"T" FOR TWO (OR MORE…) ... A WHOLLY-OWNED SUBSIDIARY OF ALPHABET SOUP

"T" FOR TWO (OR MORE…)

A WHOLLY-OWNED SUBSIDIARY OF ALPHABET SOUP

The first blog post of 2017, after the tumultuous year known as 2016, chats about a 70s comedy that had its moment in the spotlight, but then faded away to Samuel French limbo; a frothy musical based on a frothy film; a film legend's Broadway debut in a fascinating, but flawed play; a well-acted play that oddly left me less moved than I felt I should have been; and finally, a stunning, stunning one-man show about survival. They all start with the letter "T," so come get comfy and join our very own "T" party. ("T" party. Get it? Okay, I'll stop.)

TWIGS

 – Broadhurst Theatre, New York

"Twigs" stayed at the Broadhurst for only a couple of months. It played most of its run at the Plymouth.

November, 1971. I thought Twigs playwright George Furth's book for the landmark musical Company was brilliant, still do in fact, so I was excited to see what he would do with his follow-up show. The result was an evening of four interconnected one-acts that was often very funny, but which completely left your memory the moment each playlet was done. Would it be unjust of me to say it felt like really well-written sitcom episodes for someone like Carol Burnett (see Sidebar)? Produced with class by Frederick Brisson, better known as Rosalind Russell's husband, Twigs was skillfully designed by Peter Larkin (scenic), Sara Brook (costumes), and David F. Segal (lighting), with assured direction, in a rare departure from musicals, by Michael Bennett, hot off of his back-to-back triumphs with Company and Follies. Stephen Sondheim even provided the incidental music for his Company colleague. It featured a cast of pros, including A. Larry Haines, Conrad Bain, and Simon Oakland. But what ultimately elevated Twigs from being just another competent, yet inconsequential comedy, was its leading lady, Sada Thompson, in a performance, as the woman in each of the playlets (three sisters and their mother), that had the critics falling over themselves in praise. It was her performance, and make no mistake, Ms. Thompson was definitely driving this bus, that took the play to profitability and earned her a well-deserved Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play, Twigs' only Tony nomination. It wasn't the best comedy ever written, but in the assured hands of Sada Thompson, it glittered like a polished diamond. It has since become one of those forgotten 70s comedies. – at the Broadhurst Theatre, New York

Sidebar: Ironically, in 1975, CBS aired a televised version of Twigs starring Carol Burnett, rather than its originator Sada Thompson. In 1975, Burnett was a huge television name and her eponymous The Carol Burnett Show was one of television's biggest hits. Thompson would gain television stardom a year later as the wise and loving matriarch in Family. She'd also win an Emmy Award in the process. Although widely considered one of our finest actresses both on stage and on television, Twigs was Thompson's biggest success, running nearly 300 performances. She appeared on Broadway only twice after Twigs, both shows quick-closing failures. She died in 2011 at the age of 83.

– Blackstone Theatre, Chicago

October, 1972. Following its successful and profitable Broadway run, producer Frederick Brisson loaded up the sets and costumes, hired some skilled actors, retained his Tony-winning star and embarked on a six-month national tour. Sada Thompson was still dazzling and provided a tour-de-force; her vehicle seemed even less accomplished on a second viewing. Oh, it was still quite funny and very professional, but now firmly felt like sitcom on a legit stage. As a play, eminently forgettable. As a showcase for Sada Thompson, totally memorable. – at the Blackstone Theatre, Chicago

THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE – Marquis Theatre, New York

