DISCOVERING THE END OF THE ALPHABET – Part 1 (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alphabet Soup)

DISCOVERING THE END OF THE ALPHABET – Part 1

(a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alphabet Soup)

X, Y, Z…and a lone U that was misfiled among the Xs. The sometimes neglected end of the alphabet. Not as popular as, oh, A, let's say, or S, or T, but still with a myriad of rewards. So what does the end of the alphabet hold in store today? Grab a cuppa and let's find out.

VISITING EDNA – Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago

September, 2016. David Rabe's powerful new play was, at nearly three hours, in need of a very careful trim of about twenty minutes. Considering it was in its first week of previews and had a major cast member depart only two days earlier, (in fact, the understudy filled in for the departed actor, K. Todd Freeman, with, I'm sure, very limited rehearsal) it was in excellent shape. Evocative, touching and haunting, this remarkable work will speak to everyone in one way or another. A mother and a grown son, living hundreds of miles apart, and now divided by more than just distance. A terminal illness, attempts to regain a closeness that has been absent for years, possibly decades. With soliloquies that sometimes soared with breathtaking brilliance, this was grade A theatre. Ian Barford, as the estranged son, was excellent, but with all due respect to the talented actors, it was Debra Monk, as Edna, the mother, who held it all together, and when she was offstage, the energy and focus occasionally stumbled. We've long been huge fans of Ms. Monk and she did not disappoint here. We'd both see it again. - at Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago

Sidebar: Tony-nominee K. Todd Freeman left the production by mutual agreement after two previews. Freeman is an ensemble member of Steppenwolf, and the statements issued after his departure were carefully worded and dignified. Bottom line, he didn't work out in the role. It happens. His understudy, Jeremy Sonkin, was on the night we saw the play and was excellent. Show biz "bible" Variety, gave Rabe's play the glowing review it deserved. Chicago critics overall were not as impressed.

VAMPIRE LESBIANS OF SODOM – Theatre Building, Chicago

 

September, 1995. I don't remember much about this production featuring Peter Mohawk and Honey West except that I hated every minute of it. This was only three months after Steve's death, so perhaps I was simply having a bad day and wasn't getting into the Charles Busch satire/spoof/silliness. Or perhaps it just wasn't very good. Either way, I was delighted when it ended. Had there been an interval, I would have escaped, but there wasn't, so I didn't. For the record, the Chicago Tribune gave the show and its players a good notice. – at the Theatre Building, Chicago

From the Revivals Department: According to the program, Vampire Lesbians first opened in Chicago in 1990, starred Alexandra Billings, played for a year, and set box office records at the Royal George Theatre. Huh. I would have vastly preferred seeing Ms. Billings. Though Honey West is as close to a LGBT icon in Chicago as it gets, I've never been a fan. Oh, well.

THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING – Booth Theatre, New York

July, 2007 . Bob's introduction to the incandescent Vanessa Redgrave. A one-woman show by Joan Didion, based on her memoirs about the death of her husband, and, for the play, the death of their daughter barely two years later, came to vivid life with the straightforward direction by David Hare, the deceptively simple production design, in which scenic designer Bob Crowley, costume designer Ann Roth, and lighting designer Jean Kalman proved that less is often more, and most of all in the exquisitely nuanced performance by Vanessa Redgrave. Your eyes never left Ms. Redgrave throughout the entire show, and she easily kept the audience in the palm of her hand. Sometimes quite funny, often very moving, the theatre alternately rocked with genuine delight, and moments later was stunned into pin-drop silence. Redgrave is a theatre legend, a master of her craft. This lovely play could not have been in better hands. Variety called it "unmissable theater." And The Guardian had this to say: "That the audience is rapt is an understatement. We are practically hypnotised by Redgrave's every movement. Every tilt of her head. The flicks of her wrists and wringing of her hands. How she lets her platinum hair down and shakes it out before pulling it again into a sensible ponytail. The way her hands calmly, neatly smooth out the wrinkles in her ankle-length skirt." I couldn't agree more. Unmissable, indeed. Thrilled that we saw it. – at the Booth Theatre, New York

From the Life Imitating Art Department: A couple of years later, in 2009 and 2010, within a span of fourteen short months, Vanessa Redgrave would experience gut-wrenching loss with the deaths of her daughter, Natasha Richardson, younger brother, Corin Redgrave, and younger sister, Lynn Redgrave.

