Widow Goldman Speaks.....

#1

Widow Goldman Speaks.....

Posted: 9/21/11 at 10:13pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOK7WkU7XEM&feature=channel_video_title

I had never seen her prior to this video. She seems enthralled with the production. It appears that she was heavily involved, as she has been with all major productions of the show. I just PRAY she doesn't ban dialogue from the new cast recording.

Updated On: 9/21/11 at 10:13 PM

#2

Widow Goldman Speaks.....

Posted: 9/21/11 at 10:17pm

Can we start calling her "Mrs. Goldman" or "Barbara Goldman"? Calling her "The Widow Goldman" feels very condescending to me...it's like when someone refers to some diva as "Madame."

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"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body

#3

Widow Goldman Speaks.....

Posted: 9/21/11 at 10:20pm

I say call her Barbara Goldman!


Even though her name is Bobby. :)

She just LOOKS like a piece of work.

Personally, I like the moniker "The Widow" whatever. It's cute.

#4

Widow Goldman Speaks.....

Posted: 9/21/11 at 10:28pm

Her name is Barbara Goldman. Didn't realize that she went by Bobby. Either way, it sounds more respectful to me than The Widow Goldman, especially since people here and on ATC have seemed to use that sobriquet in a rather tongue-in-cheek manner.

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"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body

#5

Widow Goldman Speaks.....

Posted: 9/21/11 at 10:30pm

Respectful or not, "The Widow Goldman" is rather hilarious. Someone should write a play with that title.

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"Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos."-Stephen Sondheim

#6

Widow Goldman Speaks.....

Posted: 9/21/11 at 10:35pm

Well, I think a lot of people on the boards feel some antipathy toward her, due to her micro-management of the words James Goldman wrote for Follies. I think people are just being cheeky, though.

I just wonder what made her so happy about this production that she found lacking in others.

And I stand corrected, AC. I thought she was just Bobby!

#7

Widow Goldman Speaks.....

Posted: 9/21/11 at 10:37pm

I've actually NEVER called her this before, lol. I didn't mean to start anything.

#8

Widow Goldman Speaks.....

Posted: 9/21/11 at 10:40pm

Own it, lljay. I LOVE it.

#9

Widow Goldman Speaks.....

Posted: 9/21/11 at 10:41pm

Ljay, I wasn't referring to you specifically! Just the concept. It seems more prevalent on ATC than here.

I should, but I can't, understand why people WOULDN'T expect her to have an interest in the presentation of her husband's works.

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"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body

Updated On: 9/21/11 at 10:41 PM

#10

Widow Goldman Speaks.....

Posted: 9/21/11 at 10:49pm

It's not that. At least, not how I understood it. I was under the impression she was part of the reason that the Paper Mill production didn't transfer. And how originally - as lljay mentioned - that production was to have dialogue recorded as well. So, it's more like she was seemed to be actively OBSTRUCTING the preservation of his work. Anyone who knows more can feel free to step in and correct me. I ain't saying what I've heard was gospel.

But I dunno what happens on ATC. ATC makes my eyes hurt to look at. bww is enough for me.

#11

Widow Goldman Speaks.....

Posted: 9/21/11 at 10:52pm

Wasn't Mr. Goldman alive for the Paper Mill production?

---

"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body

Updated On: 9/21/11 at 10:52 PM

#12

Widow Goldman Speaks.....

Posted: 9/21/11 at 10:56pm

It would seem so.

#13

Widow Goldman Speaks.....

Posted: 9/21/11 at 10:56pm

IBDB says James Goldman died in October of 1998, so, yes, he was still alive for the production's opening in April of 1998 and the recording release in July of 1998. I didn't think this was true before, and now that I know this, it does seem strange that Goldman's wife seems to always take the brunt of the blame for the production not transferring and the dialogue not being on the cd, albeit only in rumors, perhaps...

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"Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos."-Stephen Sondheim

#14

Widow Goldman Speaks.....

Posted: 9/21/11 at 10:58pm

I know some people on ATC think she might have written some of the new lines for the Broadway transfer of the current production.

#15

Widow Goldman Speaks.....

Posted: 9/21/11 at 10:58pm

I have no idea why people want dialogue recorded.

Didn't ASSASSINS teach us all a lesson?

#16

Widow Goldman Speaks.....

Posted: 9/21/11 at 11:00pm

Bobby Goldman: The Yoko Ono of Broadway.

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"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body

#17

Widow Goldman Speaks.....

Posted: 9/21/11 at 11:01pm

"I know some people on ATC think she might have written some of the new lines for the Broadway transfer of the current production."

Like, "The one mistake I made was marrying Phyllis"?

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"Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos."-Stephen Sondheim

#18

Widow Goldman Speaks.....

Posted: 9/21/11 at 11:02pm

I do wonder who made the revisions to the book for this production and the Encores production. It's still different enough from the other major incarnations (Original, London 1987, Paper Mill and Roundabout) to suggest that SOMEONE had to be putting it together. Three of the revisions I've mentioned came after his death.

Unless Goldman wrote like five thousand drafts of the show.

Updated On: 9/21/11 at 11:02 PM

#19

Widow Goldman Speaks.....

Posted: 9/21/11 at 11:02pm

I love the dialogue that PS Classics records for their Sondheim cast albums. It worked really well for NIGHT MUSIC.

#20

Widow Goldman Speaks.....

Posted: 9/21/11 at 11:04pm

It's still different enough from the other major incarnations (Original, London 1987, Paper Mill and Roundabout) to suggest that SOMEONE had to be putting it together.

Exactly. The Encores/2011 book is really its own version now. IMO, It probably is the best version after the original, mainly for giving us an ending that resembles the original ending. I read somewhere recently that it was the version that Bobby and Sondheim both approved for the production.

Updated On: 9/21/11 at 11:04 PM

#21

Widow Goldman Speaks.....

Posted: 9/21/11 at 11:06pm

Exactly. The Encores/2011 book is really its own version now. It probably is the best version after the original.

This.

#22

Widow Goldman Speaks.....

Posted: 9/21/11 at 11:08pm

Did David Ives have any hand in the Encores book?

---

"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body

#23

Widow Goldman Speaks.....

Posted: 9/21/11 at 11:10pm

Personally, I'm with Goddard Lieberson, who said that, unlike singing, the spoken word grates on the ear after you've heard the same lines many, many times.

And, hell, if this board is any indication, half the theater-going population (not including myself) HATES Goldman's lines in the first place!

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"Unless Goldman wrote like five thousand drafts of the show."

By all accounts, I think he did. Maybe Mrs. Goldman or somebody else is simply shuffling pages.

Updated On: 9/21/11 at 11:10 PM

#24

Widow Goldman Speaks.....

Posted: 9/21/11 at 11:16pm

And, hell, if this board is any indication, half the theater-going population (not including myself) HATES Goldman's lines in the first place!


Unless you try to change them, in which case, it's war. Apparently.

---

"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body

#25

Widow Goldman Speaks.....

Posted: 9/21/11 at 11:34pm

The "Mrs. Goldman" thing is striking me funny because it reminds me of Nathan Lane as "Mrs. Goldman," flirting with Gene Hackman during the dinner party in "The Bird Cage".