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| Canopy of trees on 74th Street between CPW and Columbus Avenue. 12:00 PM. Photo: JH. |
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| Monday, May 19, 2014. Weekend started with rain; forecast as “very heavy at times.” But that part of the storm missed at least the Upper East Side. We got rain, sometimes light, and sometimes steady. It was different downtown or over on the West Side or up in the Bronx or out in Brooklyn. The weather has shown us that we New Yorkers live in micro-environments. We got off easily over in our zone. Other places had flooding. Then Saturday the Sun came out. And then Sunday again. Sunday was an especially beautiful day in New York. On the cool side with the temps 60 and just south. |
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| This was a quiet weekend for me. Rarely strayed far after the Zabar's run on Friday before the rain. I am finally reading Victoria Wilson’s“A Life of Barbara Stanwyck; Steel-True 1907 – 1941.” I’d put it off because of its size – it’s 868 pages of prose, not including the appendix, the acknowledgements, the index, etc. It’s a handsome book to begin with. Ms. Wilson’s prose is also encyclopedic when it comes to Stanwyck’s life and world – from birth – the environments, the neighborhoods – she was born in Brooklyn – the theatre world, and New York in the first third of the 20th century. If you like the atmosphere of that kind of American history (and I do), you’ll love this book. The story is full of flavor with details that create a kind of chiaroscuro painted deftly with a soft brush, of our life at that time.
Survival was the story for millions. Stanwyck’s mother died at 41 after getting kicked in her pregnant belly by a drunk getting off a trolley. She lost the child and died. The bereft and troubled husband left. Went to Central America. And the four-year-old girl Ruby Stevens (later Barbara) lost everything and lived. She became an orphan (not technically – she had older siblings), but realistically. Her life was shaped then and there. I’m drawn to this book naturally because I have had a lifelong interest in the profession, the art, the characters and the centers – New York and Hollywood/Los Angeles – its same roots are part of my heritage also. There are the classic notes of Horatio Alger woven throughout. This was America. This was the dream; and not coincidentally Stanwyck became famous for working in the Dream Factory. Daunted by the size of the tome, I soon learned that Wilson’s style is simply expressed and reads fast. The facts ma’am. And it also reads smoothly, like viewing a great map of a life. Once you’re in, she’s got you. Barbara Stanwyck was an archetype for many a woman at that time. Her essence, however, would later emerge for all women only after the 1960s. She also worked all her life. Worked hard. That sensibility was ingrained in early childhood. It would be her path. The medium of popular film is now old enough to produce what can be recognized as scholarly works. This book is an excellent example of that. Plus it’s a fascinating life and a powerful personality in a richly detailed business. If you ever saw “Double Indemnity,” this is the story of what it took to make that character that you’d never forget. |
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So, there has been that. Then yesterday afternoon a friend invited me to go with her to see “Act One” at the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center. I’d been curious to see it. I have never read the memoir by Moss Hart the great Broadway playwright/ director (and screenwriter) who created several famous shows and films and died at the young age of 57 in 1961.
The play, which opened a couple of weeks ago, got pretty good reviews although not all raves. I have a friend who loved the book as one of his most favorite memoirs and was disappointed in the play. I loved it. I loved it. Perhaps because my expectations had been somewhat lowered by my friend’s review, I had none other than curiosity. I loved it. You heard me say that before, right? The performances of all the actors are fabulous. Several parts are played by actors playing more than one or even two different roles. You only know this if you read it because each character they play is nothing like the others, Tony Shalhoub who was nominated for a Tony for his roles, plays the narrator, middle-aged Moss Hart, as well as George S. Kaufman– who was Hart’s collaborator on his first (and it was a hit) Broadway show, “Once in a Lifetime” and Moss Hart’s father. Santino Fontana who plays the young man Moss, plays opposite Shalhoub in those three completely different characterizations. All were powerfully and memorably – and at times very amusingly – expressed.
What first looked like buying the lottery ticket turned into the classic drama of Broadway theatre: a hit or a flop (closing out of town). Anyone who knows any theatre history (or was in the drama group in high school or college), knows the outcome, because they’ve performed in it, seen it, or read. It’s now a classic, and this version is full of life and triumph. |
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| It’s in the telling that makes “Act One” such a great show, almost an autobiography, actually an autobiography (with some flourishes of this artist’s license). But: The play’s the thing ...” What a great thing! This is something you could only see on a stage. This is why theater will never die, no matter the technology, because it’s there before your eyes, in the flesh, with the eternal promise of the thrill. “Act One” and its fabulous cast over at the Vivian Beaumont at Lincoln Center did that for me yesterday afternoon. |
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