VICTOR/VICTORIA – Marriott Theatre, Lincolnshire, IL

August, 1999. Love the film. Love it! Nothing I don't love about it. Pretty much hate the stage adaptation. The Broadway edition, when seen in Chicago on its way to New York, was among the worst things I'd seen on a professional stage. Still is. Film songs replaced with inferior songs, the lack of any real excitement, and a really, truly, outstandingly awful second act opener, "Louis Says." Follow that up a few years later with a stunningly bad dinner theatre production in suburban Wood Dale that we attended because we knew the leading lady, who gamely tried to get through the sludge. But wait! Between the Julie Andrews train wreck and the dinner theatre fiasco, Lincolnshire's venerable Marriott Theatre mounted a production that somehow managed to gloss over, not erase, mind you, much of the show's flaws. (Full disclosure. We went because we knew the actors playing Norma and Toddy, and were invited by Norma's husband, a colleague of Bob's.) Oh, "Louis Says" was, unfortunately, still around, and as awful as I remembered. And the superior film songs were still missed, but for whatever reason, Marriott managed to pull it off…almost. Perhaps, minus all the glitter, bells, and whistles of the Broadway incarnation, the show, warts and all, played better. Or perhaps in the more intimate setting of Marriott's in-the-round venue, and thanks to very broad direction and acting, it was just more fun. Whatever the reason, we enjoyed it. The stage product is still vastly inferior to the film original, but leads Paula Scrofano, Gene Weygandt, Kelly Anne Clark, hysterically funny as Norma and far and away the audience favorite, and Brian Robert Mani all delivered the goods, the audience had a good time, and all was well at Cassell's Nightclub. – at Marriott Theatre, Lincolnshire, IL

YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN – Hilton Theatre, New York

Young Frankenstein had a selection of marquee looks during its run.

January, 2008. Officially called The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein. Seriously, Mel? Dial down the ego, dude. But then ego abounded in this show. (see From the Unchecked Ego Department) Egos, notwithstanding, including the uber-pretentious official title, any show that features a yodeling Sutton Foster and Megan Mullally rhapsodizing in song about her breasts can't be all bad. And it wasn't. It was big; it was loud; it had a jaw-dropping scenic and lighting design; it had a cast of some of Broadway's finest talents (Roger Bart, Megan Mullally, Sutton Foster, Shuler Hensley, Andrea Martin, Fred Applegate, Christopher Fitzgerald); it closely hewed to the beloved Mel Brooks film of the same title; and it was funny, sometimes, for example, in the case of the divine Ms. Foster, hysterically so. What it didn't have was a dynamic leading man. Oh, Roger Bart was very talented and did well enough, but he just didn't have either the presence or the charisma to fill the Hilton's large stage. And unlike Brooks' super-smash, Tony record-breaking The Producers, Young Frankenstein lacked real creativity, warmth, or characters you cared about. It was all too mechanical, paint-by-numbers. It was a tight, slick, entertaining, and professional show, with a pleasantly tuneful and instantly forgettable score by Brooks, a solid joke-laden book by Brooks and Thomas Meehan, and lively, if "I've-done-this-before-so-I'm-phoning-this-in," choreography and direction by Susan Stroman. The capacity audience could not have cared less and had a great time. So did we. But, whereas after seeing The Producers, especially with its peerless original cast, you wanted to talk about it and tell other people about it, with Young Frankenstein, you left the theatre, said "Well, that was fun," and then forgot about it. – at the Hilton Theatre, New York

From the Unchecked Ego Department: To say Mel Brooks and fellow lead producer Robert F.X. Sillerman didn't exactly endear themselves to the Broadway community with Young Frankenstein would be an understatement. Where to start? Well, how about the bad press they got when they decided to dump the announced and booked St. James Theatre, home of The Producers for its entire 6-year run, in favor of the larger Hilton Theatre? Ouch! And then, one can't forget charging a then-walloping $450 for a premium seat, an abhorrent practice instituted by Mr. Brooks when The Producers went super-nova, before the show opened. In 2007, that was unheard of. (And, please, don't get me started on premium seats. I could rant for days!!) Then they decided to limit theatre parties and groups to a paltry 50 seats maximum for weekend performances. Really bad move. And for the icing on the cake of missteps, producer Sillerman broke with long-standing tradition and refused to provide box-office grosses to the League of New York Theatres, claiming such information was "proprietary." But karma can be a bitch, and it came quickly in Young Frankenstein's case. Premium prices were dropped. (We paid standard box office of $121.50 for our seats in Row H Center in the Orchestra. Primo seats. And we bought them two days earlier.) The number of seats for groups and theatre parties were increased in an attempt to woo back the group and theatre party folks. But all of it was too little, too late for damage control. The bad PR die had been cast. Seven years earlier in 2001, The Producers was being touted as the hit to end all hits, the shot in the arm Broadway desperately needed. At the 2001 Tony Awards, the show dominated the awards and walked away with a record-breaking twelve of them. Mel Brooks was the new King of Broadway. Cut to the 2007-2008 season. How the mighty had fallen. Brooks' second Broadway outing got mixed-to-negative reviews. He, his co-producer, and his show all received mostly bad press pre- and post-opening. Young Frankenstein nabbed only three Tony nominations, two performance and one design, and won none. It closed after only 485 performances as opposed to The Producers' 2502 performances. For the Broadway community, it was schadenfreude to a delicious degree. To date, Mel Brooks has not returned to Broadway. Lesson? Well, as they say, pride comes before a fall, and Mel Brooks fell hard.

