How are Broadway shows capitalized?
Let us first realize what this basically entails: A Broadway show must be funded so that four weeks (five weeks for a musical) of rehearsals may be conducted. This is a period in which money is being paid out in abundance, but in which virtually no money is being taken in. The money for this period is called the "nut"
Then the show will open. In today's world of Broadway, tickets will be sold far in advance. A Broadway production is now a rather intricate piece of machinery--at least as far as selling tickets is concerned. Airlines, travel bureaus, hotels, and you name it are instruments for selling tickets to Broadway shows.
The "nut" referred to, though, is usually several million dollars. This is principally why so many Broadway shows run so long on the Main Stem (i.e., Broadway). Another reason is the fact that tourists from many countries are today the major audience for Broadway shows. A third one is that creative people (including producers) have developed a means of getting money all through the run of the show. This is in the form of "royalty points." In other words, the weekly grosses are dispersed as follows:
(1) Operating expenses (including, but not limited to) the salaries of all cast members. This also will include the theatre rental.
(2) Taxes
(3) Royalty Points
(4) Paying Off The Nut
in that order!
Now, let's finally get to the issue of how Broadway shows are capitalized . . .
The way(s) in which Broadway shows are capitalized has changed and changed and changed since the start of what might be called the Broadway theatre in the 1880s.
(1) At first--and this continued into the 1920s--shows were capitalized by the people who produced them. When one produced a Broadway show, one simply made sure that he (or she), together with some trusted wealthy friends, had the money necessary to mount the show. This was possible because the cost of producing shows was not astronomical, given the cost of living. Also, many producers owned or had access to one or more Broadway theatres.
(2) There was inflation in the 1920s. Broadway shows had, in the meantime, become more elaborate and therefore much more costly. The country, though, was very prosperous, and a good number of people knew who to go to in the Wall Street area if they had two or more top name performers for the show.
(3) We now come to the 1930s. The Depression. A number of top criminals who had made their fortunes in the prohibition laden 1920s had the money to fund Broadway shows. They might insist that one or more of their girlfriends have parts in the show, but that was simply part of doing business. Broadway survived.
(4) The 1950s was the epitome of Broadway shows financed by "small" investors who would contribute $10,000 or more to the show after viewing a "backer's audition." Ten or more of these investors, and your show was in rehearsals. Limited Partnerships was the legal term for this method of financing.
(5) Since the 1970s, Broadway shows have been capitalized by major companies, welded together by a managing director. Sometimes, Broadway theatre owning companies such as Jujamcyn have come in with money and a theatre.
Any enterprise that relies upon people and must pay those people a weekly salary is going to need a lot of money for capitalization, to keep running, and for profit. The ticket prices are out this world, but they are paid by upscale people--tourists, mostly, whether from inside the U.S. or from many other countries in different parts of the world.
And that is about it.
#americantheatrenetwork
Wednesday, November 29, 2017
Sunday, November 19, 2017
THE REAL "TONY"
"Tony" was the way that intimates addressed Antoinette Perry, actress, director, and guiding spirit of the American Theatre Wing, an organization of theatre professionals World War II.
Mary Antoinette Perry was born in Denver, Colo., in 1888. Wishing to emulate the theatre successes of her aunts, she made her stage debut at sixteen. In 1906, when she was eighteen, "Tony" played opposite David Warfield in the latter's stage success, The Music Master.
In 1909, she married Frank Frueauff and retired at the age of twenty-one. Following her husband's death in 1922, she returned to the stage, appearing on Broadway in Mister Pitt, Minick by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman, The Dunce Boy, Engaged!, Caught, The Masque of Venice, The Ladder, and Electra.
At forty, she turned to directing, forming an alliance with Brock Pemberton, who had produced and directed the first American production of Luigi Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author in 1922. They co-directed Paul Osborn's Hotbed, which starred William Faversham. It was a flop, running only nineteen performances, but Pemberton and Perry had formed a very valuable alliance.
Perry's first solo directing effort was Katherine Roberts' Divorce Me, Dear, produced by Sidney M. Biddell. Another flop--seven performances--but Tony's skill as a director was becoming more and more appreciated. Her next effort, Christopher Comes Across, a rather wild farce about Columbus, was another quick failure, but Broadwayites were quick to fault the author of the play, Hawthorne Hurst, rather than Miss Perry.
Then--success! Lawrence Riley's Personal Appearance, with Gladys George as a movie star making a personal appearance in Scranton, Pa., ran for 501 performances at the Henry Miller Theatre. The comedy was the first big hit of the 1934-35 season, and the published version of the play was dedicated to Pemberton and Perry--once again, the co-directors.
Pemberton produced Ceiling Zero, a comedy-drama about pilots, but this time, Perry received solo credit as director. The play, with brilliant special effects and a cast headed by Osgood Perkins, just made it over the "hit" line with 104 performances. Tony was beginning to hit her stride.
Antoinette Perry was getting better and better as a director. Kiss the Boys Good-Bye, by Clare Boothe, was at once a send-up of the current attempts to find someone to play Scarlett O'Hara in the film version of Gone With the Wind and an attack on what Miss Boothe called "southernism," which she claimed was a possible "inspiration or forerunner on Facism." Tony's direction was nothing short of first rate, and the comedy ran for 286 performances, one of the true hits of the 1938-39 theatrical season.
Lady in Waiting, which starred Gladys George, was Tony's next Pemberton assignment, and was "almost a hit," running for eighty-seven performances. Out From Under, with John Alexander, Ruth Weston, and Vivian Vance, was a quick flop, as was Glamour Preferred (eleven performances). Cuckoos on the Hearth ran only sixteen weeks, but Janie, a play about teenagers on the order of Junior Miss. was a hit, running for 642 performances. Pillar to Post was a wartime comedy that misfired, running only 31 performances.
Tony was, arguably, Broadway's only top female director not at the head of her own company (as opposed to Eva Le Gallienne). Almost all of her assignments were given her by producer Brock Pemberton, and the two were a familiar team to those familiar with the Broadway stage. It is, perhaps, ironic that their most emphatic success turned out to be the last play Perry ever directed. That was Harvey, which put Frank Fay back on top as a major name on Broadway.
Fay played Elwood P. Dowd, whose companion, seen only by himself, was a 6 ft. 3-1/2 in. tall rabbit (actually a pooka, a half animal-half human figure prominent in ancient Celtic mythology). Fay (unlike James Stewart in the film version) played Dowd as an alcoholic--a drunk. Unlike Fay himself, however, Elwood was a happy, pleasant drunk; Frank Fay, under Perry's smart direction, did not overplay it. The result was what many have called the greatest performance in the history of the Broadway stage.
