go ahead, punk, make my day April 14, 2007
I woke up to find this e-mail from Leicester:
I brought a date to Indochine last night just to have a couple drinks and appetizers at the bar before going out to meet up with others. While I was at the bar, the bartender hollered, “Hey! She wants to know what happened to your mom!” Ha!
It was the waitress we had standing at the other end of the bar. I screamed back (there was a much larger crowd last night, and very loud) “She went back to New Orleans!”
She said, “Why? When’s she gonna come back?”
I told her you might not be back until next Easter, who knows? She shook her head and said, “No… Next Month!”
I promised her that when you came back, we’d go to Indochine and eat at her table. She said we’d better. We laughed. She went back to work and my date and I laughed some more. He said, “boy, you and your mom sure make an impression.” I said, “you have no idea!”
Then she came back later to tell me how cool we were and how glad she was to have us. Isn’t that great? I mean… that doesn’t happen, mom.
I guess we really do make an impression. Well, that’s all. I just had to let you know.
Love ya, Leicester
Isn’t that sweet? People always notice Leicester and me because we look so much alike, but in New York City? I’m telling you, someone has put Ecstasy in the water lines up there. This e-mail reminded me that when Leicester and I were having lunch at a place called Cafeteria, a guy sitting next to us started flirting with me. I forced myself to flirt back, and I eventually mentioned that Leicester was my son. The guy (not a professional actor) got a totally gobsmacked expression on his face and said, “No! You’re not his mother! You look like…a teenager!”
I turned to Leicester and said, “that’s it. I’m moving to New York.”
I was talking with Don about how it’s easier to live with the foolishness that goes on (and the leadership that is not going on) in New Orleans if you have a place to escape to periodically. Well, a place to escape to and the money to do it with, once you’ve paid your insurance premiums.
He said he wants to spend more time in Mexico. I said, “have fun. I want to go to places where there is less poverty and ignorance than in New Orleans, not more.”
The waitress at Indochine should check the weather channel come this summer. I’ll be back in New York for sure next time there is a hurricane in the Gulf.
uptown, downtown April 8, 2007
Yesterday, Leicester and I walked Athena around in the neighborhood and picked up a few things they needed for the apartment. 125th Street was crowded with people shopping and people selling things from tables on the sidewalk. All the many hair salons were packed with women getting their hair done for Easter Sunday. I expect that when I leave this morning, there will be families dressed to the nines all up and down the street.
I forgot the charger for my phone, so I dropped it at the Verizon store and they charged it up for me. I didn’t even know you could do that.
In contrast to all the happy people out and about, there was one very strange sight. A guy and two companions were set up on the sidewalk wearing camouflage outfits with giant metal super-hero belts and lots of chuny cheap jewelry. They had signs where they had pasted various magazine photos of semi-naked women in bed with each other. The head guy was railing loudly about homosexuals. As Leicester and I passed by, we heard him yelling that no black men are born gay, only white men. Oh, and all woman are naturally-born lesbians. These guys probably had no idea how ridiculous they looked waving soft-porn photos around, bashing gays, and wearing more jewelry than Mary J. Blige.
Later, we had a delicious dinner at Indochine and then went across the street to the Public to see Jack Goes Boating. It was a pleasure to see Philip Seymour Hoffman work, he is really amazing. The rest of the cast was also excellent. Andrea’s friend Beth Cole was in it, as well as Tony award winner Daphne Rubin-Vega. The story was about a schlubby New Yorker who finds true love with a girl who “has a lot of problems.” I enjoyed the play, but I was absolutely captivated by the inventive set design. The action takes place in an apartment and moves back and forth to a swimming pool, as well as various other spots, all suggested with very inventive use of flying set-pieces and lighting.
