Well, dear readers, last night I saw a real honest-to-goodness old-fashioned talking play – literate and funny and dramatic and suspenseful and the kind of play no one knows how to write anymore – Gore Vidal’s The Best Man. I only the play from the film version, which is very good but slightly watered-down from its original version, even though the screenplay is by Mr. Vidal. In recent years, it has become the fashion to consolidate the three-act plays into two acts – note to producers: It does not work. They weren’t written as two-act plays therefore have some damn respect for the material and leave them the way the authors wrote them – why maybe we might even get some new three-act plays that way – it is a form I love. And I’m happy to say that the producers of The Best Man did respect the material and left it in three acts. And gee, the audience wasn’t confused or anything. Before I talk about the play and its production let me just start by asking when it became the fashion to no longer have a house curtain? It had to have happened in the last decade and the lack of house curtains is something that I absolutely loathe in every way. I don’t want to see the set before the play starts. The only time it works for me is when it’s a completely black stage – a void. But even when they have some kind of curtain, it’s now a “show” curtain that is specific to the show playing. I HATE IT. I grew up going to the theater and my favorite thing was the rise of the curtain. It meant we were going to a magic land – just that simple rise was transporting and magical – but, like most things these days, everyone wants to suck the magic out of everything – well, shame on them. So, that was my initial complaint at The Best Man – no house curtain. But that’s part of the design of the production because the entire theater is made to seem like a convention hall – even the ushers wear straw hats. That sort of thing is, for me, annoying – plus they have TV monitors up in one of the boxes and the entire time you’re sitting there pre-show you’re hearing music and cheering and talking. Here’s what I like – I like to come into a theater, take my seat early, read my program without any distractions, have the houselights dim, and the curtain rise.
In the old days, as I’m sure the original production of this show had, the set would have been excellent but pretty much stationary. Here we get a lot of movement from scene to scene – the sets swivel and move, coffee tables have a life of their own, and I didn’t think any of it was necessary. And that is really the end of anything negative because the play is so wonderfully written with great dialogue, rousing speeches – a real drama with comedy. But a show like this lives and breathes by the cast and here most of the cast does a stellar job. It’s one of those very starry casts, too. I had never seen Mr. James Earl Jones on stage so that was the big treat for me. Larger-than-life, colorful, and totally wonderful. What a treat to see a real theater performance. And it’s always a treat to see Miss Angela Lansbury on a stage and in her two scenes she’s just wonderful, and she lands one of the biggest laughs of the evening. The other three names are known for their TV work – John Larroquette, Candice Bergen, and Eric McCormack. Mr. Larroquette is mostly excellent, but there are times when it’s like he’s playing to the camera and he’s so low-key that some of his stuff just disappears. Miss Bergen is wonderful – of the cast, I only saw mics on her and Miss Lansbury, but there is a sound man so I don’t know if everyone has personal mics, or if the foots do the rest. Mr. McCormack has the evening’s most difficult role to pull off, and I can’t say that I found it entirely successful, although I did enjoy him. Mark Blum has replaced Michael McKean, who was injured a couple of weeks ago, and I’m a big Mark Blum fan so it was fun to see him. Two performances weren’t really to my liking much, but there’s no real reason to single them out. I did love the turn by Dakin Matthews as a senator from the South.
The direction was simple and got the job done, I could have just lived without some of the accouterments. But mostly I just sat and marveled at the play. It’s not a classic like Death of a Salesman or Long Day’s Journey Into Night, but it is what used to be a staple of Broadway – a well-crafted, intelligent play with great roles, and today it does look like a bit of a classic and I have to say that even though it takes place in 1960, nothing much has changed politically. All in all, I had a great time in the theatre. Of course, the audience was another thing – the young gal sitting nearby who felt it necessary to eat licorice through the entire show and noisily drink from her bottle of water. They should allow NO food in a theater, sorry. And it just boggles my already boggled mind that people can’t go an hour without sucking down some food or liquid. Thankfully, there were no cell phone issues. The other thing I’ve noticed as I approached the theater is this new thing with lines. There never used to be lines at a Broadway theater. You’d mingle in a big clump in front of the theater until the doors opened and then you’d all pour in. As I passed the Once theater there was a line around the block. Why? Everyone has a reserved seat – do these fools think they’re at a movie theater? Dumb. Happily, there was no line at The Best Man – there was the lovely clump and then they opened the door and in we all went. That’s the way I like it.
Prior to that, we had a three hour rehearsal (I’d asked for four but apparently that never got communicated to the rehearsal people). I’d planned the rehearsal a certain way thinking we had four hours. Had I known it was three I would have planned it differently. So, we spent the first two hours stopping and starting. The structure of the act is now much stronger than it was – the point of it is very clear, the new show order works much better, and the patter really works now, in that it actually tells a story and illuminates the songs. Most of my stuff was trying to get the patter to sound natural and with energy and good storytelling. It’s surprising how hard it is to achieve and if we ever actually have the time I’ve requested on numerous occasions, I think we’ll get it really good. It requires time – running it over and over again. It gets better and better, but it’s all about time. After the first two hours, we took a fifteen-minute break, then began running the act straight through. But when we got to the halfway point, we had to leave – it’s really too bad, because I think the East Coast Singer was getting a really good sense of how it was all playing.
When we first arrived, an actress arrived for a rehearsal in the room next to us. It was Miss Amy Bodnar, the star of The Brain from Planet X at NYMF – I loved working with her and thought she was great in the show, so it was fun to see her. Then a few minutes later, Randy Graff came out of the rehearsal room, so it was great to see her, too. I wonder if I know any of the other cast members?
Then Lanny, the East Coast Singer and I went to Joe Allen for lunch, which was fun and yummilicious. Then she went off shopping, Lanny went to his gig, and I came back to the hotel. I answered e-mails and then lay down on the bed and turned the TV on. I dozed off almost immediately and slept for about an hour. That was nice. Then I just relaxed until it was time to go to the theater.
After the show, I met Miss Crista Moore at Joe Allen. I just had a small salad and their side of mac and cheese. I hadn’t seen Crista in quite a while, and I do adore her. She had been in the tour of The Addams Family, but had a little injury, so she never made it to the LA stop of the tour. Anyway, we had a great time and she’ll actually be coming to see the East Coast Singer’s show tonight, which is fun since the East Coast Singer does A Beautiful Day in Brooklyn, which Crista introduced on Unsung Irving Berlin.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I really must get some semblance of beauty sleep.
Today, I shall be up at nine, and to rehearsal by eleven. We’ll work three hours, but the first hour will be running the show without stops, then we’ll do detail work and get it as good as we can get it. Then we’ll have lunch, and then I’ll relax until show time.
Tomorrow I’ll be up in the morning and pay a visit to the nearby Fed Ex Store to Fed Ex home my supply of chocolate licorice and a few other things. Then my car will pick me up at eleven and whisk me to the airport. Then I shall be on my way home.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, rehearse, lunch, relax, and attend a show. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics of discussion and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall dream in three acts.