RIP Tim Curry

Rough week - first Dolly Parton, then we find out Tim Curry also died Tuesday, and like Parton, also at the age of 80. 

 

Probably most famous as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Curry made his mark not only in film but also on stage and television, and in music, voice over work, and books on tape. He received three Tony nominations and two Olivier and Drama Desk nominations, as well as single nominations for the Grammy and Primetime Emmys. He was nominated for two Daytime Emmys, winning in 1991 for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series for his voice work as Captain Hook in Peter Pan and the Pirates. 

 

Curry was an amazingly versatile actor. Take a look at his credits - not only the sheer volume of them, but the variety. He did comedy (including a classic appearance on Psych as Nigel St. Nigel, at parody of Simon Cowell type talent show hosts), drama (including an episode of Poirot), horror (Pennywise in IT), and numerous children's shows. And this list doesn't even include his vast body of theater work. Just mind-boggling how talented he was.

 

Curry suffered a stroke in 2012 and was confined to a wheelchair thereafter. However he was able to continue with voice work and even made an appearance in a 2016 TV remake of The Rocky Horror Picture Show as the Narrator/Criminologist.

 

Tough loss, especially for those of us who headed to Hollywood in the 80's for midnight showings of Rocky Horror. We would dash down in front of the screen to do The Time Warp, and knew exactly what to yell at the screen during the film. For that alone Curry was a huge part of life in that most wonderful decade. 

 

RIP Tim and congratulations on an amazing life well lived.

 

Famous (and not so famous) idiots in the news

Hollywood people are so full of themselves.

 

Andrew Garfield - Dude, relax. No one in the real world cares what you watch. Watch something, don't watch it, we don't care. It doesn't affect us. It's yours. We have ours. The whole reason for this story is he doesn't want to be canceled in the industry for watching something by an author that the so-called tolerant industry hate right now because she won't walk in lockstep with their beliefs and won't be silenced. Which leads us to...

 

Josh Duhamel - "Because I respect their views on things but I'm not going to preach to them." Holy moly, this guy gets it. But wait, there's more! "They can believe what they want to believe. I'm just here to, you know, make cool stuff." Nailed it, but I wonder how much of a backlash he's going to get within the industry for not sticking to the script. 

 

Going back to Garfield, referring to J.K. Rowling - author of the Harry Potter series and one of the most successful authors in the world - as "she who shall remain nameless" isn't as clever as he thinks it is. How about this take, Andrew: Are you not saying her name because of her opinions on certain topics (which, whether or not you agree, she's entitled to have)? Or are you belittling a woman? Are you a misogynist? Down with your patriarchy! 

 

Or are you dismissing the writer as beneath you because you're a big Hollywood star and don't have to acknowledge the little people? Are writers just schmucks with Underwoods to you, big shot?

 

Also, did Hollywood ever give back the billions of dollars they made off Rowling's creations? Come on, show up how outraged you really are about her opinions and cleanse yourself of her filthy money! 

 

Laura Benanti (Who? Yeah, me too) makes an ass of herself when a group of teen theater kids didn't recognize her on a plane flight. Apparently she's trying to walk it back as down to earth self-mocking, but if she's such a great actress wouldn't that have come across in the first place? In her defense, she's a successful (if not recognizable) actress, with tons of credits and a Tony Award. Unfortunately, it's now her performance as a big shot who gets pissy over not being hailed by the little people is what a whole lot of people find the most memorable.

  

There have been a lot of memorable responses to the original video, but this was my favorite:

 

Reading resolutions on steroids

One thing I've been wanting to do is stop the time-wasting activities (looking at you internet and my personal laziness) and more time reading. With that in mind I've made a couple of big commitments this year. First up: taking another shot at Read Christie. I tried this in 2024 but didn't make it all the way through, but I'm hoping for better results this time around. 

