Eyes and Company
So this morning I went to see Dr. Messinger, for a follow-up on my new contacts. I said that my eyes had been unusally itchy early in the mornings, so he gave me a pair with a slightly different concavity, which might be better. I'm to call him in a week and tell him which I prefer, and he'll just mail me the rest of the set, so I don't have to travel out to the 'Boke again just to pick up new eyes. He asked how the show was going- I told him we'd only just begun.
Got a call while in the waiting room from Michael, who said he was not going to be in my play. Disappointing, but not very so.
Stopped off at the Bagel Smashery, then headed into the City. Saw John Short outside the Port Authority (he was waiting for his girlfriend to come in from Albany). I asked him if he'd be interested in being in my play (in lieu of Michael), and he said it would be fine, as long as it didn't conflict with Carlos' production of The Last Five Years (in which he'll be playing Jamie). Since Carlos is in my play, I imagine there won't be much conflict there. So he agreed.
Somewhat perk-ified, I went to the Library, where I picked up Total Eclipse (which I had trouble finding- apparently American and British playwrights are kept separate in the Dewey Decimal system- once I actually looked up Christopher Hampton in the online catalog, it all became clear), as well as The Crucible and a book of (translated) French Gay plays (which I read a few years ago in the Broward County Main Library, and haven't been able to find since- apparently they keep the French playwrights even further away than the British).
Then I headed up to the Performing Arts Library and got a pass to see the 1972 recording of Company.
I told them that I was planning to write a paper for my college ("DeBaun") on the contrast between the original production and the revival. So I have an excuse to go back tomorrow and see the other.
The video quality was black-and-white and horrible. The production was performed in Washington, D.C. as part of a 1972 national tour, so it wasn't the original set, which is one thing I'd really hoped to see (they reportedly had an impressive elevator). I think the only original cast member was Donna McKechnie.
There were several amusing sight gags which surprised me- Harry wheeling in a gigantic glass bar-on-wheels obviously FULL of alchohol just before "Oh Robert, we don't drink". And holy crap, Sarah seriously flipped over the back of the couch like a combat Marine to eat her brownie. After Bobby's story about the champagne and the baby oil, as soon as April gets excited, he brings out a bottle of each from his nightstand, right before the blackout. Amy scraped the burned toast so much, she made a hole in it.
Amy was indeed in a wedding dress throughout, though she took the veil off during her scene (after the song), but put it back on for the parties. The set was modular, so Bobby could easily jump from scene to scene (like with the "I can imagine how you must feel" from one scene going into the "Feel? I don't feel anything" of the next). When he got up from the bed with April for the second terrace scene, he was still shirtless, which I thought was odd, till I realized that Peter was shirtless, too, and they were sunning themselves on the terrace. An interesting choice, especially if the scene had continued on to where it ended up in the revival (Peter making a pass at him).
The end of act I is very dramatic without "Marry Me a Little"- just the "Bobby Baby" music getting louder and louder as his friends menace him with the birthday cake, then blackout.
The karate was disappointing- no flips at all, just punches and knocking overs. The woman who played Joanne (possibly Joy Franz? -I saw her name in the cast list) seemed to think she was auditioning for Evita with "The Ladies Who Lunch". She was eerily like Florence (our Joanne) with some of her early line deliveries. Susan was atrocious- couldn't even do a Southern accent. The scene with David putting the kibosh on more marijuana was scary- he was almost shouting. There was a cadre of waiters in the disco scene, who kept running by and ignoring the table as Joanne asked for more drinks. Plus a bunch of dancers (presumably, these were "The Vocal Minority").
Tempos of all the songs were slow. "Poor Baby" had the women all in bathrobes. Strange choreography, all around- Donna McKechnie did a great job, but the moves she was given were barely sexy (though perhaps they were, at the time).
Some horrible audience members got up and left just as "Being Alive" started.
Company makes me want to write something like it.
Someone behind me was watching Six Degrees of Separation, and I kept catching glimpses of it reflected in my screen. I peeked around for the hustler scene, but couldn't tell if it was “my boyfriend” David Eigenberg running around naked (if it was, he had really long hair back then)- if I could have heard his voice, I would have known, of course. I recognized Stockard Channing and Anthony Rapp, so I assume it was the original cast (which included them and David Eigenberg, according to the cast list in my book of the script). I can't seem to find it in the catalog, though, so I don't know- it may have been a tour, or something, as well.
