Well, dear readers, it is quite beautifully beautiful here in Los Angeles, California, USA. That said, I must now cut to the chase because she of the Evil Eye will be here shortly and I shall have to hie my butt cheeks out of the home environment for a few hours. But, before I do, perhaps instead of cutting to the chase, I’ll cut to yesterday. Yesterday was quite a relaxing day. The Wall Man sanded and painted. I did errands and drove about in my motor car. I am currently suffering post partum depression from having finished the new book. Not really – it’s nice to have a few days off, and then, when I get back from New York I’m sure I’ll have a few things to fix up. I also booked the Ray Courts show for April, so if it doesn’t conflict, I’ll be doing both the LA Times Festival of Books and the Courts show. Also, Mr. Kevin Spirtas returns to LA and I’m sure we’ll start working on his show again. Plus, the Guy Haines affair will be in high gear, so I shall be quite consumed again very soon. I do hope we’ll be seeing quite a few of you at the signing in New York, New York. It’s promising to be a swellegant event, what with Miss Donna Lynne Champlin and Miss Theresa Finamore vocalizing, with two more guests to be announced very soon. Even if you can’t make it, tell your friends, tell the man in the street or the girl in the subway – we want to fill the joint. Isn’t that exciting? Isn’t that just too too?
Last night I attended the opening night of a play entitled Doubt, by Mr. John Patrick Shanley. This is the one they’re touting as the one to beat for the Pulitzer Prize in drama. I don’t know who “they” are, but if this is Pulitzer material, then I don’t know what. To me, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf is Pulitzer material. Death of a Salesman is Pulitzer material. Long Day’s Journey into Night is Pulitzer material. Whatever one thinks of Doubt, it is hardly Pulitzer material. What it is, of course, is very au courant on a hotbed topic – whether a priest has seduced a twelve-year-old boy. The play was certainly not served well by this production, which is both mundanely and artily directed by Claudia Weill. For me, the biggest problem is Miss Linda Hunt, whom I’m a big fan of. She is simply not dynamic enough in the leading role, the role being played by the completely opposite Cherry Jones on Broadway. Miss Hunt is a fine actor, but she never commands the stage and everyone else in the cast seems to be playing to her energy level, which is fatal, especially in the role of the accused priest. One waits for him to explode and it never happens. He’s just whiny and soft-spoken and it renders the dramatic possibilities inherent in his scenes with Miss Hunt completely inert. The other actors were fine. The set was okay. There were a few laugh-inducing lighting effects, as well. I didn’t dislike the play, and it’s mercifully short – ninety minutes performed without intermission.
What am I, Ben Brantley all of a sudden? Oh, dear, oh, dear, I had better cut to the chase because she of the Evil Eye will cast her orbs in my direction all too soon. Why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below so I don’t have the orbs glaring at me as if I were a dead herring in the moonlight.
I really must cut to the chase here or orbs will be boring into me without mercy. This morning I shall be delivering the final sixty pages of my book to my friend Margaret, and I shall be awaiting here thoughts on them.
Oh, I forgot to mention the half-dozen nincompoops who just had to give a standing ovation at the end of the play. Oh, and I forgot to mention the rather tall nincompoop who was sitting in front of me. He could see perfectly, and yet the tall nincompoop kept shifting his head every four seconds so that I had to keep shifting my head to even see anything. At one point, I came very close to smacking him upside the head – I really had to restrain myself. The woman next to me saw what I was thinking and I think she was a bit mortified, oh, yes, I think she was a bit mortified.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, cut to the chase and hie my butt cheeks out of the home environment for a few hours, I must do some errands, I must watch some DVDs and I must make some phone calls. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite farces – I mean real classic farces, both stage and film. And please tell why you feel they’re your favorites and what farce elements really make them work in your estimation. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we? We shall. Oh, and let’s not forget – it’s Food Day, and today’s food of the day, which everyone must partake of in some way or another, is BURGERS. We must all eat a burger of some sort, and report on it in loving prose. Wax poetic, you hear?