The 2026 theme is "Biggest, Best, Beloved" and here is the monthly schedule:

 

January (Best Opening): The Body in the Library (Marple)

 

February (Beloved Character/s): Mrs McGinty's Dead (Poirot)

 

March (Biggest Impact on You as a Young Reader): Murder on the Orient Express (Poirot)

 

April (Beloved in Your Collection): A Caribbean Mystery (Marple)

 

May (Best Short Story Collection): The Labours of Hercules (Poirot)

 

June (Best Read in One Sitting): The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Poirot)

 

July (Best-Kept Secret): The Rose and the Yew Tree (Agatha Christie writing as Mary Westmacott)

 

August (Beloved Duo): By the Pricking of My Thumbs (Tommy and Tuppence)

 

September (Best According to Agatha): Endless Night (Stand alone)

 

October (Best Cold Case): Sleeping Murder (Marple)

 

November (Biggest Inspiration): And Then There Were None (Stand alone)

 

December (Best Seasonal Read): Hercule Poirot's Christmas

 

2026 (Best Book About Agatha Christie): An Autobiography     

 

This means we have five Hercule Poirots, three Miss Marples, one Tommy/Tuppence, two stand alones, one of the novels Christie wrote under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, and her autobiography. Of all of these, I've only read Roger Ackroyd and And Then There Were None, so this year promises lots of new experiences.

 

As if that wasn't enough, I also recently discovered the Hardcore Literature Book Club when the video announcing their 2026 schedule popped up on my YouTube feed. I was blown away by the sheer depth of materials they read and although it's hideously overambitious, I just couldn't help signing up.  

 

For January/February we're reading Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove and some ancient Greek tragedies, most of which I already covered in my Mythology class earlier this year. So that will involve revisiting material I've already read including Oedipus Rex, which was my favorite out of everything we read (which was saying a lot - I loved pretty much everything in that class). 

 

Just some of the works on the 2026 schedule are The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Art of War by Sun Tzu, The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, along with The Bhagavad Gita and Beowulf. There will also be short stories and poetry, and a TBA surprise Dickens novel for the holidays. 

 

Wish me luck. 

Recent reading: "We Did OK, Kid"

 

We Did OK, Kid: A Memoir

by Anthony Hopkins

 

This is a wonderful memoir of Sir Anthony Hopkins's life and times, as well as his career as an Oscar-winning actor. He was an only child whose parents despaired of what his future held as he was a middling, disinterested student and didn't seem to have any particular talent or ambition. In fact, at one point he announced he wanted to be a hobo when he grew up. But love of film, literature, poetry, and an innate gift for reading material out loud eventually led him to the theatre.

 

We Did OK, Kid takes us through Hopkins's childhood in Wales, into his acting career in film, television and theatre, and how he honed his skills to become one of the greatest actors of his generation. We see his early exposure to legendary actors like Richard Burton and Laurence Olivier and how they molded him. On the personal side Hopkins doesn't shy away from the disasters that his first two marriages devolved into and of course there's his battle with alcohol (he's been sober for decades and often speaks eloquently on the subject on social media).

 

Hopkins also spends time explaining how he crafted what is probably his most famous performance, Dr. Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs. It says a lot about his preparation that even during the table read he managed to frighten co-star Jodie Foster. It's a fascinating behind the scenes look at what is considered by many to be the embodiment of one of the greatest villains in film history.

 

Hopkins managed to eventually settle into a happy third marriage in 2003. His only child is a daughter named Abigail from his first marriage. When he left that unhappy union, he walked away completely feeling it was best for everyone involved, resulting in estrangement from Abigail and he admits that he wishes he could have had a better relationship with her. But of all the ups and downs Hopkins has experienced over his long life (he'll be 88 on New Year's Eve) he seems to have made his peace with it all and now appears to live a happy, examined life with regrets accepted and dealt with.

 

I cannot recommend this memoir highly enough. I expected Hopkins to be fascinating based on what I'd seen of him on film and social media, and We Did OK, Kid didn't disappoint. 

 

June Words of Wisdom

Solitude is dangerous. It's very addictive. It becomes a habit after you realize how peaceful and calm it is. It's like you don't want to deal with people anymore because they drain your energy. (Jim Carrey)

The poison was never forced - it was offered gently, until you forgot it was poison at all. (Mark Twain)

 

And the wise Queens went on with their business, having no time for fools, fakes, and fuckery. (Ann Marie Eleazer)

 

If you want to know where your heart is, look to where your mind goes when it wanders. (Walt Whitman)

 

So I therefore dedicate myself to my art, my sleep, my dreams, my labours, my sufferances, my loneliness, my unique madness, my endless absorption and hunger because I cannot dedicate myself to any fellow being. (Jack Kerouac)

 

It's hell writing and it's hell not writing. The only tolerable state is having just written. (Robert Haas)

A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity. (Franz Kafka)

Feeling different, feeling alienated, feeling persecuted, feeling that the only way to deal with the world is to laugh - because if you don't laugh you're going to cry and never stop crying - that's probably what's responsible for the Jews having developed such a great sense of humor. The people who had the greatest reason to weep, learned more than anyone else how to laugh. (Mel Brooks, who celebrated his 99th birthday on Saturday. What a gift to the world he has been.)

