A Chronicle of Theater Memories 1974-1979 by Elizabeth West Versalie
My high school English teacher, Trevor Nightingale of Woodmere Academy in Woodmere, NY, set up a theatergoers group for students interested in seeing and discovering plays. Tennessee Williams’ Cat on A Hot Tin Roof starred Elizabeth Ashley as Maggie and an exceptional cast kicked off the evening school activity. We sat as a student group in the last row of the balcony at the ANTA Theater. I was accustomed to sitting in the orchestra and remembered feeling taken back at first. The play was riveting, dynamic and unpredictable moment to moment. Fred Gwynne played Big Daddy; Keir Dullea portrayed Brick and Kate Reid played Big Mama. The artistry of the cast and author made it an exceptional evening. Tennessee Williams provided enlightening notes of Elizabeth Ashley regarding her craft and integrity that captured her role in this production. I found the following notes on a blog created by James Grissom:
“She now owns Maggie the Cat, I believe. While Liz is lovely and shrewd and could no doubt find her way into the heart and glandular sense memory of any man on earth, she played that part with all of the sexual and intellectual insecurity the part demands. Not once did she ask for pity, or provoke us through easy effect, but I think she shattered people in a way I had never seen. Unrequited love is thought of as flowery, as something endured in a tubercular swoon, but it is, in fact, a violent, angry convulsion of emotions. I know of what I speak, and I wrote that part--within, at times, the rhythms of the Book of Common Prayer--with many pleas and prayers, angry and fervent, and only Liz got that. She replicates nothing from other actresses or memories in other theatres: she replicates what women throughout history have felt, shared, suppressed, regretted, aborted, hidden away.” -- Tennessee Williams
Elizabeth Ashley, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, 1974
The next play we ventured to see in Manhattan was Equus by Peter Shaffer, directed by John Dexter, starring Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Martin Dysert and Peter Firth as Alan Strang. Marian Seldes, Roberta Maxwell, Frances Sternhagen rounded the cast well in supporting roles. I was completely blown away by the power of the dialogue and the emotional layers of story. We liked it so much that our teacher, Trevor Nightingale, took the group the following year to see it with Anthony Perkins as Dr. Dysert, who also provided an equally stellar performance. The bare stage with a minimal set left so much to the imagination, i.e., the pantomime of the horse figuratively recreated Alan’s torment. There was an intense dynamic and a feat of courage of the doctor breaking through the young man’s religious obsession with horses to get down to the core and values of human emotional life.
Anthony Hopkins and Peter Firth, Equus, 1974
Anthony Perkins, Equus, 1975
The Au Pair Man by Hugh Leonard was the first play of the season at the Vivian Beaumont Theater produced by The New York Shakespeare Festival Lincoln Center that starred the most versatile actress on the Broadway stage, Julie Harris and the king of the character actors, Charles Durning. The play and the acting were par excellence. The change of leadership at the Beaumont was artistically apparent. The theater took on a different character. The legendary, charismatic Producer-Director, Joseph Papp helmed the fledgling theater company. The shows during his tenure were outstanding. However, the Beaumont took on a change of personality. It was no longer a repertory company. I deeply missed watching the same actors perform in different roles. It left a void like a drought.
Julie Harris and Charles Durning, The Au Pair Man, 1974
New plays and classics were star-driven in the season line-up. Actors: Raul Julia, Sam Waterson, and Meryl Streep; Playwrights: David Rabe and Hugh Leonard; Directors: Richard Foreman and Andrei Serban all received major recognition from the New York Shakespeare Festival productions at the Beaumont. The most stunning moments I recall included: Sam Waterson as Hamlet, during the gravedigger scene. George Bernard Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s Profession possessed dynamic performances by Ruth Gordon and most notably Lynn Redgrave. Andrei Serban’s magnificent direction of The Cherry Orchard, with Irene Worth, Raul Julia and Meryl Streep, who had a small part as the maid, Dunyasha, yet she stole the show. Her impeccable comic timing brought the house down in laughter. Richard Foreman’s innovative direction of The Three Penny Opera, the translation and staging were true to Brecht’s concept. I saw Philip Bosco as Macheath, who replaced Raul Julia, and Ellen Greene as Jenny. They both were amazing. Ellen Greene’s first number brought chills to my spine. It was the first time I watched theater like a sporting match. The actors uttered the dialogue like they fought it out in a boxing ring. In other words, the verbal punches from the actors whacked me on the head, commanded my attention and made me think about the story.