May, 2002. A few years back, I watched, for the first time in 30+ years, Thoroughly Modern Millie, the film on which this frothy treat of a musical is based upon. The film, although equally frothy and light as air, doesn't quite hold up to the stage incarnation. Oh, sure, the film stars Julie Andrews at her effervescent best as Millie, in a performance that gave a tantalizing glimpse at how wonderful her stage performance in The Boy Friend must have been; and it featured a delightful, if sinfully underused, Mary Tyler Moore; and charming performances by James Fox and John Gavin; and had some great numbers. But, it also featured an odd performance by Beatrice Lillie, and, yes, I'm probably the only person on the planet who didn't faint over her, and an even odder and jarringly over-the-top performance by Carol Channing, who would, for reasons known only to the Academy Awards nominating committee, get an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. (I assume this was her consolation prize for the egregious casting of the horribly miscast Barbra Streisand instead of Channing in the, ultimately, terrible film version of Hello, Dolly!) All my misgivings about the film, however, vanished seconds after the curtain rose as Sutton Foster, all delicious charm and talent, started singing her first number. Cheerfully old-fashioned and without a care in the world, Millie was a wide smile from start to finish. The book by Richard Morris and Dick Scanlan kept the somewhat convoluted plot clipping along, but it was the new score, courtesy of the always wonderful Jeanine Tesori, and the new lyrics by the aforementioned Mr. Scanlan that gave the musical a verve and sass that was missing from the film. Expensively designed, smartly directed, with terrific choreography, Millie featured a raft of great performances from Marc Kudisch's pompous Mr. Trevor Graydon to Gavin Creel's sweetly romantic Jimmy Smith to Angela Christian's cluelessly naïve Miss Dorothy to Anne L. Nathan's drill sergeant office manager (a great small part) to Ken Leung and Francis Jue's hysterically evil Chinese henchman to Sheryl Lee Ralph's glamorous Muzzy Van Hossmere. But it was Harriet Harris' diabolical and diabolically funny Mrs. Meers and Sutton Foster's powerhouse performance as Millie which left the most lasting impressions. Both would win Tony Awards (Best Actress for Foster and Best Supporting Actress for Harris) and both would go on to gift the theatre with other memorable performances. My only minor quibble was Foster's eleven o'clock number, "Gimme Gimme." Though technically faultless, this was the one instance where I could see Foster working. The smile was a bit strained, the energy a bit mechanical. All this, however, became academic as she brought the number to a sensational finish. Strained and mechanical or not, when that number ended, you knew you were witnessing the birth of a new star. – at the Marquis Theatre, New York.

Sidebar: Despite reviews which ranged from full-out raves to complete pans, with much of the negative press citing a lack of freshness and sincerity, Thoroughly Modern Millie won six Tony Awards, including the all-important Best Musical beating out Urinetown, the Tony-winner for both book and score. There were many raised eyebrows over Millie's win. Urinetown is, in my opinion, the better show, the more inventive one, but many believe people didn't want another satiric musical to win the year after The Producers famously swept the 2001 Tonys. With three big Tony wins, Millie went on to a run of just over 900 performances and a long national tour.

Casting Tidbits: In a classic "you're going out a youngster but you've got to come back a star!" piece of 42nd Street life-imitates-art, Sutton Foster stepped up from the ensemble when the original Millie. Erin Dilly, didn't meet expectations during the La Jolla Playhouse tryouts, took the show to Broadway and became an "overnight" sensation. (Foster had been in four Broadway productions prior to Millie.) She's one of my favorites and I'm pretty much convinced there's nothing she can't do. (Miscellaneous fun tidbits: Kristin Chenoweth played Millie during workshops, but left the production to work on a sitcom that was cancelled after six episodes. Oops! In La Jolla, Pat Carroll played Mrs. Meers and Tonya Pinkins was Muzzy. Now that would have been worth seeing!) Although Sutton Foster is the lead, she's billed as "and introducing SUTTON FOSTER as Millie." (She's a veteran of four Broadway shows and you're "introducing" her?  A bit of PR embellishment?), This is prominent billing, and since she won the Best Actress Tony, apparently qualified as above-title billing, but the first actor billed is Sheryl Lee Ralph, who played the somewhat extraneous role of Muzzy. She was very, very good, mind you, but first billing? I guess when you're an original Dreamgirl and making your first Broadway appearance in nearly twenty years, you wield that kind of billing power. And in the ensemble, a flock of names that I would see in other shows in bigger roles: Kate Baldwin (!!), Jessica Grové, Casey Nicholaw (future Tony-winning director and noted choreographer), Noah Racey, and Megan Sikora. Never, ever underestimate the phenomenal men and women who work in the ensemble!

