See You Again Same Time, Next Year? And Make Your Own Thursday Headlines

 

Via Giphy.

Today, the spotlight shines on March 13, 1975, when Same Time, Next Year opened on at what is now the Lena Horne Theatre.

After nearly 20 years in TV (Bewitched, The Flying Nun, The Partridge Family), Bernard Slade made his Broadway debut with Same Time, Next Year. It's the story of George and Doris, who end up putting their everyday lives and families on hold for an annual tryst each year from 1951-1975. The play checks in on them roughly every half-decade. In 1956, it looks like the relationship won't last. In 1961, George helps Doris give birth. In 1965, they seem to be on opposite sides about the Vietnam War. And such on.

"They couldn't have celebrated happier anniversaries if they were married to each other" declared posters for the 1978 film adaptation. It featured Ellen Burstyn reprising her Tony-winning role, this time opposite Alan Alda. On stage, Burstyn and Charles Grodin were directed by Gene Saks. The movie, which adjusted the timeline slightly, was directed by Robert Mulligan. It scored Oscar nods but no wins for, among others, Burstyn, Slade, and Marvin Hamlisch & Alan & Marilyn Bergman.

Courtesy YouTube.

Same Time, Next Year ran for nearly three-and-a-half years on Broadway, with an assortment of pairings succeeding Burstyn and Grodin. They include Joyce Van Patten & Conrad Janis, Loretta Swit & Ted Bessell, Sandy Dennis & Bessell, Dennis & Don Murray, Hope Lange & Murray, Betsy Palmer & Murray, Palmer & Monte Markham, and Palmer & Charles Kimbrough. L.A. audiences in 1977 could see the play with Carol Burnett & Dick Van Dyke, then Diahann Carroll & Cleavon Little. I'm slightly surprised to not find any evidence of actually married acting couples doing the show. It seems like a natural for the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theatre.

Nearly 20 years after Same Time, Next Year closed on Broadway, Slade returned to George and Doris with Same Time, Another Year. It played in Pasadena with Nancy Dussault & Tom Troupe. I've never read it, but I see that Slade dramatized the relationship from 1976-1993. On stage and in the movies, Same Time's scenes are bridged by interludes depicting the passing years.

Movie fans might remember that Same Time, Next Year is what Mary Tyler Moore and Donald Sutherland are seeing at the beginning of Ordinary People. The play has not been revived on Broadway, and I guess it's been surpassed by Love Letters as a crowd-pleasing two-hander stage romance.

Back in 1975, Clive Barnes raved in the New York Times: "It has wit, compassion, a sense of humor and a feel for nostalgia—who could ask for anything more? ... Miss Burstyn is so real, so lovely and so womanly, that a man wants to hug her, and you hardly notice the exquisite finesse of her acting. It is underplaying of sheer virtuosity. Mr. Grodin is every bit her equal—a monument to male insecurity, gorgeously inept, and the kind of masculine dunderhead that every decent man aspires to be. ... This is an enchanting evening."

As for me, I'm fond of Same Time, Next Year. Sometimes it's contrived -- I have a hard time believing Doris would be the archtypical flower child as early as 1965 -- but on the whole, it's a winner. At the risk of spoiling the play, I'll quote its last line. "Because I just love happy endings."

Also debuting on this day:

The Three Musketeers, with music by Rudolf Friml, lyrics by Clifford Grey and P.G. Wodehouse, and headliner Dennis King. Friml's earlier shows Rose-Marie and The Vagabond King had made King a star. The Three Musketeers opened at the now-demolished Lyric Theatre in 1928, managing 318 performances before closing that December. It was unsuccessfuly revived at the Broadway Theatre in 1984.

You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running, a collection of four one-acts written by Robert Anderson (Tea and Sympathy, I Never Sang For My Father). Opening in 1967, this one did well enough for a non-Neil Simon play, lasting just under two years at first the Ambassador, then the Broadhurst, then the Lunt-Fontanne. Its cast included Tony winner Martin Balsam, Eileen Heckart, and reuniting a half-decade after Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, George Grizzard and Melinda Dillon.

Irene, a revival which opened the Minskoff Theatre in 1973. Not only was the venue -- and a good amount of the book -- debuting in Manhattan, so was the leading lady. After 20-plus years in Hollywood, Debbie Reynolds starred as Irene. Debbie sang and danced opposite George S. Irving, Patsy Kelly, Ruth Warrick, Monte Markham, and in the ensemble, Carrie Fisher. Alas, Debbie lost the Tony that year to Glynis Johns for A Little Night Music.

Next week, on a fine day, we shall see.