Well, dear readers, years from now, when you talk about this – and you will – be kind. That, of course, is the famous curtain line from Robert Anderson’s play entitled Tea and Sympathy, not to be confused with Harold Fahrquar’s play entitled Sympathy and Tea. Can you believe until last evening I had never seen Tea and Sympathy? I have now rectified that situation, oh, yes, I have now rectified that situation by seeing a motion picture entitled Tea and Sympathy, adapted from the play entitled Tea and Sympathy. I also read the play of Tea and Sympathy after watching the film of Tea and Sympathy and my Sympathy goes out to Mr. Minnelli and Mr. Anderson for having to put up with the ignorance and stupidity of the Hays Code. The play of Tea and Sympathy is quite frank for its time and there is no mincing (pardon the pun) around its subject matter or language. Words like “sex” and “fairy” and “queer” are used, whereas in the film version we get “sister boy.” In the play, our sensitive hero has been discovered nude sunbathing with a male teacher. In the film, he’s discovered sewing with some womenfolk. You see the problem here. In the play, the macho husband of Miss Deborah Kerr (played on Broadway by Leif Erickson – he and Miss Kerr are both in the film, as is their Broadway co-star, John Kerr) is given quite a strong tongue-lashing by Miss Kerr in which she infers that her macho husband might just be more guilty of hanging around the boys than Mr. Kerr. In the film, that little speech is nowhere to be found. In the play, the curtain falls on its most iconic line. In the film, we have a postscript and it’s dreadful, but was insisted upon by the Hays people. Mr. Anderson did his own adaptation, so at least the tone of it is in his style. Despite all those changes, I really liked it a lot – the actors are all terrific, with the exception of some over-the-top playing by the macho boys at the school, who include a very young Dean Jones, Tom Laughlin (who’d go on to appear with Mr. Kerr in South Pacific, and then make the Billy Jack movies), and Dick York. Miss Kerr and Mr. Kerr are both wonderfully wonderful, and the film has an excellent musical score by Adolph Deutsch. The transfer is fine for one of these homegrown Warner Archive titles – color is good.
May I just reiterate: Years from now, when you talk about this – and you will – be kind. I also read Harold Fahrquar’s play Sympathy and Tea. It closed out of town and never made it to Broadway. Still, it’s quite an adult play about an aging roué who is having an affair with a hen. It’s very moving, in certain ways, although what those ways are I have no clew. It, too, has an iconic curtain line – isn’t it funny that both plays have iconic curtain lines? Sympathy and Tea’s iconic curtain line is – “My time with the hen was a game time – I have no regrets – c’est la vie en rose.” Isn’t that an iconic curtain line? You know, if anyone out there in the dark has a clew as to what the HELL I’m talking about, keep it to yourself.
Yesterday was quite a busy little day. I got up a bit earlier than I wanted to, but I had plenty to do so it was fine. I worked on the song I’ve been writing and got more of it done and to my liking – in fact, I’ve just got about four lines to go for the ending and that will be that. I did errands and whatnot and plenty of ’em, and then I joined dear reader Jeanne for luncheon at The Cheesecake Factory at The Grove. Surprisingly, we got right in, got a great big booth, and that made me very happy. We had a lovelier than lovely time catching up, and I had a small Casesar and my beloved farfalle with chicken and roasted garlic and sundried tomatoes – the lunch-sized portion, which was still big enough to make me feel like I was going to explode.
Then I came directly back to the San Fernando Valley and the helper and I went to my storage facility where we pulled a bunch of charts for the Gardenia show. Then I dropped off a box o’ Stu Phillips CDs for a composer signing at a store called Dark Delicacies. Then I finally came home, answered a lot of e-mails, printed out a couple of orders, finessed the song a little more, and then finally sat on my couch like so much fish, where I promptly dozed off for approximately ninety minutes.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get a good night’s beauty sleep because I have lots and lots to do on the ‘morrow.
Today, I have a hair appointment with our very own Teddy and I’m quite certain that I will look kempt and coifed when I’m through there. Then I have some errands and whatnot to do, hopefully some packages and an important envelope to pick up, some mail to send (I’m quite remiss in the mail-sending department because I ran out of envelopes and haven’t had a moment to get over to Staples to get some), and the rest of the day will be spent in finalizing the casting of the Gardenia show and getting everyone’s charts and CDs to them. We are a week behind and my co-producer on these events is so in her own world right now I’m having to do most everything by my very own self, which is not good. She’s got a musical in rehearsal, and for some reason she and her co-author feel the need to be there each and every night while the show is in its infancy step of blocking. If I were the director, I would find that really invasive, but I’m not the director. I mean, this director has eight weeks of rehearsals, more than most Broadway shows. Anyway, it’s a little frustrating, as you probably can tell. I will also eat something light and amusing because I have eaten way too much food this week and I must take it easy for the next two weeks.
Tomorrow, Grant Geissman must get the book into the publisher – it should have already gone in, but he had an emergency composing assignment. So, hopefully we can do that on Saturday. Not sure what else is going on tomorrow other than I have to get singers their stuff. Sunday, I have a work session with the twelve-year-old, and then she and her family and I will go eat something fun. Next week I have to prep two CD releases, so it’s going to be more than a little insane.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, get a haircut by Teddy, do errands and whatnot, get envelopes so I can mail out some errant and truant things, hopefully pick up some packages and an important envelope, and finalize casting of the Gardenia show so I can lock in the songs, make the CDRs and get the charts Xeroxed. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/video player? I’ll start – CD, a bunch of Charles Strouse music. Blu and Ray, AI, Limelight, and also several Warner Archive DVDs including Beyond A Reasonable Doubt. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings shall we, and years from now, when you talk about this – and you will – be kind.