ALPHABET SOUP (4) - A Random Letter of the Alphabet and Five Random Shows!

ALPHABET SOUP (4) -

A RANDOM LETTER OF THE ALPHABET AND FIVE RANDOM SHOWS!

It's been a very long time, but, once again, it's time to shake up things, draw a letter from my blue London coffee mug and pick the first five shows from that letter's pile of programs.

And today's letter is ….

H

And away we go!

HIGH LIFE - Harbourfront Centre Theatre, Toronto

March, 1997. Four morphine addicts, ex-cons all, decide to rob a bank using an out-of-order ATM as bait. While this might not sound like a riveting evening at the theatre, this critically-acclaimed play by Canadian playwright Lee MacDougall was at times wildly funny, at times deeply disturbing and always involving. Featuring a cast of four talented and versatile Canadian actors - Clive Cholerton, Randy Hughson, Ron White and Tony Award-winner Brent Carver - this raw and darkly comic play was an unexpected treat.

HAIRSPRAY - Neil Simon Theatre, New York

This was the original marquee. It would change after a few months to just the title with no graphic. When your show is that big of a hit, you don't need an identifying graphic. (And a sign declaring "Best Musical" was added after the Tony win.)

August, 2002. Bob and I saw this only a few days after it had officially opened to rave reviews and very long lines at the box office. It would go on to win a total of eight Tony Awards and would have a smash run of over 2600 performances. At the performance we attended, sound problems abounded in Act One, but by Act Two, everything, thankfully, had been fixed. Buoyant, joyful and energetic throughout, the standout performance was Harvey Fierstein's performance as Edna, and despite what you may think from hearing the cast album, the only number that really stopped the show, and it truly stopped the show cold, was Harvey Fierstein and Dick Latessa's glorious soft-show, "Timeless to Me." The cast included Laura Bell Bundy, Kerry Butler, Linda Hart, Matthew Morrison and Jackie Hoffman in supporting roles. The Tony-winning book moved the plot along, the Tony-winning score was lively and tuneful (except for the absolutely awful "Miss Baltimore Crabs," which, despite being performed by the talented Linda Hart, flatlined) and Jerry Mitchell provided the choreographic dazzle. I had a very good time with the Turnblads and company and thoroughly enjoyed many parts of the show as set pieces. I thought the production as a whole, however, was a bit too slick, a bit too aware of the audience and the effect they were making and a bit too artificial. I believe if the entire show had had the same level of heart and honesty the "Timeless to Me" scene had, I would have felt differently. And, yes, I know I'm in the minority here.

HAY FEVER - Wurtele Thrust Stage (Guthrie Theater), Minneapolis

March, 2012. First public preview; packed house. Noel Coward as it is meant to be performed. I believe Coward is deceptively simple. Any competent actor can recite Coward's lines and get a laugh, but it takes truly skilled actors collaborating with an insightful director to hit that perfect balance of archness, cleverness and sophistication that are hallmarks of Coward's plays. In this outstanding production, the stars truly aligned and pitch-perfect acting, on-the-mark direction and a glorious physical production made this an evening of Coward-ly delight. As the familial matriarch, Harriet Harris was simply divine! What a terrific introduction, long overdue, to the wonders of the Guthrie.

THE HOT L BALTIMORE - Ivanhoe Theatre, Chicago

April, 1973. Most people really like Lanford Wilson's multi-award-winning, hugely successful play about the residents of a decaying Baltimore hotel facing eviction after the building has been condemned and slated for demolition. I'm not one of them. I wrote notes in my program and I quote: "Act 1 - fine. Act 2 - falls apart, big high school theatrics in scene. LONG intermissions, must be pushing drinks. Act 3 - fine, reappearances by (Marrian) Walters and (Rebecca) Taylor." Let me clarify. In my 22-year-old vernacular, "fine" meant the same thing as "meh" means in my 60something-year-old vernacular, i.e. I didn't hate it, but I didn't like it either. Mr. Wilson tried very hard for me to care about these folks, ignored or unseen for the most part by society, but I just couldn't, despite the solid acting. His intent was too obvious, and thus made me unsympathetic, or perhaps I was simply too young and without enough life experience to feel much empathy for the characters onstage. According to my ticket stub, I attended the opening night performance. Interestingly, the Ivanhoe's production premiered just a few weeks after the original off-Broadway production started its very long and prosperous run. The fact that rights were approved for a regional production that soon after a New York opening suggests the prestige that the Ivanhoe, under director George Keathley's guidance, had at the time. For the record, I didn't like Norman Lear's 1975 television series based on the play either.

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Let's take a brief pause here for some vintage 1973 adverts.

What was playing in the Chicago 'burbs in April, 1973, you wonder? Well, wonder no more. Out in Summit, at the űber-professional Candlelight Dinner Playhouse, 1776 was on the boards. Next door at the proscenium Forum Theatre, Neil Simon's tired Last of the Red Hot Lovers was entertaining audiences looking for a safe comedy. Both shows pretty standard playhouse fare. What intrigued me was what was going on and about to be going on at the in-the-round Arlington Park Theatre, a venue more or less tacked on to what was then the Arlington Park Hilton, next door to the Arlington race track. Louis Jourdan and Barbara Rush in Private Lives? David Birney (TV's Bridget Loves Bernie…spare me!) in a Shaw? Interesting. I'll just leave it at that.

And how about these two gems....

And now back to our regularly-scheduled programming....

