Great Nights in the Theatre, continued

Staying with theatre a bit longer, I have been rummaging among my programmes which go back to the mid-60s. There really though doesn't seem much point in discussing past shows, as they only matter to those who saw them. One can always find a rare movie, but once a show is over ... here are a few favourites from a lifetime of theatre-going...

MUSICALS

I was 20 when FUNNY GIRL arrived in London in 1966 as the hot new show, with that amazing new star Barbra Streisand (with Michael Craig as her Nicky Arnstein) - a friend, Frank, and I got tickets and got to see it from the front row! Streisand wore a little mike which was the first time we saw one of those. The show was changed a lot for the movie - as usual (ditto with CABARET) some songs removed and replaced by others. On the stage her final number "The Music that Makes Me Dance" was a perfect solo, but it was "My Man" in the film! Craig had a nice number too: "I Want To Be Seen With You".



Best ever night in the theatre? A CHORUS LINE at Drury Lane on my 30th birthday, in 1976.



Right: Vanessa Redgrave, Jeremy Brett & John Stride in the sublime 1973 DESIGN FOR LIVING.
3 A LITTLE NIGHT MUSICS: the 1975 one with Jean Simmons and Hermione Gingold / a late 80s revivial with Peter McEnery, Dorothy Tutin, Susan Hampshire and Lila Kedrova / and that great National Theatre one, maybe 15 years ago now, with Judi Dench and Sian Phillips - I was at a preview [thanks, Tony] with Sondheim a seat but one away, furiously taking notes.
Then there was that FOLLIES with Eartha Kitt and Diana Rigg, and CHICAGO when Chita Rivera was in it
- and recent revivals [with Donal] of THE SOUND OF MUSIC, CABARET, LE CAGE AUX FOLLES and of course the pure theatre of THE LION KING and LES MIZ, plus those giddy pleasures HAIRSPRAY and LEGALLY BLONDE, and two great productions of SIDE BY SIDE BY SONDHEIM and being taken backstage [thanks, Pamela] to meet Julia McKenzie and Millient Martin, and there was Bacall in the awful APPLAUSE in '73 [with Franco] (Bacall label) , and THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA [with Catriona, I had to get the CD next day].

STARS ON STAGE - among those I liked: (click images twice to enlarge)

Deborah Kerr, THE DAY AFER THE FAIR, 1972
Jean Simmons, A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, 1975
Julie Christie, OLD TIMES, 1997 - being able to gaze at her for 90 minutes; Liv Ullmann too in a 70s production of OLD TIMES.
Faye Dunaway, CIRCE AND BRAVO, 1986 - directed by Harold Pinter
Claire Bloom, A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, 1974 (Claire Bloom label)
Julie Harris, THE BELLE OF AMHERST, 1977 (see Julie Haris label) [with Les]
Lee Remick, BUS STOP, 1975 (photos and more at Lee Remick label)
Angela Lansbury & Peggy Ashcroft, ALL OVER, 1972 [with Stan]
Cyd Charisse, CHARLY GIRL, 1985 [with Rory]
Vanessa Redgrave, DESIGN FOR LIVING, 1973 & A MADHOUSE IN GOA, 1998
Maggie Smith: PRIVATE LIVES, HEDDA GABLER, NIGHT AND DAY, LETTICE AND LOVAGE, THE BEAU'S STRATEGM
Judi Dench, LONDON ASSURANCE, 1973, A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, 1997
Sian Phillips, MARLENE, 1997, PAL JOEY, RIDE A COCK HORSE
Marlene herself in concert in 1973 - a masterclass in audience manipulation!
Ralph Richardson & John Gielgud, HOME, 1970 which I saw twice !
Ingrid Bergman just perfect with Michael Redgrave, Emlyn Williams, Jeremy Brett, A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY, 1965, CAPTAIN BRASSBOUND's CONVERSION (with Kenneth Williams) in '71
Peter O'Toole, Sian Phillips, RIDE A COCK HORSE - my first London show in 1965 [with Mike and Gina]
Robert Stephens amazing as the Inca king in ROYAL HUNT OF THE SUN, at the Old Vic, 1966
Glenda Jackson, Marianne Faithfull, THE THREE SISTERS, in the front row of the Royal Court, 1968
Glenda Jackson, Susannah York, Vivien Merchant, THE MAIDS [with Les].
Alan Bates, BUTLEY, '73, HAMLET, 1970 (with Celia Johnson as Gertrude) [other Hamlets I saw include Michael York, Peter McEnery, Jonathan Pryce, Stephen Dillane, David Tennant - as per Theatre Hamlets label)
Jill Bennett, SEPARATE TABLES, PRIVATE LIVES and another splendid HEDDA at the Royal Court (where she was also Gertrude to Jonathan Pryce's acclaimed HAMLET)
Sarah Miles & Eileen Atkins: VIVAT REGINA
Joan Greenwood and Gladys Cooper: a revival of THE CHALK GARDEN, 1971 [more at Greenwood, Cooper labels]
Edith Evans in her one woman show, 1974.
I saw Ingmar Bergman's HEDDA with Maggie Smith twice, it was so spellbinding, blood red sets and the cast in black, in 1970 - a look he followed in CRIES & WHISPERS in 72. Ditto HOME with Richardson and Gielgud, and they signed the programme afterwards.




