Well, dear readers, wouldn’t you know, I must write these here notes in a hurry, for she of the Evil Eye will be here shortly, and I shall have to hie myself out of the home environment. In fact, our very own Mr. Nick Redman will be by shortly and we shall both be toddling off to the Beverly Garland Hotel to attend the celebrity show that is the would-be rival to the Ray Courts show. The lineup of celebs includes some interesting folks, and I will, of course, have a full report for you. Nick and I will be joined by our very own Pogue, and then I’m hoping we will all lunch together. Speaking of lunching together, I had a very long, fruitful day yesterday. What is a fruitful day anyway? A day with bananas and cherries and apples and orange, oh my? Can it be a fruitful day if you’ve only had meat and ‘taters? I’m telling you, I had a fruitful day, and yet I ate no fruit. What a revoltin’ development that is. I managed to get a really good night’s sleep, so I awoke and didn’t feel logey or sans energy, as I’d felt the last two or three days. I was perky and plucky, not necessarily in that order. I felt with it and happening, not necessarily in that order. In other words, I felt I was going to have a fruitful day sans fruit. I dealt with several things in the morning hours, and even wrote another couple of pages on the new short story I’ve begun. Then I had to toddle off to the El Portal for a meeting – we are now officially booked in and our play opens on January 12th. I then picked up a package, then came back to the home environment. I then had a visitation from the perky and plucky and much errant and truant Miss Juliana A. Hansen, who has been off in St. Louis doing Footloose. Miss Juliana A. Hansen looked as cute-as-a-button, as always. We went over to Jerry’s (she was hungry), and I bought her some food – I was going to a dinner, so I just had a little salad. We had high hilarity, discussing all manner of things. We then came back and sat on the couch like so much fish. She then had to leave, and I then had to toddle off to Mezzo Mondo, a lovely Eyetalian restaurant right down the street. Once there, I joined Mr. Terry Trotter and his fiancé, Erica. We had a lovely meal, and I think Terry knew every single person in the restaurant. Any time new people would arrive, they’d come right to our table and say hello. We discussed our upcoming album, which we’re both very excited. I’d been having second thoughts about the idea we’d come up with (a solo piano of Broadway ballads) – it just seemed to lack a point and seemed to nebulous to me. And then, out of the blue, another idea came to me, and I mentioned it to Terry this afternoon prior to dinner, and the minute I said it out loud, we both knew it was the perfect idea. Of course, I cannot say what that idea is, because we know that many people read this here site and I’d hate to see someone rush out and beat us to the punch. In any case, I can only tell you it’s going to be a great CD. I then came home and finished watching the movie I’d begun last night. And that was my fruitful day sans fruit.
Last night I finished watching a motion picture on DVD entitled The Killing of Sister George. I haven’t seen the film since it came out – I remember enjoying it, and it was during Mr. Robert Aldrich’s most interesting period as a filmmaker. I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing it again. It’s still fairly amazing that this film ever got made. It’s treatment of lesbianism is quite frank, but it’s also presented very matter-of-factly. There are a couple of amusing time-capsule gay bar scenes, though. The dialogue is bitchy and fun, and Beryl Reid deserved to be up for an Oscar for her performance, but I think the Academy wasn’t having any of this film – not one nomination. Susannah York is very good as her lover, and Coral Browne is perfect as a program executive. Some of the opening-up of the play is unnecessary, and because of it the film clocks in at over 130 minutes – it would have worked better to either shorten or get rid of some of those sequences. Mr. Aldrich handles the material well, and the final scene between Miss Browne and Miss York is still shocking all these years later. One thing I was particularly impressed with was the musical score by Gerald Fried – really excellent. The movie was previously available on Anchor Bay, letterboxed but not anamorphic. This new DVD from MGM/UA is anamorphically enhanced for widescreen TVs, and it’s a much better transfer overall. The beginning seems really faded, color-wise, but then after about ten minutes the color is just fine and the image is very sharp.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because soon she of the Evil Eye will be here and besides we’ve got us an Unseemly Trivia Contest to get to.
Well, if it’s Saturday, it must be time for our Unseemly Trivia Contest question. So, without further ado, here it is. Should we have some further ado first? Nah. We don’t need no stinking further ado.
This interesting theatrical season produced two legendary musicals – one instantly legendary, the other legendary over time. The season also produced no less than six huge flop musicals, three of which are also legendary in flopdom. The season was also rife with revivals of plays. A handful of the new plays were turned into films. However, one particular flop play wasn’t so lucky. It managed to only eke out a few performances before biting the dust and entering into oblivion, never, to my knowledge, to be performed again. It was the only play produced on Broadway by this author, who, prior to the play, and been a performer with not too many credits – although one of the author’s credits was understudying a co-starring role in a classic Broadway musical comedy. The play’s director had directed a few shows on Broadway, one of which was turned into a controversial film, said film which was directed by someone else. The play’s female star achieved her considerable success as a movie star, in films running the gamut from musicals to horror to comedies to period films and on and on. One of her roles is one of the most well-known roles in film history – it remains to this day her most iconic film role, even though she was not the lead in the film. The play’s male star was a well-known Broadway regular who appeared in both plays and musicals, and who was well-known to TV audiences as well. He would be dead one year after opening in this play. He was, at one time, married to a well-known actress.
Name the play, its author, and the role the author understudied in the classic musical comedy.
Name the play’s director, and the controversial play whose controversial film version was directed by someone else, and name the someone else.
Name the play’s female star, and her most well-known film role and film.
Name the play’s male star, and name the well-known actress to whom he was once married.
Remember: DO NOT POST YOUR ANSWERS TO THE SITE! Send them to me at bruce@haineshisway.com (and don’t worry if the e-mail bounces back – I do get them). Good luck to one and all and also all and one. You have until midnight on Monday to submit your answers.
After the celeb show, I shall be attending the screening of Major Dundee which was supposed to happen last week. And I shall also be addressing all the shipping envelopes for next week’s shipment of our new releases.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must attend a celebrity show, I must lunch, I must write, I must address, and then I must see a film by Sam Peckinpah in its newly-reconstructed version. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite controversial plays and films – those plays and films which really pushed the envelope. Let’s have loads of lovely postings shall we, whilst we attempt to have another fruitful day sans fruit. Or perhaps it will be a fruitful day which has actual fruit – wouldn’t that be a fine kettle of papayas.