VALLEY OF THE DOLLS – Gerald W. Lynch Theatre (John Jay College), New York

Daniel Reichard (Jersey Boys) was a last-minute replacement for Hunter Bell.

March, 2010. Valley of the Dolls, the film, is my favorite so-terrible-it's-good movie. (Runners-up: Mommie Dearest and Torch Song, starring Joan Crawford.) What makes it both so terrible and so good is that everyone involved, bless their hearts, played everything so straight with nary a wink or eye roll in sight, giving the inherent camp permission to reign supreme. And so when The Actors Fund announced a star-studded benefit reading of Helen Deutsch and Dorothy Kingsley's screenplay of this iconic camp delight, I immediately bought tickets. Now perhaps the cast, Broadway vets all, upped the camp factor a teeny-tiny bit, well, perhaps more than just a teeny-tiny bit, I mean, seriously, folks, it's practically begging one to do so, with the result that we, the lucky folks in the audience, were convulsed with laughter and cheering like mad. And look, just look at this cast: Nancy Anderson, Craig Bierko, Heidi Blickenstaff, Charles Busch, Tovah Feldshuh, Julie Halston, Troy Britton Johnson, Julia Murney, Brad Oscar, Daniel Reichard, and Ed Watts. To the credit of this inspired cast and some canny direction by Carl Andress, the show walked that thin line between fun, delicious camp and over-the-top, unwatchable camp and never made a false move. I had an absolute blast! – a benefit for The Actors Fund at the Gerald W. Lynch Theatre, New York

(check out this YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcpXJJ3i3qs)

Flying the NOT Friendly Skies: Bob was supposed to see this with me. We'd even purchased a ticket on United rather than flying standby on Delta to ensure that he would get to New York in plenty of time for the show. The best laid plans, etc… Long story short, weather first delayed the flight, and then United cancelled it. And Bob missed the show. Sigh.

YOU'RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN

 – Civic Theatre, Chicago

 

 Pre-opening ad.

Post-opening ad.

Dennis Phillips replaced Blaine Parker as Schroeder during the long Chicago run.

 The much-missed Civic. The balcony was big, but it was all compact and intimate.

Proof that CB was an institution even as early as 1969.

 January, 1969; August, 1969. Clark Gesner's money geyser, also known as You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, based on Charles Schulz's iconic "Peanuts" characters, ran for nearly 1600 performances in its initial off-Broadway production, spawned a bumper crop of tours and regional productions, and, by now, has been done by every theatre group in the world. I exaggerate, of course, but probably not by much. And there's a reason for all that…the show is good, just plain good. The book doesn't speak down to younger audience members and has a wit that adults can enjoy. The score is charming and tuneful. Truth be told, I played my original cast recording down to the bare grooves. At the beautiful, art-deco space called the Civic Theatre, now sadly gone for twenty-five years and used for rehearsal spaces, storage, etc. for the adjoining Lyric Opera, the charms of this understated show shone through and the Chicago company, composed of veterans of the Montreal company, charmed the critics, the audience, and kept the Civic occupied until September of 1970. I loved it. – at the Civic Theatre, Chicago

Clark Who?: Clark Gesner is best-known for Charlie Brown. In fact, that was his only true success. He wrote other shows, titles that I'd never heard of, and, in 1979, wrote a big, fat Broadway flop, the one-performance only The Utter Glory of Morrissey Hall, which even star Celeste Holm, in a return to Broadway, couldn't salvage. And, oh, how I wish I'd seen it! Morrissey Hall's failure was preceded in 1971 by a failed Broadway transfer of Charlie Brown shortly after it closed its smash off-Broadway run. I wouldn't cry for Mr. Gesner, however. He was probably able to live quite comfortably off Charlie Brown royalties. Gesner died in 2002 at the age of 64.