The Cherry Orchard, 1977
The most profoundly felt show that left me completely transformed forever was A Chorus Line, conceived, directed and choreographed by the great Michael Bennett. Music by the Marvin Hamlisch, Lyrics by the Ed Kleban, Book by James Kirkwood, Jr. and Nicholas Dante. Produced by the New York Shakespeare Festival, Joseph Papp, Producing Director. My parents will attest that I didn’t want to go to the theater that night. When we got to the Shubert Theater and sat in the front row on the right aisle, I looked up at the bare stage with a line and mirrors in the background. The house lights dimmed and the stage lights came up. Bobby LuPone belted; a Five, Six Seven, Eight and the magic of A Chorus Line began. The opening number brought a fever of excitement. I was completely caught off my guard by the dancers magnificently leaping and singing across the stage. The songs; “At the Ballet with Kelly Bishop, “Music and the Mirror,” sung and danced to perfection by Donna McKechnie, and “What I Did for Love, delivered by Priscilla Lopez provided a deeply felt experience. The closing company number, “One,” left an imprint in my memory as well as “Dance: Ten; Looks: Three” and “Hello Twelve, Hello Thirteen, Hello Love.” I listened to the album from high school through college a million times. It’s disheartening that the creators Michael Bennett, Marvin Hamlisch, Ed Kleban, James Kirkwood, Jr., Nicholas Dante and Joe Papp have all passed. They brought a great original musical to Broadway that astonished, transformed and changed the perception of musical theater. Michael Bennett had previously choreographed the Broadway shows Promises, Promises, Company and Follies. I loved A Chorus Line so much that I embarked on a path to becoming a theater professional. A Chorus Line was a life- altering event that not only inspired me, but also so many actors, dancers, playwrights, designers, theater managers and countless others, who saw it. The backstage stories based on actual experiences had no pretense, but an all-encompassing truth told with authenticity, fierce passion and commitment. In other words, it was the real deal, unlike the television shows and Broadway musicals of today that try to impress and give off airs about the theater.
Michael Bennett rehearsed the actors/dancers of A Chorus Line, 1975
A few months after I saw A Chorus Line, I went to see Chicago directed and choreographed by Bob Fosse, Music by John Kander, Lyrics by Fred Ebb. Book by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse. Starred Chita Rivera and Liza Minelli, who went on for Gwen Verdon, who was recovering from a short illness. Chicago was so ahead of its time that I didn’t fully appreciated the production until I saw the revival in the late 1990’s with Bebe Newirth. The musical was a satire on corruption and based on a play written in 1926. The play, Chicago, first adapted as a silent film directed by Cecille B, DeMille, later remade as, Roxie Hart starring Ginger Rogers in 1942, and eventually the Broadway musical was adapted to film in 2002 by director, Rob Marshall. The fact that the Broadway revival is still running suggests that the drama’s comparison of criminal justice and show business still runs parallel with celebrity news. The songs are vaudevillian in concept, and the choreography style is delectable Fosse that has endured the test of time.
The theater during my high school years the theater filled a void. Profoundly shy and alienated from my peers for being a free spirited non-conforming thinker, I discovered support and camaraderie in theater. I started acting classes with a local theater group in Lynbrook, Long Island. They were my first introduction to vaudeville, one of my favorite theater styles. To this day I remember a song we performed, “Mention My Name in Sheboygan.” I had also attended a theater summer program at Carnegie Mellon and received an acting introduction to Shakespeare. At Carnegie-Mellon, an unknown actor, Kelsey Grammer, magnificently performed in a summer stock production of The Showoff.
The musical of par excellence that surpassed all the others to date was the revival of Porgy and Bess by the Houston Grand Opera at Radio City Music Hall in 1976. The production starred Clamma Dale as Bess and Donnie Ray Albert as Porgy. Brilliantly directed by Jack O’Brien. The musical played the complete and restored musical score, provided lavish sets, and comprised the full cast. The show was an artistic tour de force. The powerful chords of the Prologue and the staging of the actors in the opening scene of Catfish Row up until the melodic “Summertime” mesmerized and captured the depths of my soul, which only a remarkable musical of this nature can do. It was revolutionary, ahead of its time when it opened in 1935, and not completely realized until this production after the civil rights movement. It won the Tony Award for The Most Innovative Production of a Musical. It also beat another state-of-the-art classic, Richard Foreman’s, Bertolt Brecht/Kurt Weill’s The Three Penny Opera; Epic Theater presented at its best.
I also attended with my high school theater goers club for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf, an engrossing play of collected poems with dance expressions called by the author Ntozake Shange, a “choreopoem” that related to race and feminism. Seven characters known by their assigned colors recited emotionally gripping monologues while moving to music. There was a blessed freedom and unity in the performance. Joseph Papp and the New York Shakespeare Festival produced the play downtown and moved it to the Booth Theater. What a startling, eye-opening and hip experience.
Another dynamic play I saw with the theatergoers was the Broadway debut of Tennessee Williams’ The Eccentricities of a Nightingale at the Morosco Theater. Little did I know I saw a first-run Broadway play by the greatest playwright living at the time and it was a rewrite of Summer and Smoke. Glad I saw one of the twenty-four performances in its short run. I recognized the actor David Selby from the popular soap opera “Dark Shadows,” who portrayed John Buchanan, Jr., which I found exciting. Besty Palmer played Alma Winemiller.
