MAY 1997 ----------------------------In this issue------------------------------------------ SPOTLIGHT ON Richard Dresser's Below the Belt at THE OLD GLOBE Voices: New York View of the World an Outdated Concept Rubin's Corner: London, Here We Come CyberTheatre Monthly: A Showsite with Showmanship The Play's The Thing: Do you have any idea what plays weigh when you lug a box of them up a ramp of a moving truck (reprint: Marsha Norman Queen of the Lonely Hearts) TRE Trivia, Gossip and News ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SPOTLIGHT ON: Richard Dresser's Below the Belt at THE OLD GLOBE "You don't choose Checking, Checking chooses you. My Daddy was a checker and his Daddy checked before him. He'd say, 'Any man can work. it takes an extraordinary man to check work.'" --Merkin in Below the Belt The dark, comedic wordplay of Richard Dresser's Below the Belt presents a caustic parody of corporate backstabbing and petty paranoia. Below the Belt follows the travails of three low-level suits in an unnamed enterprise producing who knows what at an industrial compound in a remote, unspecified land. This may not sound like a screwball comedy, but it is, centering on the boss, Merkin and checkers Hanrahan and Dobbitt, coerced into coexistence in an environment where constant power struggles are a necessity for survival. The Wall Street Journal doesn't generally concern itself with entertainment that grosses under 8-figures, but they noticed in this fierce satire of corporate bureaucracy "a touching, very funny, intensely human play that will speak to anyone who's ever had to phone home from a lonely hotel room....This is, in fact, the best new American play of the season." Things have come to a sorry state when a theatre who's just been handed the tag "the best new American play of the season.--The Wall Street Journal" feels it needs to explain further, and it's especially troubling that Director Andrew J. Traister feels he must qualify and defend Below the Belt's status as a comedy. Yet he comments "Black comedy is probably the most accurate description. It certainly is a comedy, but I think it's more than that too. It's a reflection of corporate consciousness and the people who work in that kind of world where somebody making decisions has absolutely no connection to [the worker] at all." Well and good, but no one implied the show was trivial - we said it was FUNNY. Comedy has been a tool for illuminating all kinds of mindsets and a weapon for attacking folly since Ancient Greece. Below the Belt premiered at the 1995 Humana Festival in Louisville Kentucky and later opened Off-Broadway at the John Houseman Theatre. Playwright Richard Dresser's other works include Gunshy, Alone At The Beach, The Downside, and Better Days. Television credits include HBO's Vietnam War Stories, The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, Bakersfield P.D., Public Morals, and Smoldering Lust. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Voices: New York View of the World an Outdated Concept Remember that poster ? 5th Avenue, Washington Square, Central Park, and familiar landmarks like the Empire State Building, & Statue of Liberty that just faded into oceans with small patches on either side labeled Japan and Europe. It was a brilliant representation of a certain mindset, and at one time applied equally well to Theatre. Times have changed. Broadway is still Broadway and it always will be. But what was once the hub of the theatrical universe is now one stage among many, and one which no longer has the first and last word. Where any major title used to begin in New York, after possibly a tryout in Boston, succeed or fail on its reception there, and then either tour or immediately go into regional & community theatres based on the NY verdict, more and more "Broadway" musicals are now premiering elsewhere, building an audience based on a concept album or the buzz from a tour, London or Toronto audience. More and more straightplays by new and established playwrights are not just developing in the better Regionals, they're content to live all or most of their professional life there. A New York resident used to have an easy time seeing all the major titles first - today, he/she will be racking up a lot of Frequent Flyer miles: Neil Simon's Proposals will have it's world premiere at the Ahmanson, Los Angeles; Last Night of the Ballyhoo premiered at the Olympics Cultural Festival in Atlanta; Ragtime, Jane Eyre and Barrymore all premiered in Toronto, Ragtime is now in L.A.; American Daughter & Getting