When the U.S. entered World War II, The American Wing took the lead in organizing entertainments for American servicemen. Pemberton, while still in his twenties, had been one of the founders of The Wing in 1917, and Tony worked with superhuman energy for it during World War II. These were, in many ways, her finest hours.
When the war ended, Tony became ill. She died, of cancer, in 1948; she was not yet sixty years of age.
Her friends in the American Theatre Wing called for a series of awards to be made in her name and in her honor, to the plays, directors, actors, etc., of each season, in perpetuity. They were named the Antoinette Perry Awards--known by all as the Tony Awards.
This year, 2017, marked the one hundredth anniversary of the American Theatre Wing. The Wing was founded by seven suffragettes, but Brock Pemperton, then twenty-nine years old, was an important force in The Wing's early years.
It is hard to know the real Antoinette Perry. Her work for the American Theatre Wing, like her work as a director, was largely bound up with Brock Pemberton. That makes sense; the theatre is and always was a very social business. (Tony never remarried after the death of her husband.) What cannot be denied is that Antoinette Perry was greatly appreciated--one might even say beloved--by, not just those in the American Theatre Wing, but by all those in the theatre.
May the Antoinette Perry Awards continue to bring honor and notice to its many recipients--and, of course, to Tony.
#americantheatrenetwork
Mary Antoinette Perry was born in Denver, Colo., in 1888. Wishing to emulate the theatre successes of her aunts, she made her stage debut at sixteen. In 1906, when she was eighteen, "Tony" played opposite David Warfield in the latter's stage success, The Music Master.
In 1909, she married Frank Frueauff and retired at the age of twenty-one. Following her husband's death in 1922, she returned to the stage, appearing on Broadway in Mister Pitt, Minick by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman, The Dunce Boy, Engaged!, Caught, The Masque of Venice, The Ladder, and Electra.
At forty, she turned to directing, forming an alliance with Brock Pemberton, who had produced and directed the first American production of Luigi Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author in 1922. They co-directed Paul Osborn's Hotbed, which starred William Faversham. It was a flop, running only nineteen performances, but Pemberton and Perry had formed a very valuable alliance.
Perry's first solo directing effort was Katherine Roberts' Divorce Me, Dear, produced by Sidney M. Biddell. Another flop--seven performances--but Tony's skill as a director was becoming more and more appreciated. Her next effort, Christopher Comes Across, a rather wild farce about Columbus, was another quick failure, but Broadwayites were quick to fault the author of the play, Hawthorne Hurst, rather than Miss Perry.
Then--success! Lawrence Riley's Personal Appearance, with Gladys George as a movie star making a personal appearance in Scranton, Pa., ran for 501 performances at the Henry Miller Theatre. The comedy was the first big hit of the 1934-35 season, and the published version of the play was dedicated to Pemberton and Perry--once again, the co-directors.
Pemberton produced Ceiling Zero, a comedy-drama about pilots, but this time, Perry received solo credit as director. The play, with brilliant special effects and a cast headed by Osgood Perkins, just made it over the "hit" line with 104 performances. Tony was beginning to hit her stride.
Antoinette Perry was getting better and better as a director. Kiss the Boys Good-Bye, by Clare Boothe, was at once a send-up of the current attempts to find someone to play Scarlett O'Hara in the film version of Gone With the Wind and an attack on what Miss Boothe called "southernism," which she claimed was a possible "inspiration or forerunner on Facism." Tony's direction was nothing short of first rate, and the comedy ran for 286 performances, one of the true hits of the 1938-39 theatrical season.
Lady in Waiting, which starred Gladys George, was Tony's next Pemberton assignment, and was "almost a hit," running for eighty-seven performances. Out From Under, with John Alexander, Ruth Weston, and Vivian Vance, was a quick flop, as was Glamour Preferred (eleven performances). Cuckoos on the Hearth ran only sixteen weeks, but Janie, a play about teenagers on the order of Junior Miss. was a hit, running for 642 performances. Pillar to Post was a wartime comedy that misfired, running only 31 performances.
Tony was, arguably, Broadway's only top female director not at the head of her own company (as opposed to Eva Le Gallienne). Almost all of her assignments were given her by producer Brock Pemberton, and the two were a familiar team to those familiar with the Broadway stage. It is, perhaps, ironic that their most emphatic success turned out to be the last play Perry ever directed. That was Harvey, which put Frank Fay back on top as a major name on Broadway.
Fay played Elwood P. Dowd, whose companion, seen only by himself, was a 6 ft. 3-1/2 in. tall rabbit (actually a pooka, a half animal-half human figure prominent in ancient Celtic mythology). Fay (unlike James Stewart in the film version) played Dowd as an alcoholic--a drunk. Unlike Fay himself, however, Elwood was a happy, pleasant drunk; Frank Fay, under Perry's smart direction, did not overplay it. The result was what many have called the greatest performance in the history of the Broadway stage.
When the U.S. entered World War II, The American Wing took the lead in organizing entertainments for American servicemen. Pemberton, while still in his twenties, had been one of the founders of The Wing in 1917, and Tony worked with superhuman energy for it during World War II. These were, in many ways, her finest hours.
When the war ended, Tony became ill. She died, of cancer, in 1948; she was not yet sixty years of age.
Her friends in the American Theatre Wing called for a series of awards to be made in her name and in her honor, to the plays, directors, actors, etc., of each season, in perpetuity. They were named the Antoinette Perry Awards--known by all as the Tony Awards.
This year, 2017, marked the one hundredth anniversary of the American Theatre Wing. The Wing was founded by seven suffragettes, but Brock Pemperton, then twenty-nine years old, was an important force in The Wing's early years.
It is hard to know the real Antoinette Perry. Her work for the American Theatre Wing, like her work as a director, was largely bound up with Brock Pemberton. That makes sense; the theatre is and always was a very social business. (Tony never remarried after the death of her husband.) What cannot be denied is that Antoinette Perry was greatly appreciated--one might even say beloved--by, not just those in the American Theatre Wing, but by all those in the theatre.
May the Antoinette Perry Awards continue to bring honor and notice to its many recipients--and, of course, to Tony.
#americantheatrenetwork
Tuesday, November 7, 2017
TWO GREAT PRODUCERS
Morosco
Producer Oliver Morosco got rich quick with the play, The Bird of Paradise, in 1911. This play was written by Richard Walton Tully, and Morosco first produced it with Bessie Barriscale in the lead role in Los Angeles. The next step was New York, where Laurette Taylor played the lead--her biggest success until Peg O' My Heart (another Morosco production) the following year.
