Posting's At Seven And Make Your Own Thursday Headlines

 

Courtesy Amazon.

Today the spotlight shines on April 10, 1980, when Morning's at Seven was revived at the Lyceum.

"It's like you've rewritten the story of Paul's life," Elia Kazan said to Vivian Matalon. Matalon, a British director, had his first long-running Broadway show with Morning's at Seven, which had bombed when it premiered in 1939. In the time since then, Paul Osborn became known for adapted screenplays (The Yearling, East of Eden, South Pacific). Osborn also had a few more stage hits (A Bell for Adano, Point of No Return, The World of Suzie Wong), but by 1980, hadn't written for Broadway in more than 20 years. When Seven was revived, Osborn was virtually blind thanks to degenerative eye illness, living a life of "forced inactivity."

"I don't think there's much serenity in getting older," Osborn told The New York Times. "I said that long ago in Morning's at Seven -- and I feel just the same now. It's frustrating. No one likes it. You feel you're sort of in limbo and you hope something will come up that you can do."

Seven concerns an extended, aging family living in the Midwest in 1922. The original production was set in 1939, but Matalon felt the early '20s marked the end of America's innocence. Anyway, the play takes place in adjoining backyards. One house belongs to Ida and Carl Bolton (Nancy Marchand and Richard Hamilton). Their son Homer (David Rounds) has a longstanding relationship with Myrtle Brown (Lois De Banzie) that just needs to be solidified with marriage. Carl, meanwhile, is regretting the road not taken.

Two of Ida's three sisters and one of her brothers-in-law share the house next door. Cora (Teresa Wright) is married to Theodore Swanson (Maurice Copeland). The unmarried Aaronetta Gibbs (Elizabeth Wilson) has loved Theodore for decades. Finally, there's Esther Crampton (Maureen O'Sullivan), whose husband David (Gary Merrill) is demanding that she no longer see her sisters. If Esther doesn't, then David will no longer share the same floor of their house. He'll take the first floor, and Esther can have the upstairs.

"The playwright has blown up what is sad until it no longer looks sad at all, just as preposterous as it inherently is," Walter Kerr wrote. "Because it now threatens to pop in your face, your funny bone takes over." The original production, directed by Joshua Logan, "was played almost all for laughs" according to Osborn. Different direction and increased compassion by audiences for older peoples' problems were a big part in why Seven was better received in 1980, Osborn said. He also said the play has a story different than The Elephant Man or Whose Life is it Anyway?, with people "who are so -- morbid's not the word, but well, different. This play's about ordinary people."

Morning's at Seven's 1980 production ran for more than a year at the Lyceum. It won Tonys for Best Revival (there weren't separate categories for plays and musicals until 1994), Matalon's direction, and Rounds' work as a featured actor. De Banzie was also nominated as a featured actress, losing to Dinah Manoff in I Ought to Be in Pictures. A 2002 revival, also at the Lyceum, cast even more familiar faces (Frances Sternhagen and Christopher Lloyd as Ida and Carl, not to mention Stephen Tobolowsky and Julie Hagerty as Homer and Myrtle, to name four), but it only lasted three months.

Matalon directed five more Broadway productions after Morning's at Seven, with only one of them -- The Tap Dance Kid -- being a long-runner. Osborn didn't have any other Broadway revivals before his 1988 death. It sounds like he wouldn't have wanted them, anyway.

"There's a feeling like something I wrote in high school and got a B-plus on is suddenly being praised," Osborn said in 1980. "Of course I'm excited. But if it had been a big success back then, it might have made a difference; now it doesn't change the life pattern. It's not a question of people saying, 'God, he's a young playwright who's going to have a great future.' My future's past."

Also debuting on this day:

George M!, which opened in 1968 at the Palace. Joel Grey, in his first Broadway show after Cabaret, was Tony-nominated for playing George M. Cohan. The cast also included Bernadette Peters, who scored a Theatre World Award. George M! only ran for just over a year, which surely delighted William Goldman. In The Season, Goldman called George M! a phony show that won over critics but not the public.

Courtesy YouTube.

Big Deal, which opened in 1986 at the Broadway, and Bullets Over Broadway, which opened in 2014 at the St. James. Neither was a long-runner, but both should be mentioned for problems including eschewing an original score in favor of recycling standards.

Courtesy YouTube.

Nine, which was revived in 2003 at the Eugene O'Neill. Antonio Banderas starred, but Jane Krakowski won the Tony.

Courtesy YouTube.

Catch Me If You Can, which opened in 2011 at the Neil Simon. Nine years after Hairspray, Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman, Jack O'Brien, and Jerry Mitchell reunited at the same theater, along with several backstage members and actors (Kerry Butler, Linda Hart ... hell, Aaron Tveit played Link twice later in the '00s). Alas, lightning didn't strike twice. Still, Catch Me If You Can scored a Tony for Norbert Leo Butz.

Courtesy YouTube.

Smash, opening tonight at the Imperial. I don't plan to include newly-opening shows in my roundups. I just want to repeat my bitchy joke. I'm ready for Smash to do what it was supposed to 12 years ago: flop on Broadway and be forgotten.

Next week, you won't have to wait for me.