, was fascinated, and, of course!? remembered this 25-30 yrs later for a lyric. Just like Steve!!!

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/7/12 at 7:35am

Perfect Classic Sondheim Anecdote. Did he wake up, deliver a pearl of wisdom, and then go right back to sleep? Like a character in a contemporary Alice in Wonderland...

[Unknown User]

Posted: 6/7/12 at 10:12am

That story gives me the heebie-jeebies.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 6/8/12 at 7:24am

"Vanity Fair is misogynist? "

When discussing the ladies who lunch, at any rate... (Apparently)

[After Eight]

Posted: 6/8/12 at 8:09am

^

The song is misogynistic.

A hateful song, and a deformation of the truth.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 6/8/12 at 8:24am

I believe you mean the Truth.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/8/12 at 8:37am

"Deformation"?

What do you even think that means?