Want to take a writing class taught by Agatha Christie? Of course you do, and so do I.

BBC Maestro, which I would describe as a British version of MasterClass, has brought the Queen of Mystery back to life to share her writing secrets: Writing with Agatha Christie.

From the course description:

 

The course has been curated by leading Christie scholars Dr Mark Aldridge, Michelle Kazmer, Gray Robert Brown, and Jamie Bernthal-Hooker, who have painstakingly reconstructed Agatha’s philosophy on writing, using her own words.

 

For the first time, audiences will hear Agatha Christie impart her insights on story structure, cast creation, plot twists, red herrings, and the art of suspense, drawn directly from her own writings and archival interviews.

According to this Deadline article, the BBC used a combination of AI and actress Vivien Keene to bring Christie to life. The course consists of 11 lessons and 12 exercises, and runs 2-1/2 hours. You can purchase the course as a stand-alone for $89, or subscribe to BBC Maestro for $120 for all-access for a year, which also provides courses from live people including Lee Child, Ken Follett, Harlan Coben, Bill Lawrence, Brian Cox, Sir Tim Rice, Mark Ronson, and that's just in the creative arts. They also offer courses in Food & Drink, Business, Wellness, and Art & Design.

I have two college classes (complete with live professors) going on right now, but I'm thinking once the semester is completed this will be my next course.

I also think it will be interesting to see how people react to the idea of someone like Christie being recreated by AI. AI itself is an extremely touchy issue with a lot of people, especially writers. Given the people behind it and the apparent care put into it, I'm willing to at least give this a shot. I guess I'll find out how I feel about it this summer.

Winter classic

 

"Back to the Future: The Musical"

Great Scott!!! I finally got to see Back to the Future on stage!

 

I had a blast. Basically, this is a show created by people who love the film for people who love the film, and that includes me.

 

The cast was terrific. I always wonder what it's like for a relatively unknown actor to have to take on an iconic role associated with a famous actor, but Caden Brauch was a terrific Marty McFly. He had the same youthful energy and excitement Michael J. Fox brought to the film role. Burke Swanson was a hilarious George McFly. When he came out at the end as the successful version of George, he looked almost identical to Crispin Glover in the film. Zan Berube had a terrific energy as Lorraine, and Don Stephenson was appropriately bonkers as Doc Brown. Ethan Rogers was a hilarious and imposing Biff Tannen (his bio in the program describes him as "much nicer in person" than Biff). The role of Goldie Wilson is beefed up in the show and Cartreze Tucker did a wonderful job, especially in one song where he really got to show off his amazing singing voice. And of course, it was a kick to see the DeLorean, kitted out as the unlikely time machine.

 

The songs are all original, except when "Johnny B. Goode" is performed at the dance, and at the end of the show, when the cast performs "The Power of Love" and "Back in Time". A lot of work goes into this show, and they use a lot of projection for locations and to give the DeLorean the appearance of speeding up to the crucial speed of 88 miles per hour. And yes, O'Reilly Auto Parts still lists the flux capacitor on their website. It was a total nostalgia fest for the 1980's, including era fashion and hair, as well as costumes duplicated from the original film.

I didn't get a picture of it when I was leaving (because I was driving), but there was a DeLorean in the parking garage with the license place TIMELESS (I can't remember the exact abbreviation as I passed it quickly). So cool.

Back to the Future: The Musical is a lot of fun and I highly recommend it. It's playing at Segerstrom Center for the Arts through January 5 before heading to San Diego and the rest of its North American tour.

 

Now I just need to find a real time machine so I can go back to the 80's and stay there.

