Spread Your Wings, M. Butterfly, And Make Your Own Thursday Headlines

 

Via Giphy.

Today, the spotlight shines on March 20, 1988, when M. Butterfly opened at the Eugene O'Neill.

I don't have as much to say this week. I remember reading M. Butterfly some time ago, and thinking that I'd need to see a production to get its full effect. The OBC received seven Tony nominations, and three wins: for Best Play (David Henry Hwang, making his Broadway debut), Best Direction of a Play (John Dexter, for his penultimate work on Broadway), and Best Featured Actor in a Play (BD Wong, also making his Broadway debut, with a performance that won him not one, but five theater awards).

... Oh, yeah, and John Lithgow was in it, too.

M. Butterfly's commercial from 1988 used to be on YouTube. It was haunting, with Wong and Lithgow trading costumes halfway through. The play ran for less than two years, with Wong being succeeded by Alec Mapa, and Lithgow being succeded by David Dukes, John Rubinstein, and Tony Randall (!). Mapa later did the national tour with Philip Anglim. A year after the tour closed, M. Butterfly's film version opened. It starred Jeremy Irons and John Lone, with direction by David Cronenberg and Hwang adapting his play. Hwang made further changes in 2017, for a Broadway revival starring Clive Owen and Jin Ha. Directed by Julie Taymor, it ran for less than two months.

Calling Hwang's imagination "one of the most striking to emerge in the American theater in this decade," Frank Rich of The New York Times was mostly positive about the play, but less so about its production. "Though M. Butterfly presents us with a visionary work that bridges the history and culture of two worlds, the production stops crushingly short of finding the gripping human drama that merges Mr. Hwang's story with his brilliant play of ideas."

Hmmm ... maybe I should just re-read the script.

Courtesy YouTube.

Also debuting on this day:

Murder in the Cathedral, the American production of T.S. Eliot's verse drama. It lasted for what appears to be less than a month at what is now the Ed Sullivan Theatre.

Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, adapted from the 1994 movie. Unlike Cathedral, Priscilla did reasonably well on Broadway, running just over a year at the Palace Theatre. It was nominated for two Tonys, with Tony Sheldon as Bernadette losing to Norbert Leo Butz as Carl in Catch Me If You Can, and the costumes winning. They were designed by Tim Chappel and Lizzy Gardiner, who previously won the Oscar for what was worn in Priscilla the movie. Prior to arriving in New York, Priscila ran for more than two years in Australia, New Zealand, and Australia again, plus nearly three years at London's Palace Theatre.

Aladdin, which has been playing for 11 years at the New Amsterdam Theatre. It's currently No. 15 on the list of longest-running Broadway shows. Aladdin was nominated for five Tonys, winning just one, for James Monroe Iglehart's featured performance as the Genie.

Next week, spins, leaps, jumps, cartwheels, and other incredible body gyrations that couldn't be mentioned on television.