Vacation Plans

[rickps]

Will I want to toss Spam a Lot?

Is it Curtains for this theater season?

Would I make a Chaperone Drowsy from all this theater time?

Will I have Grey Gardens when I return home from seeing all these shows?

I'll know in early August.

Special thanks to bearfuz for helping me decide what to see.

Comments

[billeyler.livejournal.com]

I just looked up Grey Gardens...it was a documentary about those two women made in 1976!

I'll have to see if I can find it. And then someday see the B'way show. I did see just a bit of GG done during the Tonys, with an obviously unhinged woman singing a bizarre song.

Woowoo!

[ricksf.livejournal.com]

I gather that the staging on Broadway has one actress (Christine Ebersole) playing the crazy daughter in the first act with this same actress playing her equally crazy mother in the second act (while another actress plays the daughter). Who knew that the Kennedy's had relatives this nuts!

[rwcubdad.livejournal.com]

the documentary has a cult following, we saw it sometime during the winter and I fell asleep through it, after 30 minutes, crazy just wasn't that interesting anymore. The musical I imagine is immensely better.

[ricksf.livejournal.com]

It had better be for what I paid for the ticket!

[bearfuz.livejournal.com]

You're close. Christine plays the fortysomething MOTHER in Act 1 (1941) and then plays the DAUGHTER in Act 2, aged 56 in 1973. Act 2 corresponds with the documentary, and whole bits of dialogue (and their interpretations) are lifted wholesale from the movie. It's really quite marvelous.

[ricksf.livejournal.com]

Damn, I was afraid I'd had that reversed!

[bearfuz.livejournal.com]

While it's not necessary, it can't hurt to rent/borrow the DVD of the original documentary so you can see what these crazy ladies were like in the 1970s. If you do that, then you'll be amazed when you see how well Christine and Mary-Louise capture the physicalities and accents and essence of their characters. billeyler used the word "unhinged"... that comes close to explaining them! The 1941 first act is a completely invented conceit which is meant as a prologue to the documentary-documented second act; in inventing Act 1 the creators lifted many lines from the movie, shifting the context where necessary.

I should add, by way of piquing your interest, that Bob Stillman, who plays the fey, gin-soaked accompanist George Gould Strong, does his own piano playing onstage. He's nothing short of miraculous in the role. Think Liberace with more conservative attire.

Wish I knew whether or when I might be playing. It's too early to tell right now. You implied that you have all your tickets reserved, yes? Can you tell me what the dates are? (...in an email if you like...)

[ricksf.livejournal.com]

I've got to dig up a copy of the original Grey Gardens. Sounds like it would enhance my enjoyment of the show.

Dates and shows I'm doing are:

8/2 Spamalot
8/3 Curtains
8/4 Drowsy Chaperone
8/5 Grey Gardens

All are evening shows except Grey Gardens, of course. I'll be driving into NYC on the second and am hoping to catch Seth too at Mamas if I can get my act together in time. Hmm, is there such a thing as Broadway overdose?

[bearfuz.livejournal.com]

I subbed in the show at Playwrights Horizons, the off-B'way venue where it had its debut. I'm preparing to sub in it again at its Broadway home. There was talk that it might close in July, but they are apparently making plans to keep it running longer. Yay to that, for a bunch of reasons!!!

[bearfuz.livejournal.com]

Uh-oh! I hope I don't get blamed if you have a rotten time!!

[ricksf.livejournal.com]

Blame, heck no!

I'm going directly to abuse!