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THE HOT L BALTIMORE - Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago

March, 2011. Nearly exactly thirty-eight years later, as part of an unsuccessful theatre package sponsored by a local gay newspaper, I revisited the folks at the soon-to-be-demolished Hotel Baltimore. Over the years, three acts had become two and I was now 60, much older and, hopefully, much wiser than I was at 22 when I saw the play at the Ivanhoe. Tina Landau's direction didn't impress me much and once again I failed to connect to the characters. I felt more empathy for them this time, but I just couldn't get past the 70s kumbaya feel of the whole thing. One very curious addition was a new character, not listed in my Ivanhoe program, called, simply, "The Man," who silently wandered around the set, primarily on the second level, much as the ghosts do in Follies, only not to the same breathtaking effect. In this case, The Man was annoying at best, pretentious at worst. The entire production for me, in fact, felt forced and, yes, like The Man, a bit pretentious. When the intermission finally arrived, I'd had enough and we left. It wasn't that I hated the production exactly; I found it dull, misdirected and just didn't care enough about it or the characters to spend another hour or so of my time with them.

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On its first visit to Chicago, Man of La Mancha played at the McVickers. (see earlier post). This entertainment page is from April, 1968. La Mancha is ending it's run, Golden Boy starring Sammy Davis is on its way to the Auditorium, Cactus Flower is still in its long run at the Blackstone and, not shown, Mame is at the Shubert. 

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HALF A SIXPENCE - McVickers Theatre, Chicago

November, 1966. This was the second professional show I saw and the first stage show to play the newly-remodeled McVickers Theatre. At 16, and with only Hello, Dolly! with Carol Channing under my professional theatregoing belt, my critical faculties were still in the embryonic stage, but I've always known what I like and I definitely liked this show. Based on H.G. Wells' "Kipps," Sixpence is one of those underrated shows that, over the years, has fallen through the cracks. It has a charming, tuneful score by David Heneker, a book by Beverley Cross that efficiently gets the story told, was stunningly beautiful to look at thanks to Loudon Sainthill's costumes and sets and Jules Fisher's lighting, solidly directed by Gene Saks and featured sensational choreography by Onna White. This U.K. import starred Tommy Steele in both London and on Broadway and the role of Arthur Kipps is a tour-de-force, requiring a triple-threat leading man. For the tour, Dick Kallman took over the demanding role, and while not as over-the-top and too-eager-to-please as Steele, if the Steele-starring film adaptation is any indication (not terribly good, by the way), Kallman did everything the role required with skill, enthusiasm and a great deal of good, old-fashioned show-biz pizzazz. One of my favorites of those years, Anne Rogers, Chicago's Eliza Doolittle in the tour of My Fair Lady, added star power and played the leading female role of Ann. In an interview, Rogers stated she was actively and aggressively wooed by the show's producers, who insisted the role needed her considerable talents. Interesting sell, considering the part of Ann compared to the part of Kipps is, as Rogers put it in the interview: "a spit, a cough and two songs." Don't get me wrong; it's a good role; it's just not a role that anyone would put on their bucket list of roles-to-play. Rogers, the consummate pro, infused the part with warmth and charm, even though she was woefully underutilized in this show. Half a Sixpence was a minor hit on Broadway, a "B" show that guaranteed a pleasant time in the theatre. It's innocent and infectious fun, joyously unassuming. Critics today would probably dismiss it as hopelessly dated and old-fashioned and miss this show's many delights. It deserves to be rediscovered.

Sidebar: Half a Sixpence was booked for a six-week run. By today's standards, when the average Chicago engagement for a touring company is two or three weeks, this would appear to be a very generous run for a profitable, yet relatively low-profile show with limited name recognition. Back then, however, touring productions always played, at minimum, a four-week run in Chicago. No doubt the producers were also counting on Dick Kallman's name to make a six-week run profitable. In 1966, Kallman was best known for his one-season television sitcom Hank. The show wasn't especially successful, but it was popular enough and Kallman a familiar enough face to warrant star billing in a First National Tour of a moderate Broadway success. (To the producer's credit, Kallman's TV credit never featured prominently in advertising for the show, i.e. you never saw a print ad declaring "Dick Kallman ('Hank') in Half a Sixpence.") In the 60s and 70s, even bus-and-truck tours frequently featured above-the-title names (eg: Tom Ewell in The Apple Tree, Dorothy Lamour in Hello, Dolly!), and usually the bigger the show, the bigger the box office name. Today, except for pre-Broadway tryout runs, it's becoming rare for a star to play Chicago in a touring production. (The West Coast has better luck with stars!)

Sidebar: In 1966, Half a Sixpence star Dick Kallman, up to that point, had had a moderately successful career. He had appeared in three Broadway shows, including the final two weeks of Half a Sixpence before taking the production on tour, had recorded a LP of standards that sold a respectable number of albums, had played small roles in some films, had toured in national companies of Broadway shows and, most significantly, had starred in the 1965-1966 sitcom, Hank, which garnered favorable reviews and was liked by audiences, but only lasted one season. In 1975, however, realizing his career would most likely continue to be less than stellar, he left show business and became a hugely successful interior designer specializing in art, collectibles and antiques, a business he ran out of his New York City duplex. He and his business, Possessions of Prominence, were featured in a puff piece in New York Magazine in early February, 1980. On February, 22, 1980, a burglar broke into Kallman's duplex and shot and killed Kallman and his younger-by-twenty-years "business associate." (Kallman was gay and apparently out to his friends, but closeted to the public.) The dual murders took over a year to solve, but eventually the killer was arrested, tried and convicted of second-degree murder. Items stolen in the burglary-murder have, to this date, not been recovered. Interestingly, when the verdict was reported by the New York Times, the article made no mention of Kallman's show business past and referred to him as "Richard Kallman, a prominent arts and antiques dealer." Dick Kallman was only 46-years-old at the time of his death.

Well, I think a burglary resulting in a double homicide is a good place to stop for today. Enjoy your week. Until later!

© 2014 Jeffrey Geddes