The 'real' Marlene, and Sian Phillips's Marlene.

GREAT CONCERTS ?
Aretha Franklin, at her peak in both 1968 and 1970 - she wouldn't fly after that! [with Stan]
Otis Redding and the Stax Soul Tour, 1966 (before that fatal flight), (with Stan).
The Doors at the Roundhouse, 1968 (and I am in the concert video footage,aged 22!) as per Doors label [with Clive and those stoned hippies]
4 Joni Mitchell concerts [Joni label for when I met her in Chelsea in 1972).
4 Pet Shop Boys concerts [their residency at the Savoy Theatre in 1997 was Very Pet Shop Boys], and that Scissor Sisters concert in Trafalgar Square in 2006 [with Donal]
Marlene Dietrich at Wimbledon,1973 [with Bryan]
Peggy Lee at the Albert Hall, 1970
Bette Midler at the London Palladium, 1979 [with Les]
Liza Minnelli at The Royal Opera House, circa 1980
Joan Armatrading, Cleo Laine, Dionne Warwick (1970 & 2005), Petula Clark - several times each, and Nancy Wilson.
Great concerts too by The Band, Blood Sweat & Tears, Van Morrison, The Who.
Divine on stage at Rory's club in Brighton, 1986, and all the hi-energy divas!

And, just to recap, those early '70s National Film Theatre Q&A sessions [as reported on previously at labels with photos] with the likes of Bogarde, Mason, Remick, Davis, De Havilland, Huston, Harrison, Lansbury, Bergman, Niven, Heston and the like, and those book signings with Loren, Bacall, Arthur Miller, Michael York and others, and that screening of A STAR IS BORN at the Starlight Cinema in Mayfair, with Gary [my 1963 "Films and Filming" penfriend] over from Australia, in 1970.






The shows I would love to have seen: Coward's HAY FEVER at the National in '63 with the classic cast of Edith Evans and the young Maggie Smith and Sarah Miles / and Coward himself in his last London outing SUITE IN THREE KEYS with Lilli Palmer and Irene Worth, in 1965 - just before my time!
and now, back to the movies ...

Jimmy Dean Jimmy Dean

I just missed James Dean. I was 9 in 1955 and just starting to get interested in movies and magazines and popular culture but I was too late for Dean's original impact but remember the fuss afterwards - magazines about him, the movies being constantly revived and how he influenced those who followed ... I was just in time though for Elvis (the first record I ever held was a cousin's 78 of "Jailhouse Rock" and I loved him in LOVING YOU and those early films and listening to his hits on the radio and those picture of him in the army etc .... my real 'moment' though came when I was 17 in 1963 and the arrival of The Beatles - I had the hair and the "look" with the boots, the black sweater etc and that first album was amazing. But back to the '50s and James Dean ...

EAST OF EDEN and GIANT were (and still are) monumental pictures helmed as they are by Kazan and George Stevens at their peak and have that rich Warner Bros look and feel, with great soundtracks too. When I was in London in my late teens revival houses always had good runs of Dean films - it was terrific to be able to see EDEN on the large screen. Dean has so many terrific moments in it (from that electrifying start with him waiting on the kerb for Jo Van Fleet (tremendous, as ever) to go by), he projects his vulnerability perfectly, I love his scenes with Julie Harris but those scenes where the father rejects his money and the climax can be cringe-inducing now. One feels for poor Richard Davalos - it is a good role but he is so over-shadowed by Dean... It is a handsome production using only part of Steinbeck's book and the captures the early California of Salinas and Monterey.

REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE seems lightweight by comparison despite being brilliantly directed by Nick Ray and that red jacket image of Dean here is as iconic as Marilyn's white dress (see for instance how Joni Mitchell uses it and Jimmy in her SHADOWS AND LIGHT concert dvd). It is of course the essence of teen watching and relating to Jimmy, Natalie and Sal here. Dean though could be anything we wanted - was he gay? or bisexual? - you could just project your fantasies onto him... he was the lost little boy, the best friend one never had. One of the most iconic images is that one of him walking in the rain - he certainly knew how to project the image he wanted...

He looks amazing in GIANT too - he and Elizabeth together look timelessly iconic and beautiful. It is a perfect Warner drama from Ferber's book starting in lush Maryland as Bick and Leslie (Rock and Liz are iconic here too) meet and marry and travel back to Texas and the Reata ranch and Dean's Jett as the surly ranch-hand of Little Reata, left to him by Luz, where he strikes oil - the older Jett is certainly an oddity but Dean carries it off (as the film meanders on with the new generation of Carroll Baker, Dennis Hopper, Sal Mineo and their idea of the older Hudson and Taylor).

