Haines His Way

A word I just encountered in something I was reading, the use of which should be a capital crime:  "liaise."

What other words, Dear BK and Dear Readers, would you put into this category?

Re the discussion about the running times of shows and the inability of audiences to sit still for very long (bladder problems aside)... I lay some of the blame at the feet of SESAME STREET. Now don't get me wrong, I think that SEASAME STREET has done many fine things for young people. BUT the not so fine thing is that an entire generation now thinks of 15-20 seconds as the norm for the presentation of story or facts. A blip here and we move on, two blips there and on to the next thing. That's what kids see from the time they're old enough to sit up - maybe even before. When we lived in Canada, I made sure that my daughter watched Fred Penner, Sharon, Lois and Bram, The Friendly Giant, Mr, Rogers, of course. Shows that took time...

I definately agree that Seasame Street, video games, vcrs and MTV have all contributed to the restlessness of audiences, both at movies and at live performances.  The attention span continues to decrease every year, and it isn't just young people that have been affected.  I have seen people I know (not friends, acquaintances) who have walked out of a play I was in, during a scene, so that they could have a cigarette.  And they then wandered back to their seats when they were finished.  As an actor, if you are doing a long first act of a show, you can actually begin to feel the people tuning out the longer the act runs.  Hell, half the time you have people talking through the performance anyway, so how much ruder is it to have them take a potty break during your soliloquy?

The Christopher Meloni Picture of the Week:

a publicity shot from his 1995 Fox sitcom MISERY LOVES COMPANY

I'm happy about THE LAST OF SHEILA and thrilled about SWEENEY TODD. WOnderful news!

Sometimes Hollywood producers can be so stupid. Liza in the bittersweet story of Mabel Normand (more bitter than sweet, sadly) sounds like it would have been a wonderful idea. I think there is definitely a TV audience out there to see Liza do something big and wonderful on TV. She couldn't draw flies to the movie theater any more, but TV audiences would love her in a big TV movie, I think, if the subject was right and it got the right publicity. I guess they are afraid there would be production problems dealing with Liza, but she's still a big name, especially with Baby Boomers and older. (True, that's not the audience advertisers covet, but the ratings could be huge regardless.)

Whatever problems Liza may be having with her personal life, I still find her to be absolutely hysterical on Arrested Development.  Granted, she is not the central character on the show, but I think she looks great and she seems to be having a wonderful time doing the sitcom.  I would gladly tune it to watch her in a TV film, preferably one that doesn't include singing.

The Christopher Meloni Picture of the Week:

a publicity shot from his 1995 Fox sitcom MISERY LOVES COMPANY

Thank you, MattH, you give me a purpose for living.

I suppose, if you were posting a weekly Brian Kelly photo, you would be giving me a porpoise for living!

When I attend theatre or cinema here, it is still unusual for anyone to leave unless there is an interval.
More so in the case of theatre. School sessions here are usually just under two hours long. It is still not the norm for children to need a toilet break during a class of that duration. I think that there may be a need for children to be taught appropriate theatre behaviour. From my limited experience of New York theatre (I have only seen about 6 shows), audiences are the worst I have experienced in terms of chatter and restlessness. London audiences would not be as rude - and even matinees are not a problem. My experiences may of course may not be representative of the norn at all.

I have to tell you that the rudest behavior by audience members that I have witnessed has come, not from children or teens, but from people of an age at which they should know better.

Jrand - I don't think the 67 "Judy at the Palace" is on DVD yet.

Re the Garland telemovie: Sid Luft supposedly hated it and complained that he was played by a gay actor (I don't know if Victor Garber is officially "out" or not or even if he is gay).

Re: McKean in HAIRSPRAY... I just read the headline which made it look like it was a done deal.  However Broadway.com would not have printed it if it wasn't close to happening.

I know this was asked to  BK, but two revisals that absolutely ruined their source material were DAMN YANKEES (all new book not nearly as good as the original) and ANNIE GET YOUR GUN (BP version with three songs cut --- and a 4th later in the run---, an all new book and the change in the order of the songs).  Why do these shows if you don't trust the material?

Running time of shows: To my knowledge, the classic R&H shows ran between 2 hrs 55 minutes and 3 hrs so they wouldn't go overtime.  The first acts were at least twice as long as the second acts.  Today's new shows seem to average about two hours and fifteen to thirty minutes, with first acts still much longer than second acts.  A show should be as long as it needs to be to tell its story.  The best non-musical I ever saw was nine hours long with a dinner break (NICHOLAS NICKELBY) yet it seemed shorter that many two or three hour shows.

RE: Length of shows.

The producers wired George Bernard Shaw when they were presenting his "Saint Joan" in New York:  "Need to change play so commuters can make last trains home."

GBS wired back (of course):  "Change the trains."

DR Jay. I would agree. But when was the behavoiur pattern learnt? A fellow Hainsie noted my use of "interval" rather than "intermission". The latter tern has been out of vogue here since the 1950's. With my background it is wonder I didn't use the term recess.

Sid Luft is a jerk.

And anybody who says clark is a jark

At least you didn't call it half time.

Colin, being a football follower, would have done so.

Thank you, MattH, you give me a purpose for living.

I suppose, if you were posting a weekly Brian Kelly photo, you would be giving me a porpoise for living!

No groaning!

Hey, a weekly Brian Kelly photo would do me a world of good!

 

It's a shame that, seemingly, nothing can be done:

Remove the concrete to make it "natural" and you risk massive flooding.

Make it illegal to pollute it, and you drive businesses out of business.

Convert it into a freeway and you've merely given Los Angeles more of the same.

A beautiful river is a feature of so many great cities, and, the Tad Friend article points out, L.A. has the smallest acreage of parks, per capita, of any American metropolis.

So many songs come to mind (what's the one from Say Darling?  But one could make an ironic comment with a segue from Schwartz's L.A. version of "We Can Build a Beautiful City" to his "rivers belong where they can ramble."

Here's a radical thought: maybe we shouldn't be building houses "where rivers ramble (or, in particular, where they "rampage").

It's seem the developers rail against nature like Salieri  against God - and to the same effect.

It's ironic to drive down to the water's edge at Cape Henlopen (where the Delaware Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean) - here is the scene of many an historic storm - here is where nature reclaimed her territory and washed the lovely Lighthouse out to sea. Here is where new developers are builing colonies of houses teetering on the waters edge. (They ease their conscience by putting the houses atop a full ground level "basement" which has break thru walls should the surf come a-pounding - clearly the intent is that these ground level rooms be treated much like a garage or storage shed;needless to say, the windows are all covered with the most expensive "treatments" and I suspect the rooms filled with expensive rec room accoutrements to be claimed on insurance forms come the tide.)

der Brucer (humming "when will we ever learn....")

LOL DR Sarah....

You will also need a white bathing suit, red shoes, and a lovely upholstered chair.