Morosco sent a company--sometimes two companies--of The Bird of Paradise on tour every year from 1912 through 1922,
The Bird of Paradise was the subject of the longest legal battle in the history of the American theatre when Mrs. Grace A. Fendler sued Morosco and Tully for alleged plagiarism shortly after the play was produced on Broadway. The suit was eventually decided in favor of the latter when the mother of William Randolph Hearst declared that Tully had written the first draft of the play in her California hacienda. The suit, however, was financially draining.
"And a typical Morosco cast" was the line that many advertisements for Morosco produced plays and shows bore in the 1910s and '20s. In 1917, the Shuberts named their newly built theatre on West 45th Street the "Morosco," who had helped them break the virtual monopoly of the Theatrical Syndicate. The opening show was Morosco's musical, Canary Cottage. (The theatre was torn down in 1982.)
He was one of the most consistently successful producers in the history of the American stage, equally at home with plays and musicals. Lombardi Ltd., Help Wanted, and One of Us, were among his many straight plays, while his musicals included Pretty Mrs. Smith, So Long Letty, Linger Longer Letty, and Love Dreams.
Morosco's fall began when he became involved with real estate deals like "Morosco Town," for which he purchased land in California. The idea was to produce plays and motion pictures on the land for about half the usual cost. Morosco wound up declaring personal bankruptcy in 1926, with liabilities of $1,033,000 and assets of $200.
Some of Morosco's other troubles centered around women; he was married four times and became a helpless alcoholic years before his death in 1945.
Morosco's story may be the greatest rise-and-fall story in the history of the American theatre.
Dillingham
Charles B. Dillingham is not a name most people--even theatre goers--know today. He was, however, one of Broadway's top producers in the 1920s.
He was an excellent producer, having been associated with Charles Frohman. (Frohman, a legendary producer and director, went down on the Lusitania when it was torpedoed by the Germans in 1917, bringing the U.S. into the war in Europe.) Dillingham produced hit after hit on Broadway--The Little Princess, Miss Dolly Dollars, Miss 1917, A Bill of Divorcement, Good Times, Marilyn Miller in Sunny, Fred Stone in Criss Cross, and many others.
Dillingham, like many others, fell from grace. In 1927, he produced a show titled Lucky, starring Mary Eaton (best known today for her role as "Polly Potter" in the Paramount film version of The Cocoanuts, starring the Four Marx Brothers). Dillingham reportedly invested $250,000 of his own money in that show--a great amount of money to invest in any one show at that time . Lucky was a bomb. Dillingham went on; New Faces of 1934, the first of Leonard Sillman's series of New Faces, was co-produced by Dillingham. It was not commercially successful, and Dillingham died shortly after the show opened.
In his day, Charles B. Dillingham was a king, a charming man who cut a wide and most respectable swath in the Broadway theatre of his time.. Now he is forgotten, Alas, such is the case with almost everybody in that most ephemeral of glamour spots, the stage.
Here's to you, Mr. Dillingham.
#americantheatrenetwork
Producer Oliver Morosco got rich quick with the play, The Bird of Paradise, in 1911. This play was written by Richard Walton Tully, and Morosco first produced it with Bessie Barriscale in the lead role in Los Angeles. The next step was New York, where Laurette Taylor played the lead--her biggest success until Peg O' My Heart (another Morosco production) the following year.
Morosco sent a company--sometimes two companies--of The Bird of Paradise on tour every year from 1912 through 1922,
The Bird of Paradise was the subject of the longest legal battle in the history of the American theatre when Mrs. Grace A. Fendler sued Morosco and Tully for alleged plagiarism shortly after the play was produced on Broadway. The suit was eventually decided in favor of the latter when the mother of William Randolph Hearst declared that Tully had written the first draft of the play in her California hacienda. The suit, however, was financially draining.
"And a typical Morosco cast" was the line that many advertisements for Morosco produced plays and shows bore in the 1910s and '20s. In 1917, the Shuberts named their newly built theatre on West 45th Street the "Morosco," who had helped them break the virtual monopoly of the Theatrical Syndicate. The opening show was Morosco's musical, Canary Cottage. (The theatre was torn down in 1982.)
He was one of the most consistently successful producers in the history of the American stage, equally at home with plays and musicals. Lombardi Ltd., Help Wanted, and One of Us, were among his many straight plays, while his musicals included Pretty Mrs. Smith, So Long Letty, Linger Longer Letty, and Love Dreams.
Morosco's fall began when he became involved with real estate deals like "Morosco Town," for which he purchased land in California. The idea was to produce plays and motion pictures on the land for about half the usual cost. Morosco wound up declaring personal bankruptcy in 1926, with liabilities of $1,033,000 and assets of $200.
Some of Morosco's other troubles centered around women; he was married four times and became a helpless alcoholic years before his death in 1945.
Morosco's story may be the greatest rise-and-fall story in the history of the American theatre.
Dillingham
Charles B. Dillingham is not a name most people--even theatre goers--know today. He was, however, one of Broadway's top producers in the 1920s.
He was an excellent producer, having been associated with Charles Frohman. (Frohman, a legendary producer and director, went down on the Lusitania when it was torpedoed by the Germans in 1917, bringing the U.S. into the war in Europe.) Dillingham produced hit after hit on Broadway--The Little Princess, Miss Dolly Dollars, Miss 1917, A Bill of Divorcement, Good Times, Marilyn Miller in Sunny, Fred Stone in Criss Cross, and many others.
Dillingham, like many others, fell from grace. In 1927, he produced a show titled Lucky, starring Mary Eaton (best known today for her role as "Polly Potter" in the Paramount film version of The Cocoanuts, starring the Four Marx Brothers). Dillingham reportedly invested $250,000 of his own money in that show--a great amount of money to invest in any one show at that time . Lucky was a bomb. Dillingham went on; New Faces of 1934, the first of Leonard Sillman's series of New Faces, was co-produced by Dillingham. It was not commercially successful, and Dillingham died shortly after the show opened.
In his day, Charles B. Dillingham was a king, a charming man who cut a wide and most respectable swath in the Broadway theatre of his time.. Now he is forgotten, Alas, such is the case with almost everybody in that most ephemeral of glamour spots, the stage.
Here's to you, Mr. Dillingham.
#americantheatrenetwork
Thursday, November 2, 2017
GABY DESLYS
Mlle. Gaby Deslys is today a footnote in the history of the commercial theatre--both in Europe and the U.S.A. She was certainly a big star. The Messrs. Shubert reportedly paid Mlle. Deslys $4,000 a week when they first brought her to this country in 1911. That may be the top mark made by anyone before 1928--if, of course, we put the Divine Sarah Bernhardt into a category all her own. Madame Sarah was purportedly paid $10,000 a week by Lee Shubert when he sent her out to tour the country with a circus tent in 1910.