RIP Dame Maggie Smith

Legendary actress Dame Maggie Smith died this morning in London. She was 89.

 

As I mentioned earlier this month when James Earl Jones passed, when you get to a certain age (for me it's 90-ish) that person has had a nice, long life, especially ones as well lived as Smith and Jones. But it still such a bummer to lose people like them.

 

I'll remember her as the Dowager Countess Violet in Downton Abbey and also for her performance as Dora Charleston (a satire of Nora Charles) in Neil Simon's Murder by Death. For others, she'll be remembered for her role in the Harry Potter franchise. 

 

Even before those famous franchises, Smith boasted an amazing career on stage and screen. She also loaded up on awards, winning two Oscars, four Emmys, five SAG Awards, a Tony, and five BAFTAs as well as their Lifetime Achievement and Academy Fellowship Awards.

RIP to an amazing Dame.

"Life is a game, where the player must appear ridiculous."

(The Dowager Countess)

RIP James Earl Jones

Goodbye to a class act and a truly gifted actor: James Earl Jones has died at the age of 93.

Jones had a legendary career on stage, film and television. He's probably going to be best remembered as the voice of Darth Vader, but I'm a sucker for his film debut in Dr. Strangelove:

 

"Hey, what about Major Kong?"

 

I know 93 is a good old age and life, but this one really hurts.

Recent reading: "The Mommie Dearest Diary"

 

The Mommie Dearest Diary: Carol Ann Tells All by Rutanya Alda

 

Actress Rutanya Alda exposes the behind the scenes going-ons of the legendary film Mommie Dearest, and to answer the most obvious question, no, Faye Dunaway doesn't come off well at all. In fact, the book begins with a trio of quotes from Bette Davis, Dick van Dyke, and Roman Polanski describing their awful experiences working with Dunaway. 

Alda had a difficult childhood. She was born in 1942 in Latvia, which would be annexed to the Soviet Union at the end of World War II. As a child she fled with her mother, brother, and grandmother (her father was kept behind) and they eventually wound up in Flagstaff, Arizona. Alda's mother showed her no love and even worse, once told her she'd wanted to abort her but was prevented from doing so by Alda's father. Movies were an escape from her difficult life and once grown, she headed to New York to become an actress.

For me, the most fascinating part of this story was Alda's career experiences leading up to Mommie Dearest and her journey through the acting world. That world included people like Lee Strasberg, Elia Kazan, Stella Adler, Roman Polanski, Brian De Palma, Robert De Niro, Barbra Streisand, Al Pacino, Gene Hackman, Robert Altman (with whom she had an affair), Sterling Hayden, Sam Peckinpah, Bob Dylan, John Wayne, Neville Brand (another affair), Dalton Trumbo, Laurence Olivier, Michael Cimino, John Cazale, and Sylvester Stallone. She appeared in Rosemary's Baby, Hello Dolly, and The Deer Hunter among other high profile films. And this was all before landing what is probably her most famous role: the deeply devoted maid Carol Ann in Mommie Dearest.

Once cast as Carol Ann, the book is comprised of Alda's actual diary entries, which includes drama not only onset but also at home - her husband, actor Richard Bright, had neglected to inform her of his drug issues before they were wed, and periodically used throughout the marriage. Over the years he would have periods of sobriety, but would always go back to the drugs. The drug abuse was compounded by the damage it did to their collective finances. He was unemployed and using drugs during the period Alda was filming Mommie Dearest (January-April 1981) causing her so much stress that she viewed the days playing Carol Ann as an escape from her personal problems, even with the difficulty of dealing with Dunaway, who seemed intent on turning the film into her own one-woman show while treating both cast and crew poorly.

I actually enjoyed Alda's writing, so much so that I wish she'd just written about the Mommie Dearest experience, rather than using the diary entries. But either way, it's a fascinating look at the machinations of Hollywood and the reality of being a working actor. Highly recommended.

From the book:

Of course, there also seems to be a more general personality problem. When Faye appeared on Inside the Actors Studio, she told James Lipton that others didn't like working with her because she was a perfectionist. Earlier in my career, I witnessed Barbra Streisand abuse people on her movie sets - now she too claims in interviews that she was disliked because she was a perfectionist. No Barbra, no Faye, you were disliked because you were abusers. A perfectionist out to be someone who sees perfection and find perfection around them; it's the imperfectionists like Faye and Barbra who keep looking for the imperfection until they find it, for what we focus on, we will find. Why demand perfection if you don't offer it? I think that Mommie Dearest has too many imperfections with which she'd have to coexist - and own some of the responsibility for.