In another example of the niceness that seems to have overtake New Yorkers, Leicester and I asked the lady at the theater concession stand if we were allowed to take brownies and coffee into the house. “Technically no, but I’ll put lids on your coffee and out it all in a bag for you. Just wait for the house lights to go down and the ushers won’t see you.”
a blond in harlem April 6, 2007
I’m blogging from Leicester’s apartment in Harlem, a block north of Central Park, on a street with the cheery name of St. Nicholas. He lives with his roommate, Andrea, an actress from Boston, and her dog, Athena. I’m staying here instead of a hotel this time, and it’s very comfortable. The apartment is on the fourth floor in the rear, so it’s very quiet and I’m getting quite the workout from climbing the stairs. Leicester, Andrea and Athena all have buns of steel.
The neighborhood around here is literally between gentrification and public housing. If you walk out Leicester’s door and go straight, there is a huge public housing project two or three blocks east. If you turn right and walk towards the park, there is an elegant new building going up with glass walls overlooking Central Park North.
Yesterday, we took Athena for a walk in the park. I’ve never been this far north in Central Park, and it’s really incredible. There is a giant granite hill with a fortified building from the War of 1812 on top of it. There is a large wooded area with a stream and several waterfalls. George Washington came through an area called “The Pass” during the Revolutionary War. While we were in the woods, we couldn’t see the Manhattan skyline or hear any city noise. Athena is a large puppy, a lab and pit-bull mix. She is as sweet as can be, but she’s so big and ungainly that she scares people. She’s a smart dog, though, and I really like her, even though I am an avowed fan of dinky dogs rather than big scary dogs. I love it, though, when a dog is really sweet but looks scary.
Last night we ate at a sushi restaurant nearby and walked around a little in Harlem. The weather is cold enough for a coat and gloves. There were lots of cool-looking people on the streets and lots of open, busy shops and restaurants. This is my second visit to Harlem, and it reminds me of Canal Street back when there was plenty of commerce going on there. Closer to Leicester’s place, there are brownstones and just a few shops, including a grocery store that seems to open for about four hours, and only in the middle of the night. Strangely, all the food in there is years beyond the expiration date on the package.
I really can’t get over how nice people are in New York now. Remember when New Yorkers used to act like you were just bothering them by being here? I got on the wrong train trying to find my way back here, and three black women completely dedicated themselves to making sure I got to where I was going. On the other hand, because of the cold weather, the subways are full of crazy people delivering their monologues to captive audiences. Leicester takes subways all the time, so I’ve been doing it too. I think it’s time I learned the New York subway system, anyway. Being from New Orleans, there is something dangerous and thrilling about going down in a hole in the ground and riding around on the train.
Tonight, we went to a staging of a one-act play that had it’s original production in the early 60s. It was part of the revival of one of New York’s first gay theater groups, Tosos. Leicester had met some of the people, and they invited us to come to the opening night and party afterwards. The play was a very sweet, light-hearted version of the Adam and Eve story. It was very advanced and risque for it’s time, but now it’s as provocative as Doris Day. It was great fun sweeping into a restaurant with a bunch of theater folk, and the playwright was a lot of fun.
Saturday night, I think we are getting some tickets to a new play with Phillip Seymour Hoffman, ‘Jack Goes Boating.’ It’s at the Public, and Andrea is part of the theater group, so we’ve got that going for us. I shouldn’t admit this, but I was very interested in seeing ‘Frost/Nixon,’ with Frank Langella and the guy who played Tony Blair in ‘The Queen.’ It’s in previews. The tickets, however, are $98 each, and I don’t think Leicester would get that much out of a play about two guys discussing ancient history. Unfortunately, there is not that much on Broadway that either of us feels like seeing. There isn’t even a magnificent bomb like ‘Lestat.’ You can really see why they call it “show business” and not “show art” when you walk past theater after theater with musicals made out of old movies. There used to be a time when mega stage productions were original works of art.
leicester update March 27, 2007
“So, I did this motorola promo for a friend of mine who works with a major marketing co. It was a free gig, mostly for experience working in front of a green screen and for demo reel material. Here’s the link. It takes a bit to load:
http://promo.motorola.com/rizr/index.html
Now, when it loads, you’ll drag the phone all the way to the right to see me in a speedo expecting to be on the beach. All the way to the left, you’ll see me streaking through the city. It’s pretty funny. Let me know if it works out. It should at least give you a good laugh!”
gladly, the cross-eyed bear March 5, 2007
Don and I went to Bacchanal on Sunday night and picked up delicious food cooked by chef Pete Vasquez. We brought it back here where we accomplished the changing of the guard vis a vis the paying of the bills. Oy. It’s just my fucking turn and that’s all there is to it. Don and I are like two opposite sides of the same person. “You do it.” “No, you do it.”
