Well, dear readers, the wonderful John McMartin has passed away at the ripe old age of eighty-six, a long and wonderful life and he pretty much worked right up until the end. I met him when we did Forget-Me-Not Lane at the Mark Taper Forum way back in 1973. I’d loved him in several films in the 1960s, and of course liked him immensely in the film of Sweet Charity. But it was his performance of Ben in Follies that made me a lifelong fan. That performance was so seemingly effortless (it is hard to play world-weary blasé and make it interesting, but boy did he), and the moment where in Live, Laugh, Love he goes up on his lyrics it was one of the most chillingly real things I’ve ever seen on a stage – the audience literally thought he’d forgotten his words, until it became apparent that it was part of the show.
So, I was incredibly thrilled to find out he was in the play. The cast was great, and included John’s girlfriend, Charlotte Moore. We all bonded quickly. I used to badger John for stories about Follies, but he would never talk about it. So, I had to get my Follies fix from Tharon Musser, who was lighting our show and had done the same for Follies. On matinee days, John and Charlotte would hang out in the theater while Bud Cort and I would play – I’d play the piano and Bud would sing Sondheim songs and it was really fun and they’d sit out there and clap and laugh.
When it came time to do the TV version, the director used only two people from the LA cast – Betsy Slade and me. I saw John many times over the years and he was always sweet and gracious when we spoke (usually at Joe Allen). Eventually, he and Charlotte parted ways but remained friends. I eventually worked with Charlotte, recording The Irish and How They Got That Way, which she did at her theater, the Irish Rep, and I also recorded their production of After the Ball. At some point after that John and Charlotte got back together (I’m pretty sure I have that right). When I did the Follies remix, I got his address from Sondheim and mailed him a copy and a few days later he sent me the most wonderful letter – he’d loved it, was very moved hearing it again and said it was like listening to a brand new recording it had such clarity and definition. He was a lovely, lovely man.
Yesterday was a day of endless distraction. I was up at eight to meet the tree people but of course they didn’t arrive until thirty minutes later. I then spent most of the day keeping my eye on them – it was a huge amount of work they did, cutting back all the dead fronds and foliage, going way up in the palm tree and getting it shorn of all those fruit ball things, removing a couple of bird of paradise things in their entirety, cutting back all the trees in front and getting all the branches off the roof of the house, plus getting rid of all the branches that were blocking the DirecTV dish. I had enough ham here to have one sandwich and I made some rice pilaf and ate that – total calories for those two items, around 750. I also did a jog. They finished up at around six-thirty and it really does look so much better. But the pool man came and went and he probably won’t be back now until next Wednesday, which is dopey and means I don’t even want to look at the green bilious mess that the pool has become. Once he really does a thorough cleaning of it, we shouldn’t have any more problems ever thanks to all the crap that’s been removed.
Then I went to Gelson’s and got a salad with some shrimp and just veggies, and I dressed it with a quarter teaspoon of oil and a whole mess o’ vinegar. I also bought some raw almonds because I read that while they’re not calorie friendly they actually improve your metabolism, which is the real way you lose weight. I ate that all up whilst sitting on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I finished watching Five Golden Dragons, which was truly terrible in just about every way. Obviously the name co-stars all came in for one day – Dan Duryea, George Raft, Brian Donleavy and Christopher Lee. They have about six minutes of screen time. Just awful. Then I watched a new documentary entitled Hitchcock/Truffaut, about the two filmmakers coming together for what resulted in one of the greatest, if not THE greatest, books on film ever. The documentary is comprised of some audio clips of them talking, along with stills of their meetings. But the rest is just other directors talking about Hitchcock and his films and how the book affected them. Frankly, it’s kind of a weird film that doesn’t quite work. It’s nice to have Scorsese, but I really don’t like listening to David Fincher or Richard Linklater or Wes Anderson – I mean, I’d much rather have Spielberg or Clint or folks like that, but even if it were them, it’s just an odd film. I did enjoy it, and seeing the clips really made me just want to do a Hitchcock marathon, which I may damn well just damn do damn.
After that, lots of e-mails flying back and forth, all to do with the ALS show.
Today, I have a phone meeting at one with the ALS folks, I’ll eat, I’ll jog, I’ll hopefully pick up packages, and at some point I’ll relax.
Friday I just have a lot of stuff to do including making a show order and writing commentary, Saturday I have a dinner, Sunday I’ll finish up the commentary, and then things get nutty again in terms of busy.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have a phone meeting, hopefully pick up packages, eat, jog, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite John McMartin performances – the imdb is your friend. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall probably think of more memories of McMartin.