Away With Murder both came out of West Coast Regionals; Jekyll & Hyde toured the country before attempting New York; Beauty and the Beast's tryout was in Houston, TX; Whistle Down the Wind, the only ALW to premiere in the U.S. without being preceeded by a CD or London production, held it's tryout in Washington D.C. London hits Jeeves & Martin Guerre both released CDs of the London show in the states before any U.S. production was launched, Jeeves, currently in Los Angeles, will be in D.C. next month. Here's what I propose - now that those of us who want to stay connected with major theatrical developments have broadened our focus a bit to encompass theatres that aren't in walking distance of the TKTS booth, and titles which are not on the list of Tonys noms because they're not scheduled to even open in New York until 1998... Let's get to recognizing some of the people involved in these regional productions. When someone from a Candian or Regional and Theatre asks me "Will Americans know who Bryden MacDonald is?" "Does anybody outside Kentucky recognize the name Jon Jory?" I want to be able smile sweetly, roll up a newspaper and ever so gently smack them on the nose. WHAT DO YOU THINK? Your opinions are invited on these and other burning theatre issues. Start a thread in the Theatre Forum Bulletin Boards, or to contribute to the TRE letters column, drop an e-mail to Theatre_msn@msn.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rubin's Corner: London, Here We Come Since the summer vacation season is upon us its time to update you on the shows that you can experience if you are going to London this summer. The summer season is London is shaping up as a busy time. If you did not catch Damm Yankees in New York last year, you will get another chance in London this summer. Jerry Lewis makes his London stage debut in this Abbot/Wallop/Alder/Ross musical. A fan of the Washington Senators baseball team sells his soul to the Devil so his team can finally beat the New York Yankees and win the pennant. You will have a chance to see the musical version of Neil Simons, The Goodbye Girl. The production, which has been rewritten since its New York run, is the story of an actor and a dancer who end up renting the same New York apartment after confusion over its lease. Gary Wilmot and Ann Crumb sing the Hamlisch/Zippel score. Disney's Beauty and the Beast, makes its London debut with Alasdair Harvey as the Beast and Julie-Alanah Brighten as Belle. Issay Van Randwyck will star in a Regent's Park Open Air revival of Kiss Me Kate. Philip George's musical farce about the casing of "Gone With The Wind", will open in early July. The show will be title Frankly Scarlett. This summer will bring the first ever abdication musical, Always, with Clive Carter as Edward VIII and Jan Hartley as Mrs. Simpson. Shani Wallis will be featured in this musical production. Michael Gambon and Alec McCowen star in a new drama called, Tom and Clem. The play was written by Stephen Churchett and tells the story of Clement Attlee and Tom Driberg. Popcorn by Ben Elton is a drama about a famous director of violent films who is held at gunpoint by two of his biggest fans, the notorious Mall Murderers. Two sisters work as maids and act out the intended murder of their mistress in The Maids by Jean Genet in a translation by David Rudkin. Patti LuPone arrives from the West End premiere of Master Class. Felicity Kendal will debut in Tom Stoppard's new version of The Seagull for the Old Vic. Judi Dench will star in David Hare new play at the National. Maggie Smith and Eileen Atkins will bring A Delicate Balance to the West End. Lesile Caron, Twiggy, Julie Christie and Zoe Wanamaker will star in the Chichester Summer Season this year. Finally, Kathleen Turner will bring a new solo play about Tallulah Bankhead to Theatreland. If your planning to be in London this summer you will have a wide choice along with the hits like An Inspector Calls, The Woman in Black, The Herbal Bed, Lady Windermere's Fan, Oliver, Jesus Christ Superstar, Martin Guerre and Smokey Joe's Café. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Play's the Thing Do you have any idea what plays weigh when you lug a box of them up a ramp of a moving truck ? Dear Readers, this month has been exciting for me personally. First, my directing project, The Laundromat by Marsha Norman, opened and ran pretty successfully. It is nice to be able to mount a production and practice your skills while teachers and mentors can evaluate your progress. I had actresses that I was able to grow with as I spread my directing wings. I had a Stage Manager from the gates of Theatre Heaven. And the local Salvation Army donated two washers and dryers to the project, making the set terrific. Second, I moved this month into a new apartment. The apartment complex is closer to the college. It is also a lovely place with a pool, dry sauna and a recreation room for the tenants. Needless to say, I spent the weekend when I should have been completing my column moving. And moving . . . and moving. Do you have any idea what plays weigh when you lug a box of them up a ramp of a moving truck and then down again? So, I make my apologies for no new column this month. I promise that next month will be BIGGER, BETTER, and FULL OF SUPRISES! Therefore, the editor of TRE (thanks Marie) and I have decided to re-run a column from the past. Thanks for your indulgence during this transition. And if you will excuse me, I think they are calling me poolside (Big Giant Grin!)!! Caprice Woosley In honor of Caprice's Laundromat premiere, we are re-running, wait, that's too television for TRE, er we are presenting a revival of... Marsha Norman Queen of the Lonely Hearts The plays of Marsha Norman illuminate the universal theme of loneliness of the human heart. Her characters, like Jessie in 'night Mother, and Alberta in Third and Oak: The Laundromat, explore the way people deal with the extremes of a lonely existence. Jessie takes a more self-destructive path while Alberta reaches out of her boundaries to make a connection with a young woman. In each case the reader or audience member is allowed to peek into the darkness that haunts us all. 'night Mother, the 1983 play which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, re-enacts the final hour and a half of Jessie Cates' life. The original production opened on Broadway on March 31, 1983 at the John Golden Theatre. Jessie Cates was played by Kathy Bates, and Thelma Cates was played by Anne Pitoniak. Tom Moore directed the production as well as the 1986 film version which starred Sissy Spacek and Anne Bancroft. Jessie informs her mother, Thelma, of her plan to commit suicide at the end of the evening. Thelma is not sure at first what to make of her daughter's announcement. She begins a series of ploys to stop Jessie from shooting herself with her father's gun. Thelma threatens, pleads, then gets nostalgic in order to sidetrack her daughter from her plan. All the while Jessie calmly checks items off her list of things to do before dying. Jessie feels her life has never been her own. When Jessie learns that her "fits" of epilepsy have occurred since childhood, but was never told, she confronts her mother, telling her that the information was hers to know. Her husband Cecil deserted her. Her own son Ricky, a delinquent, stole from her. Her brother Dawson was harsh and judgmental. And her mother never saw Jessie as anything more than a live-in servant or a possession. Jessie missed out on many things in her life. Most of all, she missed out on being herself. Jessie thinks it began in her infancy as she tells her mother: JESSIE. . . .I found an old baby picture of me. And it was somebody else, not me. It was somebody pink and fat who never heard of sick or lonely. . . Somebody who mainly just laid there and laughed at colors waving around over her head and chewed on a polka-dot whale and woke up knowing some new trick nearly every day and rolled over and drooled on the sheet and felt your hand pulling my quilt back up over me. That's who I started and this is who is left. (There is no self-pity here.) That's what this is about. It's somebody I lost, all right, it's my own self. Who I never was. Or who I tried to be and never got there. Somebody I waited for who never came. And never will. . . The oddest thing about Jessie's behavior is the calm, almost euphoric way she conducts herself throughout the evening. It is said in that people who intend to commit suicide gain a sense of power over the tragedies in their lives. For Jessie, this is a power she has sought after all her life. She finds joy in her ability to make this choice and tells Thelma: "No, Mama, this is how I have my say. This is how I say what I thought about it and I say no. To Dawson and Loretta and the Red Chinese and epilepsy and Ricky and Cecil and you. And me. And hope. I say no!" Thelma finally begins to realize that Jessie is serious and relents: "Who am I talking to? You're gone already, aren't you? I'm looking right through you. I can't stop you because you're already gone!" The two of them