RIP Mark Margolis

 

RIP to the actor best known to me as Hector Salamanca on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. Margolis died yesterday at the age of 83.

 

However, Margolis's career extended way beyond the Albuquerque crime world created by Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould. He studied under Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg, and appeared in more than fifty Broadway and Off-Broadway shows. In the 1970's he began working in film and television and amassed an amazing resume over the years. Films he appeared in included Scarface, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, I Shot Andy Warhol, The Thomas Crown Affair, Requiem for a Dream, Hannibal, Gone Baby Gone, Black Swan, and My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2.

His television appearances are even more impressive and include Kojak, Crime Story, The Equalizer, Quantum Leap, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Law & Order, The Practice, Oz, Crossing Jordan, Californication, Blue Bloods, The Good Wife, American Horror Story, Elementary, Gotham, The Affair, The Blacklist, and most recently Bryan Cranston's series Your Honor. Seriously, scroll through this guy's imdb entry - it's really amazing. Hell of a career.

 

In his Emmy-nominated performance as former cartel kingpin Hector "Tio" Salamanca in Breaking Bad, Margolis was playing a once-powerful man now confined, speechless, to a wheelchair, communicating through the dings of a bell. Then, about five years later, he appeared on Better Call Saul as a younger, able-bodied version of himself (despite being well into his seventies) leading up to the explanation of how he ended up a shell of his former self. Having to perform so much of Hector's existence with nothing more than a bell and twisted, frustrated facial expressions, he still gave a compelling performance that was summed up by a comment on the Deadline article linked above: 

Rest in peace, sir.

 

Theater: "Murder on the Links" at Laguna Playhouse

Murder on the Links

Written and Directed by Steven Dietz (based on the novel by Agatha Christie)

Cast: Omri Schein (Hercule Poirot), Kim Morgan Dean (Captain Hastings), Jennifer Erdmann (multiple), Brian Mackey (multiple), Jessica Mosher (multiple), Matthew Salazar-Thompson (multiple)

First, let me say that overall this was a fun romp that I really enjoyed. It's running through June 18, so you still have time to check it out. Also, this is a great theater. If you're in the middle section I don't think there's a bad seat in the house (can't comment on the side sections) and there's cheap public parking right across the street from the theater - $4 for the entire day. 

 

Having said that, there were several things about this production that I found jarring. I went in expecting something in the vein the Poirot series, but in this show the story is played for laughs. Once I understood that I was good, and there were some really funny moments. Also played for laughs was Poirot himself, which also took a while to get used to. Schein played him a bit goofy, which is at odds with the ultimate Poirot (David Suchet) so many fans are used to, but again, I was able to go with it once I realized that's how this production handled the adaptation.

Most jarring was the casting of a female actor to play Captain Hastings. They didn't turn Hastings into a woman, so there wasn't really any reason to do this other than needless virtue signaling. Kim Morgan Dean gave a great performance, but throughout the play her being a woman playing Hastings was a major distraction, and as both a writer and viewer, I know that anything that takes your audience out of the story isn't a good thing. I just don't see why this was necessary other than to make some sort of statement. Imagine a show where a male actor takes a role away from a female actor. I don't think I need to elaborate any more on that. Terrific performance, but distracting from beginning to end.

But like I said, this production of Murder on the Links is overall an enjoyable two hours. Plus, I hadn't been in Orange County since...probably the last time I was at Laguna Playhouse was to see Harvey in 2019. I really need to get out here more often, it was like having a vacation from Los Angeles. I wish it wasn't so far away.

Theater: "Ava: The Secret Conversations" at Geffen Playhouse

Ava: The Secret Conversations was presented at the Gil Cates Theater at the Geffen Playhouse.