Gaby was attractive, a strawberry blonde in a day before Hollywood blondes. She sang, cavorted in a sort of "naughty" way, and danced. The latter was her specialty. Gaby became the most famous musical comedy star in Europe when she began a love affair with King Manuel II of Portugal in 1909. Manuel (or, at least, a man who looked like him) once occupied a box seat and threw roses at Gaby during her performance. Gaby's star rose continually in 1910, and the Messrs. Shubert brought her to the U.S. the following yer.
Gaby was not a big hit with American audiences in her first show--The Revue of Revues. She fared little better, despite her improved English, in Vera Violetta, in which Al Jolson, in the part of a waiter named "Claude," stole the show. Gaby returned to Europe, came back to the U.S.. and opened in a tour of Vera Violetta (sans Jolson) in Trenton, N.J. on November 16, 1912. It was a disaster. J.J. Shubert, in attendance, closed the show summarily and sent the entire chorus--and almost all the principals--back to New York that same night. Gaby and her leading man, dancing partner, and off-stage paramour, Harry Pilcer, were sent to Baltimore, and that is where the facts become more interesting than most of the fiction.
J.J. also sent a wire to the company manager of "The Whirl of Society with Al Jolson," telling him to bypass Washington and have his company report to Baltimore's Auditorium Theatre on Monday morning. J.J. also had a Shubert staff librettist combine the scripts of Vera Violetta and The Whirl of Society, making them, effectively, one show. An all-day rehearsal in Baltimore was followed by the very first performance of the new hybrid show. It was, at least, a qualified success. The cast was allowed to rest the next day (although Fanny Brice, just twenty-one years old, elected to accept an invitation to the races, where she met, for the first time, Nick Arnstein), gave three additional performances, and moved to Washington, D.C. for the last half of the week.
The show played into January, with Gaby, Jolson, and several other principals rehearsing for their next Shubert show on the days in which there were no matinees. This next show, The Honeymoon Express, a musical version of The Turtle, opened at the Winter Garden on February 6. The American public, however, remained rather cool to Gaby. Jolson, once more, dominated the proceedings. Gaby was replaced by Grace LaRue on April 28.
The Shuberts tried again with Gaby the following season, giving her a starring tour in The Little Parisienne--a comparatively modest show for that day, with nine principals and a chorus of fifteen--which played everywhere from Pittsburgh to the Pacific Coast. The idea was to make her known in almost every part of the U.S. The Belle of Bond Street, which opened on Broadway in March, 1914, was nonetheless her last show for the Shuberts.
Stop! Look! Listen!, produced by Charles B. Dillingham, saw Gaby "On the Beach at Waikiki," in which she stripped while singing Irving Berlin's "Take Off a Little Bit." This has been cited as the first "striptease" on the American stage, the various women who had done versions of Salome's "Dance of the Seven Veils" notwithstanding.
Gaby returned to Paris in the spring of 1916, and reputedly became a spy for France in World War I--the Allies' version of Mata Hari. In 1919, Gaby continued to suffer from the effects of the Spanish Influenza--which had killed over twenty million people in the latter stages of the war. Several operations failed to restore her health; Gaby reputedly intimidated surgeons by insisting they not scar her neck. She died, aged thirty-eight, in Paris, on February 11, 1920.
Gaby Deslys is known today only to students of the popular musical theatre prior to World War I. What was her talent? She was attractive and a capable dancer, Songs like "The Gaby Glide" were written for her. Her very few recordings capture some of her stage charm. ("Oh . . . Naughty boy!") One could stretch a point and call her the first sex goddess of the theatre.
Gaby was a legend in an era quite remote from ours. She made a few silent pictures, none of which appear to have survived. A motion picture based on her life was once considered as a vehicle for Judy Garland; it was never made. Could such a film be made today, restoring Gaby's fame? Well, stranger things have happened.
#americantheatrenetwork
Gaby was attractive, a strawberry blonde in a day before Hollywood blondes. She sang, cavorted in a sort of "naughty" way, and danced. The latter was her specialty. Gaby became the most famous musical comedy star in Europe when she began a love affair with King Manuel II of Portugal in 1909. Manuel (or, at least, a man who looked like him) once occupied a box seat and threw roses at Gaby during her performance. Gaby's star rose continually in 1910, and the Messrs. Shubert brought her to the U.S. the following yer.
Gaby was not a big hit with American audiences in her first show--The Revue of Revues. She fared little better, despite her improved English, in Vera Violetta, in which Al Jolson, in the part of a waiter named "Claude," stole the show. Gaby returned to Europe, came back to the U.S.. and opened in a tour of Vera Violetta (sans Jolson) in Trenton, N.J. on November 16, 1912. It was a disaster. J.J. Shubert, in attendance, closed the show summarily and sent the entire chorus--and almost all the principals--back to New York that same night. Gaby and her leading man, dancing partner, and off-stage paramour, Harry Pilcer, were sent to Baltimore, and that is where the facts become more interesting than most of the fiction.
J.J. also sent a wire to the company manager of "The Whirl of Society with Al Jolson," telling him to bypass Washington and have his company report to Baltimore's Auditorium Theatre on Monday morning. J.J. also had a Shubert staff librettist combine the scripts of Vera Violetta and The Whirl of Society, making them, effectively, one show. An all-day rehearsal in Baltimore was followed by the very first performance of the new hybrid show. It was, at least, a qualified success. The cast was allowed to rest the next day (although Fanny Brice, just twenty-one years old, elected to accept an invitation to the races, where she met, for the first time, Nick Arnstein), gave three additional performances, and moved to Washington, D.C. for the last half of the week.
The show played into January, with Gaby, Jolson, and several other principals rehearsing for their next Shubert show on the days in which there were no matinees. This next show, The Honeymoon Express, a musical version of The Turtle, opened at the Winter Garden on February 6. The American public, however, remained rather cool to Gaby. Jolson, once more, dominated the proceedings. Gaby was replaced by Grace LaRue on April 28.
The Shuberts tried again with Gaby the following season, giving her a starring tour in The Little Parisienne--a comparatively modest show for that day, with nine principals and a chorus of fifteen--which played everywhere from Pittsburgh to the Pacific Coast. The idea was to make her known in almost every part of the U.S. The Belle of Bond Street, which opened on Broadway in March, 1914, was nonetheless her last show for the Shuberts.
Stop! Look! Listen!, produced by Charles B. Dillingham, saw Gaby "On the Beach at Waikiki," in which she stripped while singing Irving Berlin's "Take Off a Little Bit." This has been cited as the first "striptease" on the American stage, the various women who had done versions of Salome's "Dance of the Seven Veils" notwithstanding.
