Do you see how bland this playbill is? It perfectly mirrors the play. This was the first and only Broadway premiere we have seen. Oh, so excited to see Wallace Shawn, Rex Reed and various other celebrities in the audience. Play was by David Hare, a big success in London, and starring the woman he'd had in mind while writing it: Blair Brown.
It was 1989 and the review in the New York Times the next day revealed the complete disaster we had seen. Beginning with an inability to do a British accent by Ms. Brown, to a lousy set, to a murky agenda, to odd timing, nothing went right. The play closed very quickly. I wonder if we had seen the London version if we would have come away satisfied. Somehow I doubt it.
7 comments:
I vaguely remember the movie adaptation with (I think) Juliet Stevenson. She could do an English accent, but the movie was as dull as the play apparently was.
We never saw it - fortunately, I guess. I did mention our "single performance/closed after opening night" show here previously - it was called FAME (no relation to the later TV show and movie) and it was very bad. We bolted at intermission.
On another occasion we had the misfortune to see a final preview of a revival of TIP TOES (a Gershwin musical) in 1979, starring the egregious Georgia Engel.
I spotted nasty critic John Simon in the audience and wanted to encourage him to let it have his worst. I needn't have worried. While some critics were charmed by it, Mr. Simon was not. I remember his review saying (cruelly perhaps, but accurately) that Ms. Engel and her leading man looked more like mother and son than lovers.
Jeff M.
I saw that when I was looking up the review, Deb. Hard to imagine.
Now Georgia Engels is a talent I have never understood. She brings everything to a halt for me.
I never knew her as anything but Ted Baxter's wife on Mary Tyhler Moore. Knowing John Simon, his comment about the age difference was probably the kindest thing he said about Georgia Engel and the play.
Patti, I agree. There is something about that stupid baby voice that affects me linger fingernails on a blackboard.
Jeff M.
like, not linger
I don't know where 'linger' ever entered my mind.
Jeff
The title sounds awesome. Too bad the experience didn't live up to the poetry of its title :/
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