Re: R.I.P. Diana Rigg
Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2020 2:42 pm
Let's say professional productions.
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You're going to need to be more specific on what you want. Are you talking plays/musicals I've seen in professional productions (excluding college, etc.), or any to which I've been exposed over my long education (including reading)? Neither would be quickly put together, but the second would take quite a bit more effort.Okri wrote: Well, now you have to give a list of your favourite original plays, musicals, and revivals!
Well, now you have to give a list of your favourite original plays, musicals, and revivals!I liked him enough to see a few of his later/lesser plays, like Angels Fall, but I don't know that I'd rate him as high as this list of mine might have suggested to you.
I read through so many back volumes of that series. I loved reading the stats on every show that opened in the season. Also loved the constantly-updated list of Broadway long runs (defined as more than 500 performances; nowadays, it's impossible to find a list that doesn't start at 1000). The only frustration was that they offered abridged versions of scripts (and, in a few cases, only photos of various scenes). I assume it was a copyright issue, but how valuable it would be to have available all those plays in collected volumes?Okri wrote:Similarly to Reza, my vicarious enjoyment of New York Theatre came from the Burns/Mantle theatre yearbooks
Oddly, I hadn't even realized how Wilson-dominant the list was. The choices were purely performance-based -- I don't even like most of Balm in Gilead, and I find Burn This problematic though often thrilling.Okri wrote:(I'm surprised by all the Lanford Wilson love. I didn't know you liked him so much)
In Hal Prince's book (Singularities was I think the name of it), he said that, after the artistic breakthroughs of Company and Follies, he viewed A Little Night Music as mostly about having a hit. (It tells a lot about the Prince/Sondheim collaborations that a musical based on a Bergman film was their mainstream project.) You'd think that would actually inspire more productions, but it may be that that Sondheim enthusiasts prefer the shows that push the envelope more (Sunday in the Park would also fall into that category). Into the Woods has the advantage of being suitable for high-school production; A Little Night Music might just fall through the cracks as too traditional for experimenters and not traditional enough for the South Pacific Forever crowd.Okri wrote:Why do you think A Little Night Music has not been revived on Broadway all that frequently. It's one of the few Sondheim shows that made it's money back in the original production (also, in keeping with the thread, I didn't realize that Rigg starred in the film adaptation), but it was 36 years between Johns and (Zeta-)Jones.
I’m perplexed by this as well. I saw a local (American Conservatory Theater, SF), nicely staged production just a couple years ago. The music is so lovely (it even has a hit song!), juicy roles for the actors, an accessible story, and opportunities to modernize it. And it’s freaking Sondheim!Okri wrote:
d) Why do you think A Little Night Music has not been revived on Broadway all that frequently. It's one of the few Sondheim shows that made it's money back in the original production (also, in keeping with the thread, I didn't realize that Rigg starred in the film adaptation), but it was 36 years between Johns and (Zeta-)Jones.
Two of my all-time favorite performances in any medium. Both are available on DVD.Mister Tee wrote: Colleen Dewhurst (A Moon for the Misbegotten)
Best O’Neill revival I’ve seen, and Dewhurst was the gleaming heart of it
Elaine Stritch: at Liberty
Not exactly a play, but a knockout evening, inseparable from Stritch’s persona
I’d haphazardly formulated such a list back when I saw Audra McDonald in Lady Day – wanting to put my enthusiasm for her work into context -– but your question forces me to be a bit more rigorous. I started with a longer list, but decided to limit it to 20 first-ballot Hall-of-Famers…with additional lists for musicals (which are a different breed) and supporting performances. And, of course, commentary, since we know I prefer that to cold statistics.Okri wrote:What would you say your favourite stage performances are?Mister Tee wrote:However...I did see her in Medea, in which she was quite spectacular -- a force of nature. The Greek tragedies require intense concentration -- if the audience so much as takes a breath, the spell can be broken. Rigg held us for every second she dominated the stage. Kudos, and godspeed.
What would you say your favourite stage performances are?Mister Tee wrote:However...I did see her in Medea, in which she was quite spectacular -- a force of nature. The Greek tragedies require intense concentration -- if the audience so much as takes a breath, the spell can be broken. Rigg held us for every second she dominated the stage. Kudos, and godspeed.