We talked about the Jazz Fest, which he says is gigantic and exciting. He has a good feeling about it and he thinks there will be huge crowds. With the involvement of AEG, they are bringing in some very big and popular acts. Don is a New Orleans music kinda guy, so he always wishes there were more local acts. We were both big fans of the Thursday, and I wish they would bring it back. Thursday could be the big day for local musicians, school kids, etc.. The State Farm Good Neighbor Thursday Jazz Party, or something. I’m just coming up with this off the top of my head.
I’m telling all my out of town friends that they need to get their Jazz affairs in order because hotels are filling up and what not. Many more people are converging this year than in quite a while. Don thinks the festival is going to much bigger and much slicker this year, but, you know, I think that’s a good idea right now. New Orleans has a reputation right now for people screwing up one thing after another. It’s time for a reminder that we throw down an annual music festival that is world class.
Don and I both thought Mardi Gras had a very different feel to it this year than it did last year. He spent all of Mardi Gras day in the Quarter and he said he had never seen such a “wholesome” crowd. Leicester and I made a brief visit to Bourbon Street and we noticed it was tamer than usual. There were also very few Christian groups preaching to us happy sinners, none with megaphones. I never saw the guy who rolls his wheeled cross around on his shoulder. A friend of mine once remarked “that guy doesn’t seem to get the point of Jesus bearing the cross. If the cross had wheels, it wouldn’t be such a big deal to carry it.”
I’ve decided to visit Leicester in New York for Easter again. I had a great time with him and William last year. Any recommendations on what to see that weekend?
uh oh, get out your wallet February 26, 2007
My generous and wonderful son, Leicester, about whom I can’t say enough, is helping to raise money for AIDS research by participating in AIDSWalk New York on May 20. He has pledged to raise $500 with his team, the Angry Teapots. Please consider donating to this worthy cause. Here is a link to his donation web page.
One of these days I will write about some of the wonderful and talented people New Orleans has lost to AIDS, like Chuck Crosby, the very young artist, and Ron Williams, who played Mitch when I was Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire with Amanda Newberry as Blanche. I can’t go there right now, though, and maybe not for a while. When I do, get out your hankies.
nyt - dangerblond coincidenza April 26, 2006
Here are the last few graphs of the New York Times’ review of “Lestat,” which officially opened last night. You will remember that I already warned you that Lestat Lesucks. So, looka:
At least the leading female vampires are livelier than their male counterparts. The closest “Lestat” comes to so-bad-it’s-good camp is in a subplot that might be called “Claudia Has Two Daddies.” Claudia is the little orphan girl brought home as a peace offering to the sulking Louis by Lestat, who turns her into a vampire after finding her destitute on the streets of New Orleans.
As portrayed by Allison Fischer, Claudia is a high-decibel version of Patty McCormack in “The Bad Seed,” all sweetness, light and lethal bite. She provides the show’s high-low point when she throws a musical temper tantrum after being reprimanded for killing her tutor. In a voice to bring down the walls of Jericho, she sings:
Look at you, you disapprove
Like two fussy mothers.
Who are you to criticize
The habits of another?
The song’s title, repeated imperiously throughout the lyrics, is “I Want More.” So do we, little Claudia. But this show isn’t the place to find it.
In my review on April 16, I mentioned “Claudia Has Two Daddies” and “The Bad Seed.” So, yeah, I like totally called that!