begin to discuss the plans for what Thelma must do after Jessie dies. She repeats all the orders Jessie has left her about who to call and what to wear at the funeral. When Jessie starts to leave, Thelma tries one more time to stop her. Jessie whispers, "'Night, Mother." She goes into her room and locks the door. Thelma pounds on the door, screaming at Jessie: "Stop this! I didn't know! I was here with you all the time. How could I know you were so alone?" And then a shot rings out as Jessie's final answer. The tension of the production is increased by the "ticking clock" scenario. The author's notes in the play edition states, "The time is the present, with the action beginning about 8:15. Clocks onstage in the kitchen and on the table in the living room should run throughout the performance and be visible by the audience. There will be no intermission." Play critic Robert Brustein said in his review of the production: It not only measures its own time, however (like the movie High Noon), but also the time of the audience. . . . This sounds like a gimmick, but it gives the play the density and compression of an explosive device, and accounts in part for its remorseless power (it also validates the enduring truth of the Poetics). Robert Brustein's review also compared the work of Marsha Norman to the works of Chekhov who felt that things should happen on stage as they do in real life. Chekhov, as Brustein stated in the review, once wrote, "For instance, people are having a meal at a table, just having a meal, but at the same time their happiness is being created, or their lives are being smashed up." Norman has also stated that she is not interested in how people cover things up, but how they get through their day. Brustein admits that Marsha Norman, like Eugene O'Neill, digs into the hidden parts of family life and labeled 'night Mother as, ". . .a compressed, more economical version of A Long Day's Journey into Night." In assessing her work, Brustein stated: I am invoking some great names in describing this play because I believe Miss Norman, consciously or not, is writing in a great dramatic tradition and, young as she is, has the potential to preserve and revitalize it. Nothing reinforces one's faith in the power and importance of the theatre more than the emergence of an authentic universal playwright -- not a woman playwright, mind you, not a regional playwright, not an ethnic playwright, but one who speaks to the concerns and experiences of all humankind. Implicated as I am, I have grown convinced that Marsha Norman is the genuine article -- an American writer with the courage to look unflinchingly into the black holes from which we normally turn our faces. Norman's other plays also reflect the themes of loneliness and an ache to belong somewhere in the world. Getting Out chronicles the journey of Arlene as she struggles to break free from her rebellious youth via the strength of religious faith. The character of Arlie, Arlene's youthful self, is on stage with her as she relives flashbacks of her past. Arlene encounters a lecherous prison guard and her ex-boyfriend who was also her pimp. Arlene also must come to grips with her cold-hearted mother who turned her back on Arlie. In one of the flashbacks Arlie is confronted by the Principal of her school who echoes her mother's sentiments : PRINCIPAL. Your mother was right after all. She said put you in a special school. No, what she said was put you away somewhere and I said, No she's too young, well I was wrong. In Third and Oak: The Laundromat a chance meeting of two lonely women in the wee hours of the morning sets the stage for an unusual friendship to form. Alberta goes to the Laundromat to wash her husband's clothes. Deedee, a young woman who lives across the street from the Laundromat, has come to do her wash while waiting for her husband to come home. Both women are hiding a secret. Deedee pressures Alberta into telling why she won't wash a certain shirt. Alberta finally tells her that her husband recently died and she can't bring herself to wash that shirt, the last one he wore. Deedee finally confesses that she thinks her husband is seeing another woman. By the end of the night the women have found some fleeting comfort in each other. An interesting side note to the play is that this one act has a companion piece. Third and Oak: The Pool Hall takes place the same time of night and is next door to the Laundromat. The story revolves around Shooter, a young black disc jockey, who has come to visit Willie, the best friend of his late