Got a call while in the waiting room from Michael, who said he was not going to be in my play. Disappointing, but not very so.
Stopped off at the Bagel Smashery, then headed into the City. Saw John Short outside the Port Authority (he was waiting for his girlfriend to come in from Albany). I asked him if he'd be interested in being in my play (in lieu of Michael), and he said it would be fine, as long as it didn't conflict with Carlos' production of The Last Five Years (in which he'll be playing Jamie). Since Carlos is in my play, I imagine there won't be much conflict there. So he agreed.
Somewhat perk-ified, I went to the Library, where I picked up Total Eclipse (which I had trouble finding- apparently American and British playwrights are kept separate in the Dewey Decimal system- once I actually looked up Christopher Hampton in the online catalog, it all became clear), as well as The Crucible and a book of (translated) French Gay plays (which I read a few years ago in the Broward County Main Library, and haven't been able to find since- apparently they keep the French playwrights even further away than the British).
Then I headed up to the Performing Arts Library and got a pass to see the 1972 recording of Company.
I told them that I was planning to write a paper for my college ("DeBaun") on the contrast between the original production and the revival. So I have an excuse to go back tomorrow and see the other.
The video quality was black-and-white and horrible. The production was performed in Washington, D.C. as part of a 1972 national tour, so it wasn't the original set, which is one thing I'd really hoped to see (they reportedly had an impressive elevator). I think the only original cast member was Donna McKechnie.
There were several amusing sight gags which surprised me- Harry wheeling in a gigantic glass bar-on-wheels obviously FULL of alchohol just before "Oh Robert, we don't drink". And holy crap, Sarah seriously flipped over the back of the couch like a combat Marine to eat her brownie. After Bobby's story about the champagne and the baby oil, as soon as April gets excited, he brings out a bottle of each from his nightstand, right before the blackout. Amy scraped the burned toast so much, she made a hole in it.
Amy was indeed in a wedding dress throughout, though she took the veil off during her scene (after the song), but put it back on for the parties. The set was modular, so Bobby could easily jump from scene to scene (like with the "I can imagine how you must feel" from one scene going into the "Feel? I don't feel anything" of the next). When he got up from the bed with April for the second terrace scene, he was still shirtless, which I thought was odd, till I realized that Peter was shirtless, too, and they were sunning themselves on the terrace. An interesting choice, especially if the scene had continued on to where it ended up in the revival (Peter making a pass at him).
The end of act I is very dramatic without "Marry Me a Little"- just the "Bobby Baby" music getting louder and louder as his friends menace him with the birthday cake, then blackout.
The karate was disappointing- no flips at all, just punches and knocking overs. The woman who played Joanne (possibly Joy Franz? -I saw her name in the cast list) seemed to think she was auditioning for Evita with "The Ladies Who Lunch". She was eerily like Florence (our Joanne) with some of her early line deliveries. Susan was atrocious- couldn't even do a Southern accent. The scene with David putting the kibosh on more marijuana was scary- he was almost shouting. There was a cadre of waiters in the disco scene, who kept running by and ignoring the table as Joanne asked for more drinks. Plus a bunch of dancers (presumably, these were "The Vocal Minority").
Tempos of all the songs were slow. "Poor Baby" had the women all in bathrobes. Strange choreography, all around- Donna McKechnie did a great job, but the moves she was given were barely sexy (though perhaps they were, at the time).
Some horrible audience members got up and left just as "Being Alive" started.
Company makes me want to write something like it.
Someone behind me was watching Six Degrees of Separation, and I kept catching glimpses of it reflected in my screen. I peeked around for the hustler scene, but couldn't tell if it was “my boyfriend” David Eigenberg running around naked (if it was, he had really long hair back then)- if I could have heard his voice, I would have known, of course. I recognized Stockard Channing and Anthony Rapp, so I assume it was the original cast (which included them and David Eigenberg, according to the cast list in my book of the script). I can't seem to find it in the catalog, though, so I don't know- it may have been a tour, or something, as well.