Ava: The Secret Conversations

Written by Elizabeth McGovern

(based on the book Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations by Peter Shaw & Ava Gardner)

Directed by Moritz von Steulpnagel

Starring Elizabeth McGovern, Aaron Costa Ganis, Ryan W. Garcia

Ava Gardner, who grew up in a small town in North Carolina, was summoned to Hollywood when her portrait was spotted in the window of her photographer brother-in-law's Fifth Avenue studio. She had no ambitions and not much talent, but her stunning looks propelled her to Hollywood stardom and a certain degree of infamy due to the lusty passions she never felt the need to keep private. She was only nineteen when she married Mickey Rooney, then one of the biggest stars in the world. Her second husband was clarinetist/band leader Artie Shaw (she was the fifth of his eight wives, a group that also included actresses Lana Turner and Evelyn Keyes). Her third marriage was to Frank Sinatra, at a time when Sinatra's career was at its lowest point, a couple years out from his Oscar winning performance in From Here to Eternity. He was also still married to his first wife when he took up with Ava, making it a scandalous affair. In addition to her marriages, Gardner also had a lengthy, ongoing affair with Howard Hughes.

As I blogged last month, when I originally went to see this play the area suffered a power outage about halfway through the performance, so it had to be cancelled. I was rescheduled for last Friday. BTW, props to the Geffen box office staff for making the rescheduling easy-peasy. That had to have been hectic.

So I finally got to see the show in its entirely, and it went above and beyond what I'd expected from the portion I'd already seen. It takes place in 1988 with Gardner, aging and feeling the effects of a recent stroke and a lifetime of drinking and smoking, having decided to write her autobiography. She has relocated to London, her Hollywood career behind her, and needs money. Feeling her options are telling her story or selling her jewels, she opts to keep the jewels because they hold sentimental value. 

Gardner summons British journalist Peter Shaw to ghost-write her autobiography, but what follows is a cat-and-mouse game with Shaw trying to extract information from a capriciously uncooperative subject. At heart Ava is still the Golden Age of Hollywood grande dame in all her glory, alternately enthusiastically recalling old memories, but also often rebuffing Shaw's entreaties with a tipsy imperiousness.

As Shaw walks Ava through each marriage, actor Aaron Costa Ganis morphs from the ambitious British journalist to portray the excitable Mickey Rooney, then the condescending intellectual Artie Shaw, and finally Sinatra, frustrated by his failing career and the intrusive press that can't get enough of him and Ava. At each of these turns, McGovern alternates between the 1988 Ava to the period of each of her marriages. It's a fantastic technique and Ganis especially does a great job of playing four different characters. McGovern is surprisingly effective as the lusty Gardner. Despite being of such slight build, she's absolutely convincing as the woman once described as "The World's Most Beautiful Animal". Watching her I never once thought of Cora Crawley, but was witnessing a former sex symbol fighting through her waning days.

As the writing progresses, Shaw becomes increasingly excited about the book's prospects until Ava abruptly pulls the plug on the project due to a combination of worry that she's revealed too much and discovering that Shaw had once been successfully sued for libel by Frank Sinatra, with whom Ava remained friends until her death. It was a detail Shaw had neglected to share with her and caused her to distrust him.

It would be decades before Shaw received permission to publish the book. He was working on it at the time of his death in 2012. It was published the following year. Ava Gardner succumbed to bronchial pneumonia in 1990.

Ava: The Secret Conversations runs at the Geffen through May 14.

"Ava": Interrupted

 

So today I was supposed to blog about the Geffen Playhouse's "Ava: The Secret Conversations" starring Elizabeth McGovern. I'd never been to the Geffen and was looking forward to checking out a new theater as well as the show itself, which sounded amazing. It's about the writing of legendary star Ava Gardner's biography, which occurred later in her life as she fought the effects of a stroke, aging, and her drinking and smoking. I'm a sucker for anything to do with historic Hollywood, and seeing McGovern was going to be an additional treat. I'm a fan of the Downton Abbey TV series, and I remember her back in the 1980's when she was a stunning and talented starlet with what looked like a superstar future.

 

The play was fantastic and was progressing well until, about halfway through the show, the lights went out. Yep, power outage. Of all the dates I could have selected, I was at the one where there was an outage in Westwood. The actors (McGovern and Aaron Cotsa Ganis, who plays the writer trying to wrangle the uncooperative Ava's life story) held their positions for about five seconds to see if the lights would return, and when they didn't, McGovern turned to the audience and chirped, "Hello!" It was freaking adorable.