father. Willie resents Shooter's success and the fact that Shooter seems to have turned his back on all those that love him. After a bitter confrontation the two men begin to bridge the chasm that had formed. There is an additional scene, when Deedee from the Laundromat appears, which can be inserted so that the two plays can be presented together. The two one-acts can also be presented separately. Another of Marsha Norman's successes is the musical The Secret Garden, based on the Francis Hodgson Burnett classic. Norman wrote the book and lyrics for the musical and the music was written by Lucy Simon. The story centers around Mary Lennox, born and raised in India, who is sent to live with her uncle after the death of her parents. Her hunchbacked uncle becomes a recluse after the death of his beloved wife Lily. Locked away in the house is his invalid son, who fears growing the same deformity as his father. Mary discovers a magic garden that was locked after Lily's death. With the help of a magical young boy, Mary brings the garden to life, and brings life back to the lives of those around her. Marsha Norman seems to like the musical format. She spoke about her plans for the future, "I'm going to do musicals on Broadway, because I love them and people really want to see them. Straight plays I will do in regional theaters. And when I really want to reach 90 million people, then I will do TV." Although she was rejected by many feminists when 'night Mother was produced, she is considered to be at the forefront of feminist writing. In fact she would rather write about women than men. Norman states, "If it's feminist to care about women's lives, yes, I'm a feminist." It was Jon Jory (son of the actor Victor Jory) of the Actor's Theater of Louisville who convinced Norman to write her first play. The annual Humana Festival of New American Plays at the Actor's Theater led to the discovery of playwrights like Norman, Beth Henley and John Patrick Shanley since its inception in 1977. Before her success as a playwright, Norman worked in a school for extremely disturbed children in Kentucky (which would serve as inspiration for Getting Out), freelanced as an editor and reviewer for magazines and newspapers, and also administrated and taught for the Kentucky Arts Commission. Marsha Norman is a leading voice in American theater today. Her insight into the human heart is raw, honest, and a no-holds barred look into the emotions people rarely reveal. With strength and self-determination, her characters act as guides through the darkest parts of our lives and point us toward the light of hope at the other end. The loneliness that cripples all of us at times can be healed, and Marsha Norman has a cure. My prescription would say: Read two of her plays, and call me in the morning. Plays by Marsha Norman Circus Valentine D. Boone Getting Out The Holdup 'night Mother Sarah and Abraham Third and Oak: The Laundromat Third and Oak: The Pool Hall Traveler in the Dark Trudy Blue Musicals The Red Shoes The Secret Garden Winter Shakers Internet sites relating to Marsha Norman http://www.vcu.edu:80/artweb/playwriting/obligatoryexnm.html http://www.vcu.edu:80/artweb/playwriting/nightmother.html http://www.vcu.edu:80/artweb/playwriting/suspensetech.html Caprice Woosley is currently pursuing her BFA in theater (directing and playwriting), after 25 years working in and around the theater. She is a produced playwright, actress, and amateur dramaturg who enjoys researching plays. She is a host in the Writing Forum where she co-hosts a Writing Discussion Group. She also hosted "Shakespeare Unplugged" and "Murder and Mayhem" in the Theatre Forum. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ CyberTheatre Monthly This column has occasionally examined Theatre sites that offer little or not theatre, sometimes despite Central New York locations or snazzy Broadwayesque addresses. This month we'll examine one of the best-connected Broadway sites around, out of an unlikely location in Vancouver, Canada. BuyBroadway.com is a behind-the-proscenium smorgasbord, housing official show sites, offering exciting live events, and a variety of souvenirs for purchase from your favorite shows. It has one of the oddest frames-layouts I've ever seen, but who cares, when a site is this rich in showmanship, I don't mind hunting around a page a little. While it's always exciting to find a well-done fan webpage, there's nothing like the true Official Site of a show to find Cast bios and photos, sound clips, reliable tour schedules, and sometimes details