NYT reviewer Ben Brantley also calls the show a musical sleeping pill. Reading the reviews will be more fun that seeing the show, it bites.
claudia has two daddies April 16, 2006
I hate seeing bad plays, but there is something fascinating about a bad play that someone has spent a gigazillion dollars and countless hours on. Leicester and I saw Lestat last night at the Palace. We were sitting in the mezzanine. The remoteness from the stage made it impossible to catch anything subtle in the acting, but there was no problem hearing. This was a preview performance and the play does not officially open until April 25. I’m afraid they have quite a bit of work to do. Unfortunately, the biggest problem is the music. Granted, it’s not a good idea to chase Stephen Sondheim with Elton John, but this material cries out for something edgy and provocative, and all it gets is John’s fluffy pop melodies. Here are the characters, viciously attacking people and living off their blood, and you never even hear a growl, a hiss, a discordant note, or anything you haven’t heard before. At intermission, Leicester said, “it sounds like a Christian-rock concert.”
It’s not just the music that resembles Christian-rock. The lyrics keep returning to a shallowly addressed motif of “why does God let all this go on?” The book doesn’t help because it tries to address all kinds of competing interests and never settles on a theme. The gay angle is overtly pitched, with every male vampire in the cast kissing and groping one another. Even Leicester, who is gay, said, “It’s sooooo fucking gay.” And it’s not gay in a good way. Does it do any good to have homosexuality made synonymous with “creatures of the night,” and human-killers who have been forsaken by god? I realize it is strongly hinted at in the books, but less would be more here, if for no other reason than that so many mixed signals are already being sent. They have been pretty slavish to the two first books in the series, and it’s like they are trying to cram too much in.
The driving conflict of the show is between Lestat and Armand, but, since I’m not one of the people who knows every word of these books, I didn’t really understand why it was that Armand got his knickers in such a twist. It’s a major conflict driving a lot of the action, but the script just brushes over it lightly. Then, there is yet another would-be central conflict between the child-vampire Claudia and Lestat. The kid who plays Claudia has a great set of lungs and she has one of the few songs that don’t sound like “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.” I thought about how sorry I felt for Claudia when I first read Interview with a Vampire when I was a teenager. I thought, gee, she will be a woman stuck forever in a child’s body. How awful that she will never feel a man’s kiss or be held in someone’s arms. Now that I am aware of all the creepy pedophiles that go after kids, it’s implausible to me that 40-year-old Claudia, creeping around fearless in the middle of the night, looking like a beautiful child, could not find some pervert to satisfy her needs and her curiosity about sex. The whole two-gay-guys-with-a-kid thing is also addressed blatantly rather than subtly, when I think the opposite would play much better.
Even though we thought the show pretty much sucked, I got Leicester a “Lestat” tee shirt because Laurence and William have been calling him “Lestat” for years. Later, I realized that it says “die young, live forever” on the back, which is a sentiment I wish the producers had not printed on tee shirts for young people to wear. I’m sure the show will be ripped by critics, but I am curious to see if it will be a hit any way with Anne Rice fans. There were people in the packed house who were cheering and stamping their feet, even though the show both began and ended with fizzles rather than bangs. Most of the cast was good and did the best they could. Lestat’s mother and Claudia were great. Louis’ role did not have much of an impact and his voice was exactly the same as Lestat’s, when some contrast would have been much more clever and lent texture. Poor Louis also has to sit moping about how he wishes someone would end his life for him, and then, two minutes later, he is telling Lestat he wants to live forever as a vampire. Lestat is played for the most part like an earnest hero. He does not seem to change at all during the action. I never thought I would see a shallower Lestat than Tom Cruise, but, alas, there is one opening on Broadway.
The show does make an attempt at some innovative Julie Taymor-like staging and some special effects and multi-media, but it doesn’t really go all the way with it or make the impact that it could. Added to that, most of the staging is played for real, with opulent interiors flying in and out, and it doesn’t mesh well with the surrealism that is thrown in. Leicester and I were curious to see the opening of the second act, which is when Lestat goes to New Orleans. Well, hush my mouth, it’s right out of Showboat with happy darkies frolicking on the dock. One cajun-creole spiritual, and it’s right back to Phantom of the Opera meet Les Miserables, except when we meet Claudia, and then it’s The Bad Seed.