Gaby returned to Paris in the spring of 1916, and reputedly became a spy for France in World War I--the Allies' version of Mata Hari. In 1919, Gaby continued to suffer from the effects of the Spanish Influenza--which had killed over twenty million people in the latter stages of the war. Several operations failed to restore her health; Gaby reputedly intimidated surgeons by insisting they not scar her neck. She died, aged thirty-eight, in Paris, on February 11, 1920.
Gaby Deslys is known today only to students of the popular musical theatre prior to World War I. What was her talent? She was attractive and a capable dancer, Songs like "The Gaby Glide" were written for her. Her very few recordings capture some of her stage charm. ("Oh . . . Naughty boy!") One could stretch a point and call her the first sex goddess of the theatre.
Gaby was a legend in an era quite remote from ours. She made a few silent pictures, none of which appear to have survived. A motion picture based on her life was once considered as a vehicle for Judy Garland; it was never made. Could such a film be made today, restoring Gaby's fame? Well, stranger things have happened.
#americantheatrenetwork
Sunday, October 29, 2017
CHARLOTTE CUSHMAN
Charlotte Cushman is, to date, the only actress ever elected to the Hall of Fame for Great Americans. Like many female stars of the American stage, she was a lesbian.
Who was Ms. Cushman? She was born in Boston, Mass., July 23, 1816, an eighth generation descendant of Robert Cushman a Puritan who helped organize the Mayflower voyage and emigrated to the future United States in 1621. Her father was a successful businessman who began to fall on hard times and died when Charlotte was thirteen. She possessed an impressive contralto voice and was trained for the opera, making her debut as Countess Almaviva in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro; her singing voice failed after she was forced to essay a number of soprano roles. Cushman switched to the dramatic stage, making her debut at the Tremont Theatre in Boston, April 8,1835. One of her most notable successes came as Romeo, with her younger sister, Susan, playing Juliet. Shylock and Cardinal Wolsey were among the other male parts that Charlotte played most notably.
She made her New York debut in Macbeth in 1836, but spent the next eight years with various stock companies. Charlotte toured the U.S. with star William Macready in 1845 and made her London debut in classic repertory in 1854. Her best roles were considered to be Lady Macbeth and Meg Merrilies in a dramatization of Scott's Guy Mannering.
Charlotte did not try to hide her homosexuality, and had a number of lesbian lovers. Among them were Rosalie Sully, Matilda Hays, Harriet Hosmer, Emma Stebbins, and Emma Crow She made her final stage appearance at Boston's Globe Theatre, May 15, 1875, and died of pneumonia, aged fifty-nine, February 18, 1876.
#americantheatrenetwork
Who was Ms. Cushman? She was born in Boston, Mass., July 23, 1816, an eighth generation descendant of Robert Cushman a Puritan who helped organize the Mayflower voyage and emigrated to the future United States in 1621. Her father was a successful businessman who began to fall on hard times and died when Charlotte was thirteen. She possessed an impressive contralto voice and was trained for the opera, making her debut as Countess Almaviva in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro; her singing voice failed after she was forced to essay a number of soprano roles. Cushman switched to the dramatic stage, making her debut at the Tremont Theatre in Boston, April 8,1835. One of her most notable successes came as Romeo, with her younger sister, Susan, playing Juliet. Shylock and Cardinal Wolsey were among the other male parts that Charlotte played most notably.
She made her New York debut in Macbeth in 1836, but spent the next eight years with various stock companies. Charlotte toured the U.S. with star William Macready in 1845 and made her London debut in classic repertory in 1854. Her best roles were considered to be Lady Macbeth and Meg Merrilies in a dramatization of Scott's Guy Mannering.
Charlotte did not try to hide her homosexuality, and had a number of lesbian lovers. Among them were Rosalie Sully, Matilda Hays, Harriet Hosmer, Emma Stebbins, and Emma Crow She made her final stage appearance at Boston's Globe Theatre, May 15, 1875, and died of pneumonia, aged fifty-nine, February 18, 1876.
#americantheatrenetwork
Saturday, October 28, 2017
LESBIANS, PETER PAN, AND OTHER LEADING WOMEN
Lesbians and bi-sexual women have been an important part of the American theatre for well over a hundred years. Chief among them is Maude Adams--nothing to do with Maud Adams, the screen actress best remembered for her roles in the James Bond pictures, Octopussy and The Man With the Golden Gun.
Maude Adams may be the most popular and greatest actress in the history of the American stage. Born in Salt Lake City, she became one-third of the great theatrical team of Charles Frohman (producer), James M. Barrie (playwright), and Maude Adams (star). She became, in fact, the world's foremost interpreter of James M. Barrie's works, including The Little Minister, What Every Woman Knows, and Peter Pan, Barrie's most successful play and one of the most popular vehicles for women ever written--despite (or partially because) of the fact that Peter Pan, the lead role, is a boy. Barrie, indeed, created the role to be played by a woman.
And it ever has. The role was first played in London in 1904 by Nina Boucicault, niece of Dion Boucicault, one of the theatre's most respected writers and directors for many years. It was a foregone conclusion that Maude Adams would play The Boy Who Never Grew Up when the the piece was first produced in the U.S. the following year. She did, and the continued popularity of Maude Adams as Peter Pan practically forced her to periodically revive the play over the next ten years.
There is a particular charm in Peter Pan that precludes the title role from ever being played by a boy or man. The Walt Disney animated Peter Pan is doubtless the most masculine Peter ever presented. The Disney film was successful in its way. It has not, however, been nearly as popular as the productions in which women have played Peter--ranging from Jean Arthur to Marilyn Miller to Eva Le Gallienne to Mary Martin, star of the musical production which has supplanted the original stage play as one of the most popular stage vehicles of all-time--performed by Sandy Duncan, Cathy Rigby, and other actresses who have managed the fey quality demanded by the role.
Le Gallienne (like Maude Adams, a lesbian), started her own acting school for girls and ran it quite successfully for many years. As an actress, she excelled in plays like Not So Long Ago, Liliom (the play upon which the Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical, Carousel, was based), The Swan, and others. (It was said that Joseph Schildkraut, who played opposite her in Liliom, flushed with the success of that play, asked Le Gallienne to marry him and that she declined, saying "Mr. Schildkraut, I would love to. But I'm a lesbian.") She founded and ran the Civic Repertory Theatre on Fourteenth Street in New York from 1916 to 1933. Among her company ere J. Edward Bromberg, Paul Leyssac, Florida Friebus, and Leona Roberts. (Friebus is remembered as the mother, Winnie, on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis), a comedy on TV from 1959 to 1963).