The theater's wonderful stage manager came out a couple of times to let us know they were attempting to get information from Southern California Edison about restoring power, and after about fifteen minutes had to announce the news wasn't good and they were going to have to call it a night. The audience was disappointed, but was also cooperative and understanding. We were informed that we'll hear from the box office on Thursday about rescheduling. I'm really hoping they can work that out - the half of the show I saw was spectacular. Both actors are off the charts amazing. Hopefully I can see the whole thing soon and post a review. 

One thing that really blew me away was finding out that McGovern also wrote this play. I didn't realize that until I was reading the Playbill before the show started. It's not enough that she's a great actress, but based on the part of the show I saw she's also an amazing writer. 

 

Updated: Rescheduled for May!

 

The Show Must Go Online

How have I not known about this before now? This was one of the viewing options in my Shakespeare class for our Richard III module. I present to you, Richard III brought to you by The Show Must Go Online.

 

Apparently this was started during the COVID shutdown. They use Zoom to perform the plays and it's amazing how well it works. It's not without a few hiccups, but overall it works, and what a great idea! Zoom has got to be one of the all-time great creations, and it's fascinating seeing how creatively people utilize it.  

Looking forward to checking out some of their other performances.

Recent reading: "Hamlet"

I have three classes this semester and they're going to involve a lot of reading, writing, and viewing. First up, Hamlet for my Shakespeare class.

Hamlet is the story of a Danish prince charged by the ghost of his father to avenge the late king's murder. The ghost reveals that he was poisoned by his brother, who then married the widowed queen and assumed the throne. Unfortunately, Hamlet isn't quite up to the task. Despite the fact that the ghost is crystal clear about his untimely death and desire for revenge, Hamlet finds ways to delay the unpleasant act, feigning madness to the distress of all around him, staging a play for the court that features the late king's murder, and even overhearing his uncle, King Claudius, confessing his sin. And yet he finds reason after reason to delay avenging his father. In the process, he drags pretty much everyone around him down the drain with him. 

 

This being a Shakespearean tragedy, no one will come out unscathed. Hamlet's mad prince act drives his beloved Ophelia into her own genuine madness, resulting in her death. Claudius will eventually pay the price, but so will almost everyone else in the story

For the class, we are covering one of Shakespeare's plays every two weeks and part of the work is not only reading the plays, but viewing a film version. We were given the choice of various Hamlets and of course, I chose Laurence Olivier's version. This 1948 film won the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Actor for Olivier, although he lost Best Director to John Huston for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. It was interesting reading along while I watched because Olivier made some pretty bold choices. He rearranged some scenes, edited the dialogue, and completely eliminated the characters of Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Fortinbras, and the thing still ran 2-1/2 hours. It was really good, though. Olivier's performance was spectacular. He did a lot of Shakespeare on stage and it must have been unbelievable to see him live.

 

This week, a research paper on Hamlet. Next up: Richard III!

Theatre: "The Little Foxes" at South Coast Repertory

The Little Foxes was presented by South Coast Repertory on the Segerstrom Stage in Costa Mesa.

 

 

 

The Little Foxes

Written by Lillian Hellman

Directed by Lisa Peterson

Starring Shannon Cochran, Matthew Arkin, Marco Barricelli, Jamison Jones, Tessa Auberjonois, Jess Andrews, Hunter Spangler, Kaci Hamilton,

Zalen D. King, Lea Coco

Alabama, 1900. Ben and Oscar Hubbard stand to earn millions by funding an industrialized cotton mill. But first they'll need their calculating sister, Regina, to secure the seed money from her dying husband. When he refuses, the siblings stop at nothing to satisfy their own ambitions and keep the wealth in the family. It is Regina, however, with razor-sharp intellect and diabolical gentility, who is the most ruthless. Ferocious and funny, this classic takes an absorbing look at all sides of the American Dream. (From SCR website)

The film version of The Little Foxes starring Bette Davis is one of my all-time favorites, plus I have an audio copy of a performance from L.A. Theater Works that is fantastic, so I was really looking forward to seeing this live.