From the "Folks Don't Learn" Department: In 1999, for whatever reason, folks with money decided that it would be a terrific idea to revisit the 32-year-old You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, toss in a couple of new numbers, eliminate one character (Patti) and replace her with another (Sally), renovate and refresh the look and sound of the show (bigger orchestra), cast it with some tried and true names, including BD Wong, who at 38 was far too old to play Linus, and book it into a Broadway theatre. Uh…didn't the original off-Broadway production try that Broadway thing way back in 1971 and fail after a month? Apparently, the producers felt things would be different this time around. They weren't.  Yes, the show got a favorable nod during its suburban Chicago tryout. Yes, the show got rave press for Kristin Chenoweth's Sally, which should have been enough to stimulate the box office, but You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown isn't a Broadway show. It doesn't fit in a Broadway house, even a smallish one like the Ambassador. The show struggled to fill even 50% of its seats, and most weeks hovered in the mid-40% range. That's not enough Peanuts fans to keep a show open. At the 1999 Tony Awards, Kristin Chenoweth and Roger Bart both won supporting Tonys, but the closing notice was already up and the show closed a week later after only 149 performances.

– Goodman Studio Theatre, Chicago

Pre- and Post-Opening ads.

August, 1972. Even though those lovable Peanuts characters bounded onto the musical stage only 5 ½ years earlier, by 1972 it was already a mega-popular hit and a money-maker for its licensor, Tams-Witmark. Regional and amateur theatres were licensing the property like mad. Goodman Children's Theatre, at the time an arm of the well-regarded Goodman Theatre, mounted a successful shortened "kid-friendly" edition of the show. With both morning and afternoon performances in Goodman's intimate Studio space, the show was popular enough to be extended twice. I don't remember anything about this production. For the record, the Goodman Children's Theatre has long since been gone. – at the Goodman Studio Theatre, Chicago

Charlies and Schroeders and Lucys…Oh, My!: At the time of Goodman's Charlie Brown, I was deep into rehearsals for Waukegan Community Player's production of the show, cast, improbably, as Charlie Brown. A good friend of mine was directing it, his original CB dropped out right before the start of rehearsals, and he asked me to step in as a favor. I did. It was not a match made in heaven. Then, as now, I'm too abrasive for Schulz's iconic, lovable creation, but I did okay, and I adored singing the songs "The Kite" and "Happiness." Two months later, I found myself once again in the Peanuts world in an abbreviated version for kids of Charlie Brown at the extinct and still-missed Barat College. This time I played Schroeder, which was a much better fit, and I loved every second of the show. I'm decades and decades too old for the show now, but I wouldn't mind giving "The Kite" another go. See if I can still do it.

And now for the lone "U."

UNCLE VANYA – Academy Festival Theatre (Drake Theatre), Lake Forest, IL

July, 1979. Prior to unearthing this program, I'd no idea that I'd seen a professional, or any production actually, of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya. But there's proof positive: a program and a ticket stub, so obviously I was there. Since the esteemed Russian playwright is not one of my favorites, and I can't imagine just going to see a Chekhov, I assumed there had to be a reason I trekked to Lake Forest to see one of his most renowned plays. A quick look at the program's cast list answered that question. Playing the role of Yelena Andreyevna Serebryakov was Katharine Houghton, co-star of the cloying Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? and, perhaps more famously, legend Katharine Hepburn's niece. Now why that would propel me to the Russian countryside is a mystery. Perhaps I was fantasizing that Aunt Kate would make a surprise appearance to the delight of audience, but, alas, that was not to be. Truthfully, I can't remember a thing about the performance, good, bad, or otherwise. I couldn't find a review in my archival website, but in an article published a month or so later when the Academy Festival Theatre shut down for good after a difficult, unprofitable season, Chicago Tribune theatre critic Linda Winer, called Vanya "reportedly dismal." And star Jack Ryland, who played Vanya, was quoted in a column by the Tribune's Maggie Daly, "We had three weeks of rehearsal and we should have had six and everyone has a different interpretation on how it should be done…" Well, okay, then. The cast consisted of many Chicago favorites and was directed by the respected George Keathley. I guess everyone's entitled to an off day. – at the Academy Festival Theatre (Drake Theatre), Lake Forest, IL

Swan Song: Uncle Vanya was the Academy Festival Theatre's penultimate show before it closed abruptly after a scheduled run of a new play, The Interview, which starred Keir Dullea and which I saw (to be discussed in a future post). A victim of artistic and fiscal mismanagement over the course of three artistic directors, a lack of real support from the wealthy, socially-conscious folks of Lake Forest, the Academy's home, who seemed more interested in the social value of entertaining stars at their homes, and a lack of a true identity, did the theatre in after twelve debt-laden years. It left a hole in the Chicago theatre scene that hasn't been filled even today.

And on that somber note… Until next time!

© 2019 Jeffrey Geddes