Jean Arthur, best remembered for her roles in Frank Capra movies of the 1930s, had considerable success when she played Peter Pan for 321 performances on Broadway in 1950. Called "boyish and engaging," she was aided by the newly composed music on Leonard Bernstein. This was the last major revival of the play before Mary Martin starred in a Broadway musical version of Peter Pan in 1956.
The musical version of Peter Pan has entirely supplanted the straight play version that preceded it in London, New York, and (thanks to touring) numerous other cities. The music was by Mark Charlap (the original California production) and Jule Styne (brought in for more songs prior to the opening on Broadway). The title, Peter Pan, was retained, and Miss Martin's own performance, coupled with the score (and, of course, the play itself) allowed the show to run for nineteen weeks at New York's Winter Garden beginning October 20, 1954)--certainly not a long run by twenty-first century standards. It proved more popular on TV, and the second annual presentation was filmed for posterity; it was annually shown years. The musical was later revived on Broadway starring Sandy Duncan and then Cathy Rigby.
It would be interesting to see another revival of Peter Pan on Broadway. Would it thrill a new audience comprised mostly of tourists, or is it, like so many other works of quality, now "dated"? As for James M. Barrie's other plays . . . One might well imagine Emily Watson (whose performance in the film, Breaking the Waves, is one of the best in the entire history of film, rivaled perhaps only by that of Joanne Woodward in The Three Faces of Eve) in the lead role of What Every Woman Knows. Who knows, indeed?
#americantheatrenetwork
Jean Arthur, best remembered for her roles in Frank Capra movies of the 1930s, had considerable success when she played Peter Pan for 321 performances on Broadway in 1950. Called "boyish and engaging," she was aided by the newly composed music on Leonard Bernstein. This was the last major revival of the play before Mary Martin starred in a Broadway musical version of Peter Pan in 1956.
The musical version of Peter Pan has entirely supplanted the straight play version that preceded it in London, New York, and (thanks to touring) numerous other cities. The music was by Mark Charlap (the original California production) and Jule Styne (brought in for more songs prior to the opening on Broadway). The title, Peter Pan, was retained, and Miss Martin's own performance, coupled with the score (and, of course, the play itself) allowed the show to run for nineteen weeks at New York's Winter Garden beginning October 20, 1954)--certainly not a long run by twenty-first century standards. It proved more popular on TV, and the second annual presentation was filmed for posterity; it was annually shown years. The musical was later revived on Broadway starring Sandy Duncan and then Cathy Rigby.
It would be interesting to see another revival of Peter Pan on Broadway. Would it thrill a new audience comprised mostly of tourists, or is it, like so many other works of quality, now "dated"? As for James M. Barrie's other plays . . . One might well imagine Emily Watson (whose performance in the film, Breaking the Waves, is one of the best in the entire history of film, rivaled perhaps only by that of Joanne Woodward in The Three Faces of Eve) in the lead role of What Every Woman Knows. Who knows, indeed?
#americantheatrenetwork
Wednesday, October 25, 2017
SEX AND WOMEN IN THE THEATRE
George Bernard Shaw once wrote: "An actress is more than a woman, and an actor is less than a man."
Women have been a part of the theatre for centuries. This was not always the case in many countries. Japan did not allow women in Kabuki or No theatre. Nor were there any actresses back in the days of William Shakespeare. It may be difficult to picture Juliet played by a boy of twelve or so, but that was very much the case in the late sixteenth century.
Actresses have been part of western theatre since Great Britain's restoration of the Stuart monarchy in 1660. They have been exploited, used, abused, promoted and demoted. Some of these women were strong people; others were not. Many were charming and/or charismatic. Sex has been, with rare exception, part of their professional lives.
Eleanor (Nell) Gwyn, "Sweet Nell of Old Drury," was the antidote to puritanism in the 1670s. She was the mistress of, successively, the actor Charles Hart, Lord Buckhurst, and King Charles II. She was known for her wit, charm, physical beauty, singing and dancing; she had a flair for comedy, and was arguably the world's first great stage comedienne. She bore King Charles two sons and died, aged 37, in November, 1687.
Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., creator of the Ziegfeld Follies, was known for "Glorifying the American Girl." He did more than glorify them. His first marriage, to French star Anna Held, was a common law marriage. The love of his life was Lillian Lorraine, a show girl who graced several editions of the Follies. Lillian was beautiful but irresponsible and often senseless. She married playboy Frederick M. Gresheimer (whom she stole away from Fanny Brice) in March 1912, divorced him after a few months, remarried him in 1913, and then had this, their second marriage, annulled, claiming he had "misrepresented himself." Ziegfeld's wife, Billie Burke, once said that she was jealous of Lillian, but not Marilyn Miller, arguably her husband's greatest star. Ziegfeld, said Billie, idolized Marilyn Miller; but he loved Lillian Lorraine.
Marilyn Miller, in fact, hated Ziegfeld. Why? She and her boyfriend, Frank Carter, were both in the Follies of 1919. When the show was in rehearsals, she and Frank eloped and married. Ziegfeld was furious when he received the news and promptly fired Carter. Marilyn and Frank talked things over, and decided it was best that she stay in the Follies. Carter got a part in a titled See-Saw, produced by Henry W. Savage. When See-Saw closed in Wheeling, W. Va., at the end of the season, Frank called Marilyn and told her he was driving up to Philadelphia, where she was on tour with the Follies, and would see her in the morning. Marilyn begged him to wait until the next day, as driving at night in those days was hazardous. He drove that night, however, and lost his life when his car overturned. Carter was the love of Marilyn Miller's life, and she blamed Ziegfeld for his death. Those were, in certain ways, far gentler times, but Marilyn did not hesitate to call Ziegfeld a no-good son of a bitch and otherwise insult the man in front of his young daughter.
Producers of those days, while known for their affairs with prominent stage beauties, had to be extremely careful. A striking young woman once showed up in Ziegfeld's offices clad in a full-length mink coat. "I know that if Mr. Ziegfeld sees me in the right way," she told his secretary, "he will put me in the Follies." She thereupon walked into Ziegfeld's inner private office and dropped the mink coat to the floor. She was stark naked. Ziegfeld, flabbergasted, opened the door and yelled for his secretary to get the woman out of his office. Why? One never knew when one was being set up to be blackmailed.
There were other women, known to Ziegfeld, with whom he felt no real danger. Victor Herbert, the legendary composer, had written several pieces for the Follies for which he had not been paid; Flo Ziegfeld was a notorious staller when it came to paying bills. Herbert entered Ziegfeld's outer office and was told that Mr. Ziegfeld was not in that day. Herbert's face grew red with anger. He turned purple when the door to Ziegfeld's private office suddenly swung open. There was Ziegfeld, performing the ultimate sexual act with a show girl on his desk. Victor Herbert stormed out and, reportedly, suffered a stroke while waiting for the elevator.