Speaking of Tom Cruise, we had brunch at Balthazar and sat next to four English girls who shyly asked Leicester and me if we knew whether or not Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes had their baby yet. Um, no. What’s that wacky Princess Anne up to? Balthazar lived up to Katie’s recommendation and was the least expensive restaurant we went to all weekend. It was a beautiful day, so Leicester and I walked around in Soho and up to East Village before heading uptown to meet William. He is still working on his senior thesis, so he made a quick trip in and hung out with us, then returned to Princeton.
The three of us saw Threepenny Opera, which is in previews also but is totally ready to open. This show is a new translation by Wallace Shawn, and it transforms the play. The language is, as the lady behind us said, “awfully earthy.” It is clear that in Brecht’s Marxist opinion human beings spend their lives either fucking others or being fucked. Actually, Brecht accuses us of eating each other, but it’s all mixed together in Threepenny. What a cast they have - Alan Cumming is McHeath, and they are selling autographed boxes of his Cumming line of toiletries in the lobby, such as Cumming in a Bar soap, and Cumming All Over body splash. Cyndi Lauper is Jenny - she has some of the best songs and does them justice. So does Nellie McKay as Polly Peachum. Her rendition of Pirate Jenny is priceless. Ana Gestayer from Saturday Night Live and Jim Dale are the Peachums and they are a scream. Carlos Leon, Madonna’s baby-daddy, plays Filch and has now won my respect. This version of Threepenny is pretty gay, too, but it works here because it’s played for laughs and they don’t bring God into it for a buzz-kill.
After Threepenny, we took the subway to the Village and saw Frank Langella on the platform. He shook Leicester’s hand and told him not to give up. William took us to this place called Chumley’s, which is a former speakeasy. There is no sign and it’s down in a basement. There is a trap door and a bookcase that is a secret door. It was fun, one of those places that hasn’t changed much since the 1930’s. We had burgers and then went to the IFC Center and saw Matthew Barney’s new movie, Drawing Restraint 9. This is a conceptual movie that has some breathtaking images and a score by Bjork. Bjork is in it with Barney. The two of them go through an elaborate tea ceremony on a ship which seems to turn them into whales, in a rather disturbing fashion. Meanwhile, the ship’s crew performs an equally elaborate procedure on a huge gelatinous sculpture on the deck. It’s almost wordless and it almost put me in a trance.
We decided on the way beck to the hotel that the weekend has had a rather macabre theme. We’ve seen murderous barbers, vampires, Mack the Knife and then Matthew Barney and Bjork cutting off each other’s legs. All we lacked was Phantom of the Opera and the Wax Museum. I have a very early flight tomorrow and a fun day at the hospital planned for Tuesday, so I guess my week is going to be downhill from here.
blogs of new york April 15, 2006
Leicester and I had great orchestra seats for Sweeney Todd last night, and what a performance we were privileged to see. Patty Lupone gave a wry, subtle tilt to Mrs. Lovett and I was so glad we were close enough to see all of the smiles, winks and lustful looks to Sweeney that flit across her face. Michael Cerveris brought the humanity out in Sweeney so that you actually felt sorry for a guy who cuts people’s throats. It was a spare production that emphasized Sondheim’s music, but not really operatic. Each member of the amazing cast played an instrument and there was no orchestra. Three members of the cast, while playing other instruments as well, alternated playing the piano. They also played every nuance of their characters. It was amazing to see them acting, looking out at the audience, while climbing ladders and playing their instruments. It was very cleverly done, with violas, etc., being passed around to characters until they ended up in the right hands. Every detail was smooth. Patty Lupone played the tuba and xylophone and Cerveris played the guitar. It’s humbling to think that every member of the cast is a triple threat - actor, singer and musician - and that they all have equally talented understudies.