Back then it must have been a rite of passage to go through the whole James Dean thing in one's teens or twenties, just like one did about Marilyn Monroe: the books, the films, the posters ... the legends about him in New York and Hollywood. it is nice to remember all that now. For someone who died so young the amount of photographs is amazing - all those images by Dennis Stock back in Fairmount, Indiana; dance class with Eartha Kitt, playing his bongos, his apartment, clubbing with Ursula Andress, with Pier Angeli etc.

There is that amazing story too by Alec Guinness about when he went to Hollywood in 1955 (to make THE SWAN with Grace Kelly) and his meeting with Dean and going for a ride on his motorcycle and then seeing that car and having the premonition of the disaster ahead and warning Dean not to drive it.

It was good too to get the dvd editions of the films with all those extras: the screen tests (including that one with Newman), costume tests, documentaries etc. There are some Dean songs too - the best probably being The Eagles "James Dean" on their "On The Border" album.

It is still an amazing story how this strange young actor burst out of the conformist early '50s establishing his name in the theatre and then in little over a year making three big films and being gone before the second one even opens! Like Marilyn he will always though be forever young, unlike Brando and Clift growing older and disappointing us - but we will always have Cal Trask, Jim Stark and Jett Rink. And then of course we had Altman's film of the play about the GIANT reunion, COME BACK TO THE FIVE AND DIME JIMMY DEAN JIMMY DEAN. Amazingly, he would be 80 now....

People We Like: Julie Harris

The last of this week's series of star appreciations - another batch soon !

An interesting comment a while back in some magazine was that we Londoners were lucky to have Maggie Smith or Judi Dench on stage here frequently, but New Yorkers were equally blessed in having Julie Harris or Geraldine Page on view. How true. Julie Harris is of course revered as one of America's leading actresses on stage and screen for over half a century, with an enduring legacy of great roles. I dare say every generation coming fresh to James Dean finds EAST OF EDEN their lodestone for romantic anguish and Cal and Abra remain one of the screen's most intense couples - as iconic as Dean and Taylor in GIANT and a perfect Kazan couple too, like Clift and Remick in WILD RIVER or Wood and Beatty in SPLENDOUR IN THE GRASS.
Kazan, like Kramer, is a key director of the '50s even if his style seems overwrought or out of fashion now. Julie as Abra was 5 years older than Dean but they are such a perfect couple and her every move and gesture is so delightful. It's one of those films, like THE MISFITS, that I used to watch over and over back in those heady late teen and early twenties years when one was caught up in the early years of that Dean and Monroe cult appreciation.



Julie, born in 1925 was already an established performer by the early '50s and a very individual one too with that distinctive husky voice and mannerisms. She is amazing in Zinnemann's 1952 film THE MEMBER OF THE WEDDING which she had played on Broadway (with the 9 year old Brandon de Wilde, who also reprised his role in the film). This Carson McCullers tale still resonates today. In 1955 Harris played Sally Bowles in the delightful English film I AM A CAMERA, directed by Henry Cornelius with Laurence Harvey and Shelley Winters. It's a bravura performance and this precursor of CABARET has its own delights. She was also teamed with Harvey in a 1957 British comedy THE TRUTH ABOUT WOMEN (also reviewed here), and she also played with the likes of Dirk Bogarde, Rex Harrison, Laurence Olivier and Anthony Quinn for television specials.

Julie continued alternating stage and cinema roles and also television - as detailed in her programme notes (below) from THE BELLE OF AMHERST programme which she played in London in 1977. I had not felt well the night I was going to see that but was persuaded by my companion to attend and it was such a joyful experience as both a great night in the theatre and seeing Julie perform as Emily Dickinson that I felt compelled to write and tell her by posting a note to the theatre. It must have been near the end of the year as I was pleased and touched to receive her good wishes for the new year - as per scans below, click to enlarge.

Her various other roles incuded Miss Thing in that delightful YOU'RE A BIG BOY NOW, Francis Ford Coppola's first feature in 1967, that junky jazz singer in HARPER with Paul Newman and that great cast (Bacall, Leigh, Winters, Wagner etc); she was the leader of the criminal gang in the heist thriller THE SPLIT in '68, and she has kept busy in series like KNOTS LANDING and others. It is good to see her working into old age and one trusts she is recovering from illnesses. (right, with Angela Lansbury - two legends together).

Another key role for her was in the 1963 THE HAUNTING with Claire Bloom, where Julie is taken over by that haunted house.... and it was fun seeing her in the 1972 thriller HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS. There is also John Huston's REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE, also by McCullers, in 1967 where she stars with Taylor and Brando in this very bizarre tale set in an army base in the deep south! It's a very prolific career by one of the great ladies of the American theatre and a much-loved iconic film actress and star.