There is no doubt that stars, directors, producers, and other powerful people of the stage have, at times, intimidated those of lower station into sexual affairs. There have also been cases in which those of lower station have seduced their higher ups to gain advantage. Much more common are the situations in which directors, stars, et. al., make sure that their paramours get jobs.
The theatre is a very social business; sex is an important part of life. This is not about to disappear.
#americantheatrenetwork
Women have been a part of the theatre for centuries. This was not always the case in many countries. Japan did not allow women in Kabuki or No theatre. Nor were there any actresses back in the days of William Shakespeare. It may be difficult to picture Juliet played by a boy of twelve or so, but that was very much the case in the late sixteenth century.
Actresses have been part of western theatre since Great Britain's restoration of the Stuart monarchy in 1660. They have been exploited, used, abused, promoted and demoted. Some of these women were strong people; others were not. Many were charming and/or charismatic. Sex has been, with rare exception, part of their professional lives.
Eleanor (Nell) Gwyn, "Sweet Nell of Old Drury," was the antidote to puritanism in the 1670s. She was the mistress of, successively, the actor Charles Hart, Lord Buckhurst, and King Charles II. She was known for her wit, charm, physical beauty, singing and dancing; she had a flair for comedy, and was arguably the world's first great stage comedienne. She bore King Charles two sons and died, aged 37, in November, 1687.
Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., creator of the Ziegfeld Follies, was known for "Glorifying the American Girl." He did more than glorify them. His first marriage, to French star Anna Held, was a common law marriage. The love of his life was Lillian Lorraine, a show girl who graced several editions of the Follies. Lillian was beautiful but irresponsible and often senseless. She married playboy Frederick M. Gresheimer (whom she stole away from Fanny Brice) in March 1912, divorced him after a few months, remarried him in 1913, and then had this, their second marriage, annulled, claiming he had "misrepresented himself." Ziegfeld's wife, Billie Burke, once said that she was jealous of Lillian, but not Marilyn Miller, arguably her husband's greatest star. Ziegfeld, said Billie, idolized Marilyn Miller; but he loved Lillian Lorraine.
Marilyn Miller, in fact, hated Ziegfeld. Why? She and her boyfriend, Frank Carter, were both in the Follies of 1919. When the show was in rehearsals, she and Frank eloped and married. Ziegfeld was furious when he received the news and promptly fired Carter. Marilyn and Frank talked things over, and decided it was best that she stay in the Follies. Carter got a part in a titled See-Saw, produced by Henry W. Savage. When See-Saw closed in Wheeling, W. Va., at the end of the season, Frank called Marilyn and told her he was driving up to Philadelphia, where she was on tour with the Follies, and would see her in the morning. Marilyn begged him to wait until the next day, as driving at night in those days was hazardous. He drove that night, however, and lost his life when his car overturned. Carter was the love of Marilyn Miller's life, and she blamed Ziegfeld for his death. Those were, in certain ways, far gentler times, but Marilyn did not hesitate to call Ziegfeld a no-good son of a bitch and otherwise insult the man in front of his young daughter.
Producers of those days, while known for their affairs with prominent stage beauties, had to be extremely careful. A striking young woman once showed up in Ziegfeld's offices clad in a full-length mink coat. "I know that if Mr. Ziegfeld sees me in the right way," she told his secretary, "he will put me in the Follies." She thereupon walked into Ziegfeld's inner private office and dropped the mink coat to the floor. She was stark naked. Ziegfeld, flabbergasted, opened the door and yelled for his secretary to get the woman out of his office. Why? One never knew when one was being set up to be blackmailed.
There were other women, known to Ziegfeld, with whom he felt no real danger. Victor Herbert, the legendary composer, had written several pieces for the Follies for which he had not been paid; Flo Ziegfeld was a notorious staller when it came to paying bills. Herbert entered Ziegfeld's outer office and was told that Mr. Ziegfeld was not in that day. Herbert's face grew red with anger. He turned purple when the door to Ziegfeld's private office suddenly swung open. There was Ziegfeld, performing the ultimate sexual act with a show girl on his desk. Victor Herbert stormed out and, reportedly, suffered a stroke while waiting for the elevator.
There is no doubt that stars, directors, producers, and other powerful people of the stage have, at times, intimidated those of lower station into sexual affairs. There have also been cases in which those of lower station have seduced their higher ups to gain advantage. Much more common are the situations in which directors, stars, et. al., make sure that their paramours get jobs.
The theatre is a very social business; sex is an important part of life. This is not about to disappear.
#americantheatrenetwork
Monday, July 10, 2017
THE HIGH COST OF TICKETS
The Broadway producers of 1974 decided that the key to producing shows on Broadway was to limit the cast for any given show or play to six characters. This was due to the inflation that gripped Broadway at the time. (Economists have since identified 1967 as the "culprit year" that kicked off this inflation.) A producer, in fact, once "buttonholed" a friend of mine and me and told us he was in the market for a play of that size.
Needless to say, that did not stick. It wasn't long before those same producers said, "Let's produce good shows. If the public wants to see them, it will pay whatever the seats cost." The producers were right--and the public has been talking of the high cost of tickets to shows ever since.
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Needless to say, that did not stick. It wasn't long before those same producers said, "Let's produce good shows. If the public wants to see them, it will pay whatever the seats cost." The producers were right--and the public has been talking of the high cost of tickets to shows ever since.
#americantheatrenetwork
Thursday, June 29, 2017
HOLLYWOOD CLEANS UP
The 1920s broke new ground in many ways. The notion that it had more work for actors and other performers than any other decade, however, is a fallacy. The growth of the motion picture field, the beginnings of commercial radio, and the increasing use of automobiles to get to major cities (instead of being limited to those shows and plays that visited one's home town) knocked out a lot of work for performers of various kinds. J.J. Shubert, in a letter, complained that motion pictures were "killing our business" (i.e., the live commercial stage) before the advent of the talkies.
This situation quickly worsened with the coming of sound films, network radio, and the Great Depression. In 1928, E.F. Albee sold his controlling interest in the Keith-Orpheum vaudeville empire to Joseph P. Kennedy, who merged it with Radio Pictures and created R-K-O. Warner Bros. purchased three major sheet music publishing companies that same year--Harms, Remick, and Witmark. Vaudeville and Tin Pan Alley (i.e., the sheet music publishing industry) were thus effectively taken over by the Hollywood Motion Picture industry within a matter of months.