This morning we went to look at an apartment that Leicester is interested in moving into. An actress named Andrea lives there and wants a roommate. It was in Harlem, on St. Nicholas, just two blocks from Central Park. It was my first trip to Harlem, and it made me think of Canal Street back when New Orleans used to have a lot of black people. Andrea was very nice and she has a great dog named Athena. She has been living in the building for eight years and has never had any trouble. She and Leicester seemed to click and he is very interested. We walked around in the neighboorhood a little. Morningside Park is very nearby and it was full of families on this beautiful, sunny, springtime Saturday. Harlem is being gentrified and it’s a sore point to a lot of people. We passed a dozen buildings that were being renovated and going condo. Someone told Leicester that gangs of teenagers were jumping yuppies in Harlem. I told him that he has little chance of being mistaken for a yuppie in his torn jeans, crazy shirts and self-cut hair. He needs to go back there at night and check out who turns up when the lights go off.
Leicester is anxious to move because he is currently living with three other people in Park Slope and has a bedroom that was carved out of the living room and has no window. He also has over an hour subway ride to his temp job in Midtown. If he moved in with Andrea, he would have a 20-minute ride. I discovered this morning that he has developed the habit of shaving and brushing his teeth in the shower to save time getting ready. I guess grooming is not at the top of his list right now, but, of course, I gave him an unwanted mini-lecture about first impressions. I haven’t had the opportunity to lecture him about anything since last summer, so he took it pretty well.
After our trip uptown we went to the MoMA, which was very crowded. We had grabbed a sandwich in Harlem, which was good because the restaurant and cafe in the MoMA had very long lines. We saw a wonderful Edward Munch exhibit, which would have been very moving if there had not been so many people. Still, the paintings were just transcendant if you could block out the noise and the people rubbing against you. Munch had a very dramatic life and then died peacefully in his bed in his 70s during WWII. He lost his mother and a lot of loved ones to TB at early ages, and there were numerous haunting paintings of sick-room scenes. I was too tired to go the Guggenheim, which I want Leicester to see for the design of the building, so I don’t know if that will happen this trip. It seems like the theme of this trip is German Expressionism, since we are seeing Brecht and Sweeney Todd was performed in that style. Leicester didn’t realize that the MoMA had so many masterpieces in their collection. He couldn’t believe he was seeing some of the most famous paintings in the world, and the ones, like the many Picassos, that changed art forever.
Speaking of haunting, Leicester broke the news to me that he is dying to see Lestat, so we are going tonight. The cheap seats, though. It’s in previews and Leicester’s friends have not heard anything good. I’m going to think of it as an anthropological excursion and hope I am surprised. After theater, we are scheduled to hang out in the Village, if I can hold up. I’ve been feeling more easily fatigued than usual, and I hope the resolution of my medical problems will remedy that. I have also had a problem eating big meals, and I’m nibbling until tomorrow at Balthazar.
I helped Leicester set up a blog this afternoon. I hope he will stick with it. He has never liked journaling for the same reasons I don’t. His thoughts come out too fast and he is a fast typist and likes to edit, so he doesn’t like the form of handwriting. Blogging also solves the problem of thinking, “How much should I reveal? Who might read this? Who might find it?” With a blog, you just assume that everyone reads it and you don’t reveal what you don’t want them to read. Since he is not working in his craft, he needs a creative outlet and he will benefit from it, I think. I have fun with it, and I hope he will.
dangerblond’s theater notes April 14, 2006
Back at the hotel again waiting for Leicester to join me. In contrast to yesterday’s sunshine, today was more New Yorkish, cool and rainy all day. I stopped into a shop and bought a cheap umbrella and when I stepped out on the sidewalk and opened it, it came apart right in my hands in front of the proprietor. He cheerfully gave me another one, but don’t get me started on the cheap merchandise that we all have no choice but to buy. If Americans went on strike and refused to buy any more cheap crap, our entire economy would shut down.
Since it was raining anyway, I decided to forego the shopping I was planning and spend more money on theater tickets. I still want to get a little New Yawk tee-shirt for Jackson. I can’t wait to bring him to New York with me when he is old enough to appreciate it. He needs to visit a toy store that has a full-sized ferris wheel inside it. There are so many great activities for kids in this city. Someone is doing a kid version of Midsummer Night’s Dream which is a big hit.