I remember sitting in my bedroom in North Woodmere, New York when a bolt of green lightning hit me. The concept of forming a musical revue fell on me like a ton of bricks. I dreamt of a compilation of hit Broadway show tunes and the stories behind them. I shared my idea with high school cohorts Roy Collins, Bonnie Schwartz, and the assistant headmaster at Woodmere Academy, who gave me the go-ahead to present this production in the auditorium, Hessel Hall. After many meetings and rehearsals, The Best of Broadway, the original, entertaining showcase of songs, dance, and narration, became a high school smash. It provided an opportunity to act, sing and dance, and direct a show, which put me on track to apply to New York University’s drama department at Tisch School of the Arts. I am grateful for this experience.
The last musical I saw in high school before I went to college was Beatlemania. The show’s appeal was decisively in its marketing as a “rockumentary” of Not the Beatles but an incredible simulation, which lured audiences. Mitch Weissman played Paul McCartney and had him down pat. I consider it one of the first successful jukebox musicals, before theater-goers recognized the genre. The show played against the tumultuous events and social changes of the sixties providing the universal impact the Beatles’ music had on the baby boomers and society at large.
The first musical I saw as a freshman at New York University was the Fantasticks, which became the longest running musical of 42 years. The producers spent $900 on the set and $541 on costumes in 1960. The original investors made over 240 times their investment, which is remarkable compared to today’s soaring costs to put up a show. I saw it in its 17th year at the Sullivan Street Playhouse. I had a fantastic time with college friends. It was my first Off Broadway experience in Greenwich Village. I was completely charmed and enchanted by the story, acting, and lively score.
Two legendary shows I caught on Broadway were Annie, which I liked a lot, and The Gin Game, which I enjoyed immensely with Jessica Tandy and Hume Croyn. Mike Nichols produced Annie and directed The Gin Game. I found Annie entertaining and imaginative. I can’t say I was astonished by it. The execution of the comic strip story landed as merely conventional and commercial. The songs were memorable and hummable, which enticed audiences and provided a commendable run. A defining moment was Laurie Beechman singing NYC. I also saw Laurie in Pirates of Penzance at the Delacorte Theatre in 1980 and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Off Broadway at the Entermedia Theatre in 1981. Her death from cancer saddened me. She was a divine talent.
The Gin Game was an emotional, psychological drama that dealt with growing old. The play took place a nursing home. The game of cards suited the premise and played out with biting dialogue between the legendary couple.
The dirty New York 1970’s regarding 42nd Street lined with pornographic movie houses; drugs dealers and the sleaze in Times Square were coming to a close. The theater district may have been seedy on the streets, but distinctive buildings were planning to be torn down to make room for the Marriott Marquis Hotel in the next decade. The notable landmarks of the Hotel Piccadilly, home of Piccadilly Coffee Shop, the Morosco Theater, the first Helen Hayes and the Bijou Theaters possessed so much theater history that the demolition brought about a controversy led by Joe Papp to save the theaters.
Hotel Piccadilly, Morosco Theater, Bijou Theater, 1981
The Old Helen Hayes Theater demolition, 1982
Morosco Theater demolition, 1982
The Morosco Theater had an aesthetic interior and the most exquisite chandeliers that radiated until the house lights dimmed before a performance. I had to jar my memory to bring back the shows I saw there. I am certain I saw two shows, which were The Shadow Box by Michael Cristofer and Eccentricities of a Nightingale by Tennessee Williams. The Shadow Box had a stellar cast that included Josef Sommer, Simon Oakland, Laurence Luckinbill, Mandy Patinkin, Geraldine Fitzgerald and Vincent Spano. The drama of three different situations confronting life and grave illness won The Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for Best Play of 1977. Eccentricities of a Nightingale, a revised version of Summer and Smoke, played for a very short period in 1976. The theatergoing experience in high school was extraordinary. I have an unusual feeling from “Eccentricities” that gives a glimmer of hope on repressive shades from the past.
I recall seeing Mummenschanz, a Swiss theater troupe who performed mime with surreal masks and props at the Bijou Theater during its run. The Bijou was a small theater that was rundown and in need of remodeling. The performance was highly amusing and unique despite the surroundings.
Before the rubble to make way for corporate domination of the theater district, I caught some amazing shows that will remain forever in my memory. George Bernard’s Shaw’s, Man and Superman that included Don Juan in Hell, superbly performed by George Grizzard, Philip Bosco and Laurie Kennedy.
Bent, a disturbing play about the persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany concerned two gay men, played by Richard Gere and David Dukes, who fell in love through their imagination in a concentration camp.
I saw Stephen Sondheim’s masterpiece, Sweeney Todd, in previews with the best of the best, Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury. It was my first original Sondheim show I saw on Broadway, and the beginning a lifelong infatuation with the composer/lyricist. Andrew Lloyd’s Webber and Tim Rice’s powerful story of the rise of Eva Peron in Evita provided the breakout performances of Broadway legends, Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin.
Michael Weller’s bittersweet drama, Loose Ends, with stage actors, Kevin Kline and Roxanne Hart sealed their fate to star in the movies and television. Neil Simon, Marvin Hamlisch and Carole Bayer Sager’s They’re Playing Our Song with theater darlings Robert Klein and Lucie Arnaz may not have been mind-boggling, but funny and deliciously entertaining.