#americantheatrenetwork
This situation quickly worsened with the coming of sound films, network radio, and the Great Depression. In 1928, E.F. Albee sold his controlling interest in the Keith-Orpheum vaudeville empire to Joseph P. Kennedy, who merged it with Radio Pictures and created R-K-O. Warner Bros. purchased three major sheet music publishing companies that same year--Harms, Remick, and Witmark. Vaudeville and Tin Pan Alley (i.e., the sheet music publishing industry) were thus effectively taken over by the Hollywood Motion Picture industry within a matter of months.
#americantheatrenetwork
Tuesday, June 6, 2017
THE AMERICAN THEATRE AND WORLD WAR I
In 1917, the United States Armed Forces took over a large percentage of the railroad tracks in the United States in order to move troops to and from training camps prior to deployment overseas. This created an emergency in the American theatrical business.
This business relied on trains to get shows and performers to the huge amount of operating theatres in this country. When shows and plays could not fulfill commitments, everyone suffered. This included the producers of the shows, the actors in them, the theatre proprietors in hundreds of cities, their employees, and numerous others.
How did local theatre owners and managers deal with this crisis situation? By obtaining films. These films drew good houses--with far less expense and far less work required.
Many of these theatres never returned to the live stage; their owners simply stayed with running films and made, in many instances, more profit. A good number of people who had worked in the live theatre lost their jobs; movie houses needed fewer employees.
This scenario took place in city after city. And the trend continued after World War I was over. The result was less employment for the actor as well as for house managers, gaffers, stagehands, et. al., as time went by.
The Great Depression, commercial radio, and sound films devastated the professional theatre in the early 1930s. Of this there is no doubt. But the American actor had lost much of his employment years before that.
It was always a rough business.
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Wednesday, May 31, 2017
THE ROAD
Moss Hart, in Act I (still the greatest theatrical autobiography ever written), tells of visiting the offices of theatre producers in the 1920s and finding actors sitting there, waiting for possible employment. Theatre producers, in those days, produced perhaps four plays a year, with companies of plays produced in previous seasons still on tour. If an actor in a touring company became ill or otherwise left the company, he or she had to be immediately replaced. If one of the actors sitting near the entrance was the right "type" for the role in question, that actor would be immediately signed to a contract and sent out to join the company. This was the way it was for many years.
Beginning in the early 1920s, the teen-aged Moss Hart heard actors sitting there complain that there was not as much work as there had been in previous years. Terms like "a bad season" were uttered rather frequently.
The following year (theatrical year: Labor Day to Memorial Day), Hart heard the same complaints and that it was "worse than last year." Then, the next year, it seemed only to get worse.
Hart, in retrospect, knew what the situation was. "The road was dying." Silent motion pictures were already weakening the one and two-night stands that many touring companies had been playing for decades. Audiences for the live theatre were already growing smaller.
There were other factors, too--including World War I. But that's another blogging.
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Tuesday, May 30, 2017
PEAK YEARS
What years were the peak years of employment in the American theatre? The answer may not surprise you. Then again, it might. Stay in touch with the American Theatre Network.
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BEST WISHES
Wishing all lovers of the theatre--Broadway, Off-Broadway, London West End, Tokyo, and all points north, south, east, and west, a great summer ahead.
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Tuesday, April 4, 2017
NEIL SIMON TODAY
When I was in my teens and twenties, I wondered if the day would ever come in which the plays of Neil Simon would be "dated." Sadly, that day has arrived. In fact, it came around the year 2000. This is not to say that his plays are not good or even great. They simply have become "period pieces." Very few of them could be produced commercially today--his masterpiece, The Odd Couple, and perhaps The Sunshine Boys being the exceptions. (Even they have become period pieces.) It's simply that the world has changed too much. Simon's plays were appreciated, despite their ethnicity, because we had a common culture that embraced that ethnicity. That ethnicity has long since disappeared, as has that common culture.
The tourist Broadway audiences cannot relate to them, as was discovered a few short years ago, when an attempted revival of one of his plays had to close almost as soon as it opened on Broadway; there were simply not enough advance sales.
The critics, by and large, did not appreciate Simon's plays when they were produced on Broadway in the 1960s, '70s, and beyond. This is probably because they were not "socially relevant"--i.e., they did not tackle social problems such as war, racism, poverty, etc. (Some critics said that he was simply a "gag writer" as opposed to a playwright, a charge I felt and still feel was largely unwarranted.) They were about types of people--their faults, peculiarities, and so forth. They were character studies set against certain backgrounds--largely ethnic backgrounds that were nonetheless acceptable to a very wide audience. This "world of Neil Simon" has long passed, and I am saddened by it.
Part of Simon's trouble is the fact that straight plays--whether dramas or comedies--cannot sustain on Broadway. (I remember when a play entitled Top Dog, Under Dog, won the Pulitzer Prize and then opened--for a limited run--on Broadway. That was around 2002.) Arthur Miller spent the last ten years of his life making speeches complaining that the professional playwright had disappeared. I had and have no argument to make against him.
Anyway, for what it's worth, we still love Neil Simon.
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#americantheatrenetwork
Monday, March 20, 2017
SOME NORTH AMERICAN THEATRE HISTORY
The Broadway theatre of today, while quite successful and impressive, is but a small remnant of a thriving business that included hundreds upon hundreds of first class theatres in cities of every size throughout the United States and Canada. Thousands upon thousands of people made their livings as actors, stagehands, theatre managers, and in other capacities that do not include producing, directing, and the writing of plays. These creative aspects of the field were done, principally (but not exclusively) in New York City, the center of this vast network of stage entertainment. [A number of successful touring shows, many of which played on Broadway at one time or another, were originally produced in Chicago and Los Angeles. Oliver Morosco was the greatest producer of plays and musicals in L.A. from 1911 until into the 1920s.]
This did not include the various vaudeville circuits and burlesque wheels, each of which had its own theatres. It is safe to say that more than a hundred thousand people made their livings through stage entertainment from the 1880s through the 1930s, when the triple blow of radio, sound films, and the Depression left so many jobless--people who had been in the "amusement" field for decades and who knew no other way of life.
#americantheatrenetwork
This did not include the various vaudeville circuits and burlesque wheels, each of which had its own theatres. It is safe to say that more than a hundred thousand people made their livings through stage entertainment from the 1880s through the 1930s, when the triple blow of radio, sound films, and the Depression left so many jobless--people who had been in the "amusement" field for decades and who knew no other way of life.
#americantheatrenetwork
Friday, March 17, 2017
INTRODUCTION
This blog is about information on popular entertainment--primarily the American commercial stage. History of such is the main topic, but information, etc., on the current pop stage will not be out of bounds and is, in fact, quite welcome.
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