The first thing that happened was that the original date I had selected was canceled due to COVID-19 issues. When I got the cancellation email I thought I was out of luck as far as seeing this show. However, SCR quickly got me into another performance. I was impressed by how well they handled the situation.

This is the set. The picture doesn't really do it justice, but I loved it and had to get a shot of it. Notice the arch framing the stage is off-kilter? I loved that touch, showing that what goes on in this home is crooked and dysfunctional. There was also a lot of furniture, which was utilized heavily by the cast. This was my first time at Segerstrom and I was surprised that the theatre was a lot smaller than I was expecting, but while I had a great view from almost dead center, I don't think there's a bad seat in the place other than the extreme edges. Nice little theatre.

I was also intrigued by how the actress playing Regina Giddens would fare. In addition to Davis' legendary performance in the film, Tallulah Bankhead played the role during its original Broadway run. That's a lot of star-powered shoes to fill. Turns out Shannon Cochran's effortless performance was more than up the the standards of the role. She made a terrific Regina. Barricelli and Jones were spot-on as Ben and Oscar, and I enjoyed Spangler's portrayal of the slimy Leo. Another thing I noticed in retrospect is how well the cast handled the southern accents, so props to Dialect Coach Nathan Crocker.

The one glaring issue with the performance was that Arkin, who was a replacement in the role of Horace, apparently didn't have enough time to prepare and carried script pages on stage throughout the performance. Horace doesn't show up until part-way through the action, and is deathly ill and therefore not active, so it wasn't as noticeable as it could have been - in fact, at first I thought the character was carrying a newspaper - but as he began turning pages there was no hiding it, and really no attempt to. He was listed as a replacement (along with Hamilton filling in as Addie), which isn't unusual; I've seen that at shows in the past. But I'd never seen or even heard of an actor carrying script pages with him the entire time he's onstage. Apparently COVID has really affected the cast as discussed in this review, so I'm not unsympathetic. But it was hugely distracting. 

 

On top of that, for some reason there were two brief intermissions rather than a single, longer one, which I would have preferred. Each break took me out of the story. I would preferred not to have an intermission at all during this show. I know it's a little over two hours, but the time during the performance flew by. I'm not sure why they felt the need to interrupt it twice.

Overall it was a well-done show, and without the aforementioned issues, would have been great.

I was also pleasantly surprised how easy it was to get from L.A. to Costa Mesa for a weeknight performance (a straight shot down the 405 for me). I was anticipating a dreadful rush hour drive, but apparently I was going against traffic and the drive was not bad in L.A. and full-speed once I got behind the Orange Curtain. The drive home, without any traffic, went by in a flash. So even though it's way out in the OC, it's definitely worth doing again in the future.

RIP Melinda Dillon

It was just announced that actress Melinda Dillon passed away last month (January 9) at the age of 83. 

Dillon played everyone's dream mom in A Christmas Story. She was Oscar-nominated for her roles in Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Absence of Malice, and she also notably appeared in The Prince of Tides, Magnolia, Slap Shot, Harry and the Hendersons, and Bound for Glory. One thing I did not know about her until reading her obituary is that she played Honey in the original 1962 Broadway production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, earning a Tony nomination.

I just loved her to pieces in A Christmas Story, so this is really sad news, but I'm glad we got her for one more Christmas.

Rest in peace, Mrs. Parker.

Agatha Christie, Woman of Mystery

Great article from the Great British Book Club: 14 Things You Might Not Know About Dame Agatha Christie. 

Some of these caught me by surprise.

• Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, was rejected by six publishers before she found someone who wanted it. Also, this is a Hercule Poirot story, so this means she created one of the most enduring figures in literature right out of the gate in her first novel. Amazing.
• She is a surfing legend. Didn't see that one coming.
• Information about thallium poisoning in her novel The Pale Horse helped Scotland Yard catch a serial killer and a nurse save a poisoned baby's life
  
• She wrote romance novels under the pen name Mary Westmacott. Where did she find the time? Under her own name, she wrote 66 novels, 14 short story collections, in addition to several plays, including The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in history. On top of all that, according to the article, she also wrote a screenplay adaptation of Charles Dickens's Bleak House, one of her favorite novels, for MGM, which sadly was never filmed.

Do check out the article. In addition to being one of our greatest writers, Christie lived an amazing life beyond her stories.