Well, dear readers, it is midnight at the oasis and I haven’t put my camel to bed, nor have I put myself to bed. In fact, I was actually watching a motion picture and lost track of time, said picture being Play Misty for Me, which I enjoy watching from time to time and Prime has it and it’s a new transfer that looks really fine. It was Clint Eastwood’s first film as director, and he does a good job of it. It’s Fatal Attraction twenty years before Fatal Attraction. Good cast, with Jessica Walter as the obsessive fan of Clint’s radio disc jockey. Obsessive stalker crazies can be crazy and we know that first hand, don’t we, oh, yes, we know that first hand around these here parts, don’t we? In any case, a very enjoyable motion picture. I also finished watching the Bette Midler and Bernadette Peters Hello, Dolly! revival bootlegs. I enjoyed the production when it played here with Betty Buckley but watching it again with two different stars solidified my opinion about the staging, specifically the choreography. It plays with Gower Champion’s original (they called it an homage or something) but the amusing thing is that whenever they change it it’s never as good so – why change it if you’re playing at doing it. It’s especially bad in the title song, I thought, where they occasionally do Gower but have an equal amount of not so good faux Gower and why? It doesn’t work as well. Gower knew how to build a number like nobody’s business, and the knockoff just isn’t anywhere near it and all you have to do is find any one of a number of bootlegs of Miss Carol Channing doing it to see that. In fact, there’s a full bootleg that purports to be the 1994 tour that we recorded but is in fact the tour from the late 1970s, which is easy to figure out since Lee Roy Reams is playing Cornelius. Also, Elegance, brilliantly staged by Gower and in this version all the cleverness is gone and they’re just doing steps. Gower never just did steps, Gower did numbers with purpose and storytelling. The hat shop scene cannot not work because it’s written very well, but again it just doesn’t have the precision and snap of the original, which remains hilarious. I don’t think it’s much of a secret that I wasn’t a fan of working with Miss Channing, but let me tell you, no one has ever played Dolly better and no one ever will. Channing could milk a laugh with the best of them and in the late 70s tour she hadn’t become embalmed yet – she stretches out the monologues horribly, but the comedy stuff – brilliant. I love Bette Midler, but it’s almost like she’s afraid to commit to the clowning. She does to an extent, but she also just glosses over lines and bits that are big laugh getters but in this production don’t even garner a titter. Bernadette is her own thing, and they’ve added a ton of bits for her, some of which work, some of which don’t, and her version is almost ten minutes longer. Both have new lines added in that are completely unnecessary. The worst staging in this revival is Before the Parade Passes By. Again, Gower knew how to build it without even doing much. Here they do random Gower steps but without purpose or what leads into them. It just doesn’t have the power. Gower had such an interesting career as a director/choreographer. He’s revered, as he should be, but he really only had four big hits – Bye Bye Birdie, Dolly, I Do! I Do! and 42nd Street.
Then came The Happy Time, which had good things in it but was just not a good musical that engaged audiences, no matter the talent involved. Sugar was wonderfully staged and did okay – a minor hit, I guess you’d call it. Irene was a moderate hit during Broadway’s nostalgia craze. Then came the flops – Prettybelle, Mack and Mabel, Rockabye Hamlet, and A Broadway Musical. That was followed by his comeback and his comeback opened to a rapturous reception and was followed by the infamous David Merrick announcement that he’d died the day of the opening, much too young at 61. My favorite Gower production was when I was living in New York in 1969 – A Flea in Her Ear, one of the most brilliantly directed farces I’ve ever seen, perhaps THE most brilliantly directed. His visual gags were unbelievably great. Anyway, I was a huge fan and he remains an inspiration still.
Yesterday was certainly a day and a frustrating one. I only got five hours of sleep, I did not wake up to a modern major miracle nor did one appear during the day. I shaved and showered, then went to our second casting session, from one to five. Unfortunately, six out of the seven people who auditioned came before three and then we were stuck until five, when the final auditioner came. I think we’re using three of the people who came.
I then took the same route home and had the same horrible traffic on Cahuenga, which is ALL due to some moron traffic person timing the signals really poorly. Once you get to the freeway, there are no cars at all. The freeway wasn’t bad until about Lankershim and I could see it was horrendous just ahead, so I got off and took surface streets home.
I had a turkey and provolone sandwich from a jernt that had a twenty-five percent off sale on Door Dash, so it was pretty inexpensive. That’s basically all I had, save for the last of the cherry chip ice cream and there wasn’t that much left of that, so a good low-calorie day, since the sandwich only had about five hundred calories. Then I finally got around to answering e-mails, having a telephonic conversation, and then watching the stuff I talked about above. The best part of the day was, in fact, basking in the glow of the wonderful blurb for the new book – you’ll understand why when I finally share it.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll continue to pray for a modern major miracle, then I’ll mosey on over to the theater around three-fifteen for the run-through. I know it will start late and the first half runs about almost an hour, I think, so I don’t really want to sit there for most of that. I do have a couple of minor notes for the actors, then we’ll do our show, and I can leave right after – the actors have to stay for curtain call blocking. I’ll come home, eat, and then watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, I can sleep in and have a ME day until our final dress rehearsal at six, I think. Again, I can leave after our show is done. Monday is mine all mine, then Tuesday and Wednesday are previews and we open on Thursday. I also have meetings and meals and we’ll have another casting session to find a handful of young folks. In the original production, there was only one young man, but I’m adding another and two young women, similar to what they did for the Encores version, although they added many more than that.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, do whatever needs doing, pray for a modern major miracle, have a dress rehearsal, eat, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: Of all the great director/choreographers, which, for my money would include Jerome Robbins, Gower Champion, Bob Fosse and Michael Bennett, which were your favorites and which of their shows did you feel showed them off at their absolute best? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have reminisced about the champion that was Gower Champion.