THREE DAYS OF RAIN – Jacobs Theatre, New York

April, 2006. Playwright Richard Greenberg is a writer I have admired since I read his early play, Eastern Standard. He won a well-deserved Tony in 2003 for his magnificent play, Take Me Out, which is on my Top Ten list of favorite plays. His 2013 play, The Assembled Parties, was a bracing and exciting play about family and social standings. His 1998 play, Three Days of Rain, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His credentials are impeccable. But impeccable credentials were not the draw for the 2006 production of this time-hopping, somewhat disjointed, somewhat confusing play about truth vs. perceived truth about certain events in a brother, sister, and childhood friend's lives. Nope. No one bit. This was all about Julia Roberts' Broadway debut. Yes, that Julia Roberts. As in uber-popular, Oscar-winning, movie megastar Julia Roberts. It was her name that caused a frenzy at the Jacobs box-office. It was her name that made the limited twelve-week run a sell-out smash. It was her name that put the press and paparazzi into overdrive. So, let's get to the stuff that really matters. How was she? Well, I rather irreverently call it "The Julia Roberts Thing," but what was on view at the Jacobs was actually better than that tart little title would imply. The stage is definitely not her medium. She was frequently tentative, as though she didn't quite trust her instincts as an actor, and more than a bit wooden, as though she didn't feel confident in handling the simultaneously more intimate and bigger acting techniques of the theatre. Having said that, however, her charisma was undeniable. You literally couldn't take your eyes off of her when she was onstage. That isn't to say she stole focus. Far from it. She proved to be every inch the ensemble player and, when not actively participating in a scene, you could sense her really listening and reacting to what was going on. And perhaps this is shallow of me, but when she smiled that luminous Julia Roberts smile, all was right in the world. I'm not quite sure why she picked this particular play to make her Broadway debut in, but she deserves props for choosing a difficult, small, ensemble piece as opposed to a showier role in, say, a comedy where she could show off her comic chops and be dressed in fabulous clothes. (Thought: wouldn't she be terrific in The Little Dog Laughed?) Her costars, Paul Rudd and Bradley Cooper, in his Broadway debut, were more successful in the acting department, but I suspect that's more due to better-written roles than anything else. It was evident that the three actors respected and enjoyed working with each other and that helped the play enormously. Joe Mantello's direction was serviceable, but the unsung star of the day was Santo Loquasto's fabulous set. One final thought… After the performance, folks, not surprisingly, mobbed the stage door. Roberts was the first one out. Though with, I assume, bodyguards to help ease her way to her waiting car, she took her time, smiling to the waiting fans, sharing a word or two with a few, and signing some programs. The smile was at full tilt. She was gracious, at ease, and just plain classy. It wasn't great theatre, but it was unforgettable. – at the Jacobs Theatre, New York

Sidebar: I was on a layover in New York and stood on the cancel line and was rewarded with an 11th row seat. Not bad, not bad at all.

TIME STANDS STILL – Jacobs Theatre, New York

April, 2006. Although the Friedman Theatre is an intimate venue, sitting in the second-to-last row of the mezzanine, we lost a lot of the carefully-directed nuance that Daniel Sullivan brought to the piece. It was there, I could tell it was there, but we felt distant from the characters in Donald Margulies' drama about relationships that want to live in the past, but can't, and want to move forward, but are hesitant to do so, and that distance made for a theatre-going experience that did not land as powerfully as I suspect it would have had we been closer to the action. Perhaps Laura Linney and Brian d'Arcy James, both exquisite actors, were a tad too subtle, where a bit more oomph, for lack of a better word, in their performances could have generated more audience involvement with their characters. And in Ms. Linney's case, I had no idea her face was made up to look scarred until I saw pictures. It just didn't register up in the rafters. Although Linney and d'Arcy James and their characters' ying and yang were the play's focus, it was the broader, more comic, and, ultimately, more affecting performances of Eric Bogosian, as the couple's oldest friend, and, in a surprisingly refreshing performance, Alicia Silverstone, as his much-younger and much less complicated girlfriend, that gave the play, for me, at least, its heart. With beautiful production values and four talented actors, it was a worthy way to spend the afternoon, just not the "wow" the critical reaction would have led one to believe. – at the Friedman Theatre, New York.

THE TRICKY PART – Signature Theatre (the ARK), Arlington, VA

February, 2008. When author Martin Moran was twelve, he was sexually abused by Bob, a retired Vietnam vet and counselor at a Catholic boys' camp. This abuse continued until Moran was fifteen. Horrific by any standards, Moran treated this all with candor and, surprisingly, a great deal of humor in his one-man adaptation of his shattering book of the same name. A gifted storyteller and actor, Moran made his characters come alive with vivid detail, especially Bob. Far from being the stereotypical villain, Moran imbued his abuser with a wide-range of conflicting traits, from downright creepy to unexpected generosity. By making Bob a living, breathing person, it made Moran's abuse even more horrifying. Moran's story of survival following the end of his abuse was compelling and when he finally confronted Bob years later, a wizened old man in a wheelchair, the scene that followed and the grace that Moran gave it, concluded an unforgettable evening that I will long cherish. The warmth and genuineness Moran portrayed onstage is real. After the performance, he took the time to talk to each and every person waiting after the show to thank him for his performance, us included. An absolutely stunning experience. – at the Signature Theatre, Arlington, VA.

And that's it for the first blog of 2017! Until later.

© 2017 Jeffrey Geddes