of the opening nights, exclusive interviews with the creative team - every show creates its own special showcase features. BuyBroadway is home to the official sites for The King and I, Titanic, Damn Yankees, Play On!, and Annie. BuyBroadway also uses Microsoft's Netshow technology to bring you streaming audio and video of live events, from this year's Drama Desk Awards May 18th, to the Opening Nights of it's resident shows, like the King and I tour June 5th. Of course, attending such events in person is it's own reward, but one other little perk: you can pick up a show mug, t-shirt or totebag to mark the occasion...Oh, let's be honest - your memory isn't that bad. It's to impress all your friends when you get home, right? "Where'd you get that Play On shirt, Marie" "Oh, at the Opening Night." Well, now you can take that cash you didn't have to spend on a tux, and pick up some of the merchandise. At this writing the selection included: Annie, Play On!, Miss Saigon, The Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, Crazy for You, Five Guy's Named Moe, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, A Chorus Line, CATS, Jelly's Last Jam, Damn Yankees, Sunset Boulevard, Song of Singapore, My Secret Garden, Tommy, City of Angels, Falsettos, & Smokey Joe's Cafe And speaking of OPENING NIGHTS - Check out this month's TRE Trivia. See if you can match snippets from the opening night reviews with their respective shows. What are your favorite Theatre-Websites? Let us know at Theatre_msn@msn.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ TRE Trivia Can you match up the show with it's opening night review? Peter PanImagine a combination of Horatio Alger and Machiavelli -- Times Guys and DollsThe problem now is how to get tickets. At last report, the line starts in Yonkers. --Journal-American Funny GirlSeldom has so much anticipation been built up over so little a show...From what I've been told this English revue was going to be the last word in style and wit. What I saw was an overly precious little affair with acouple of good songs and a couple of good sketches, a few timid jokes, and an overdose of pantomime in imitationof Marcel Marceau. --Daily NewsOklahomaIf you don't see La Burnett's name in Main Stream marquee lights one of these nights, then we don't know talent when we see it burst across the footlights.Gypsyhas not been written. It has been assembled from a storehouse of spare parts. --Times Kismet------- has all the unfettered inventiveness of a crowd of kids making up games as they go along. Sometimes the new musical reminds you of a youngster's birthday party. There is all the shouting and racing around, the havoc, the leaping and flying, the rare sob, the endless turbulence, and at last the faintly bittersweet ending. --World Telegram & Sun Hello, Dolly!Almost too realistic a narrative of show business horror -- PostHow to Succeed in Business...In place of subtlety, it offers the wittiest dialogue of recent years, Cole Porter's best work, and enormous gusto and skill in performance.South PacificOne spectacular talent in the role of another spectacular talent, but never becoming, or perhaps even trying to become, the woman this play is about. --World Telegram & SunA Funny Thing HappenedA Show of rare quality. Unfairly but inevitably, everyone will want to know if it is as good as South Pacific, and I will confess I don't suppose it is. But what is? --Post Stop the World - I Want to Get OffStephen Sondheim's music would have been a second-rate score even in 1940, but he has come up with some catchy lyrics. --World-Telegram & Sun The King and IEvery number is so outstanding that it is difficult to decide which wil be the most popular. --Daily Mirror Once Upon a MattressIt all seemed just a trifle too cute...a flock of Mr. Rodger's songs that are pleasant enough, but still manage to sound quite a bit alike, are warbled...one after another, without much variety in the presentation. The Sound of MusicI did not want to leave the theatre...and come back here and write a piece about the show. I wanted to hang around, on the chance that they would raise the curtain again and put on a few numbers they'd forgotten. --Daily News Silk StockingsI can only wish that some one had not been moved to abandon the snowflakes and substitute cornflakes. Answers to last month's trivia: BigSwinging on a StarThe King & I A Delicate BalanceSeven GuitarsBus StopGetting Away With MurderThe School for Scandal ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright 1997, Mersinger Theatrical Services