I met Leicester and two of his friends for lunch. He is working for a temp agency and currently spending his days entering data for a big huge class action suit against Wal Mart. He also has a waiter job on the weekends. His friends were a really cute actor from Virginia and an opera singer from Mexico City. They are all working for the same temp agency and making the rounds of auditions and trying to get agents. The guy from Virginia has an agent. I was going to treat them to a nice lunch, but they wouldn’t let me, so we went to a cafeteria-style place where they go every day. The food was surprisingly well-prepared, fresh and healthy. I’m glad Leicester is at least getting a nutritious lunch every day. We pigged out this morning with a big room service breakfast. Leicester already knows his way all around the city and so far he still loves being here. He has made a lot of friends. He is thinking about going to Los Angeles for the summer.
I gotta tell you, theater pickings are very slim. I thought it was just my taste, but the Village Voice agrees with me. The revival of Chicage is playing across the street from the hotel. I have zero interest in that. Mamma Mia, the musical created from Abba’s songs, is still running on Broadway. I’d rather get hit in the head with a hammer than see that. Avenue Q just seems too Avenue Cute. Wicked, the Wizard of Oz sequel. Meh.
An Elton John musical called “Lestat” is in previews. It’s about everybody’s favorite vampire. I can’t work up any interest in that. It exemplifies the current theater situation. There is something incredibly satisfying about seeing a show that is totally new to you. A completely original work is so much more fulfilling to me than seeing a play where the story taken from a movie or a TV show (or monotonous 1970’s Swedish pop music). I find myself thinking things like, “oh, I like how they pulled that scene off,” or “wasn’t there a brother-in-law?” instead of “Oh my GOD! She kissed him! … killed him! … turned out to be his real mother!,” or whatever. I don’t mind a book-to-stage play or movie, because literature is so different from performing arts. But a movie-to-stage or TV show-to-movie transition seems like a money-making transaction rather than art to me. It’s a pretty safe bet to make a stage play out of a book that is second only to the Bible in sales and was turned into a movie with the two biggest stars in Hollywood, let alone having literally millions of hard-core fans around the world. Of course, it might suck and close in a week, but you won’t find out about it from me.
The Eugene O’Neill Theater is next door to the hotel, and last night when I came back I passed a crowd on the sidewalk outside. They were waiting for Patti Lupone, who is playing Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd. Patty Lupone is like the Jessica Tandy of musicals. She originates all these fabulous Broadway roles, like Eva Peron in Evita, and then the movie gets made and someone who can neither sing nor act, but is a superstar, gets Patty’s role. Today, I stopped by there and read some of the reviews and looked at the pictures. It looked incredible. All the actors play the instruments. I hadn’t wanted to see Sweeney Todd again, but this looks like a very hard-edged production, so I bought tickets for tonight. I’m glad Leicester is going to be here, it might give me nightmares!
At the other end of the spectrum, The Light in the Piazza is supposed to be the quintessential Broadway musical. I’m not drawn to it, because it’s about a mother being cruel to her child, but I am interested in hearing Adam Guettel’s music. It would be good for Leicester to see a big-time Broadway show with sets, costumes and the whole nine. I am going to see if I can get tickets for that or Three Days of Rain with Julia Roberts, who I think is making her NY stage debut. It would be interesting to see if she has the chops. The most interesting thing opening recently is Grey Gardens, which is about Jackie Kennedy’s eccentric cousin Little Edie (Christine Ebersole), and mother, Big Edie (Mary Louise Wilson). I’ve seen the Maysles documentary, which made me cry, but I can see how it could be tranformed into a campy hoot. Leicester has already seen it, though, so I want to take him to things he hasn’t seen. Leicester’s friend, Alex, had on the most peculiar outfit on Mardi Gras and I couldn’t figure out what he was going for. It turns out that he was dressed as Little Edie, with a sweater on her head! What a nut.
By the way, I was reading that Adrienne Barbeau is opening a show where she plays Judy Garland. Did you know that she originated the role of Rizzo in Grease? Now that I know that, it seems perfect.
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