Courtesy MPR News.
Would you believe that Estelle Parsons (seen here in August: Osage County in 2008) recently turned 98?
The Man of the Hour, which opened in 1906 at the now-demolished Savoy. George Broadhurst's longest-running play at 479 performances, this concerned a playboy-turned-big-city-mayor (Frederick Perry) who has to decide between signing or vetoing an all-important, and blatantly crooked, bill.
Whoopee!, which opened in 1928 at the New Amsterdam. Four-and-a-half years after The Nervous Wreck closed on Broadway, it was brought back with this musicalization. Whoopee! is the story of a runaway bride (Frances Upton) who rides with a hypochondriac (Eddie Cantor) while they're pursued by people including the jilted groom, who also happens to be a sheriff (Jack Rutherford) and an amorous nurse (Ethel Shutta, who went on to introduce "Broadway Baby" in the original Follies). There's also a movie star played by Ruth Etting. Whoopee! introduced two standards, Eddie's "Makin' Whoopee" and Ruth's "Love Me or Leave Me." All this, and a 20-year-old Buddy Ebsen in the chorus.
Courtesy YouTube.
Tobacco Road, which opened in 1933 at what is now the John Golden Theatre before quickly transferring to the now-demolished 48th Street Theatre and then spending nearly seven years at what is now the Eugene O'Neill. Erskine Caldwell's hit novel about an impoverished, almost comically tragedy-laden Georgia family was adapted by Jack Kirkland, who ended his Broadway career 28 years later with another Southern adaptation, the short-lived Mandingo. Tobacco Road, which closed in 1941, held the record for Broadway's longest-running production from June 1939-June 1947. It's currently No. 21 of the all-timers.
Private Lives, which was revived in 1969 at what is now the Nederlander Theatre before closing in May 1970 at the Ambassador. Tammy Grimes won the Tony, and shared the Drama Desk with costar Brian Bedford, for this revival of Noël Coward's play. It's about former spouses who just can't be apart, even though they really, really should. Private Lives introduced the standard "Someday I'll Find You."
Courtesy YouTube.
Chapter Two, which opened in 1977 at the Imperial Theatre before spending most of 1979 at the Eugene O'Neill, where it closed. Neil Simon wrote about what he knew, the impulsive but promising relationship that becomes marriage between a recent widower (Judd Hirsch) and divorced actress (Anita Gillette). Marsha Mason played "herself" in the 1979 film adaptation, scoring an Oscar nod. Two won one Tony, for Ann Wedgeworth as Best Featured Actress in a Play.
Courtesy YouTube.
Baby, which opened in 1983 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, where it closed in July 1984. Seven Tony nominations and no wins went to this David Shire & Richard Maltby Jr. musical about three couples who think they're expecting a child. One pair are cohabitating college students (Liz Callaway and Todd Graff). Another pair are a long-married couple who thought they were done raising children (Beth Fowler and James Congdon). The last pair, also a married couple, (Catherine Cox and Martin Vidnovic), end up not yet having a baby. I'm curious if bookwriter Sybille Pearson always intended for Pam not being pregnant, or if she originally planned for the character to have a miscarriage.
Courtesy YouTube.
Broadway Bound, which opened in 1986 at the Broadhurst. Neil Simon's "Eugene trilogy" concludes with the Jerome family going their separate ways after World War II. Linda Lavin and John Randolph each won a Tony for playing the abandonned matriarch Kate and her socialist father, Ben. Broadway Bound ran nearly two years, with Joan Rivers playing Kate in its final months. The experience was fulfilling for Joan, an opportunity to prove herself as a serious actress. She wrote movingly about it in Still Talking.
Courtesy YouTube.
The Diary of Anne Frank, which was revived in 1997 at the Music Box Theatre. Wendy Kesselman adapted Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett's 1955 play, now led by Natalie Portman, George Hearn, and Linda Lavin. Linda and the play itself received Tony nominations but no wins.
Our Town, which was revived in 2002 at the Booth Theatre. This wasn't a long-runner, closing at the end of January 2003, but it has a place in the history books for the Tony nomination received by its Stage Manager -- Paul Newman.
August: Osage County, which opened in 2007 at the Imperial before spending more than a year at the Music Box. Tracy Letts made his Broadway debut with this five-time Tony winner, including awards for Best Actress in a Play Deanna Dunagan (as the drug addict matriarch Violet, the role Estelle played), Best Featured Actress in a Play Rondi Reed (as aunt Mattie Fae), and the biggie, Best Play. For that matter, it also scored the Pulitzer. The original cast included Dennis Letts, Tracy's father, playing a role based upon Dennis Letts' father-in-law. The elder Letts died shortly after opening night.
Tracy, in 2014 for The New York Times Magazine:
"I miss my dad every day, I still have those feelings. After the opening in Chicago in the summer of 2007, I thought August was done. Then we were going to Broadway. We were supposed to start rehearsals there in October, and between the summer and October, my father was diagnosed. So we knew he was going to die. Curiously, the same week he was diagnosed, my folks’ home was destroyed by a freak flood in Tulsa. So I had to get them moved into a place in New York and get him enrolled at Sloan Kettering for treatment. And I had to rewrite my play for my Broadway debut. Amy Morton would always say, 'It’s Greek what you’re going through.'
Dad was great in the play. I doubt anybody else has been as good. I stopped watching the prologue after he passed. I just had such a clear memory of him. I didn’t want to interfere with that.
Anyway, in November the stagehands went on strike, and we couldn’t open until December. I thought he might die before we got a chance to open the show. It was a terrible time. He went pretty quickly, really. He was diagnosed in September, and he died in February. He was still doing the play in January. Six weeks after he died, I won the Pulitzer Prize, and it was devastating. It was so exciting of course to win it, again beyond my wildest dreams, but my father, because of his education and his love of the written word, that would have meant so much to him.
The Tony Awards were particularly rough. For some reason, they did not broadcast their In Memoriam segment that night. They ran it during the commercial break. My dad was in it, and my mother and brother and I were crushed by it. The very next thing, they come back from commercial — best play goes to August: Osage County — I mean, within minutes. So I get up to accept the award, and all those people rushed the stage, a lot of whom I had never met, producers on the show. I had a peculiarly distanced feeling from the whole thing. Once it was over, I got outside, and my mother and brother were so happy I had won, and I told them: 'I’m roiling. I’m so angry.'"
I've already been writing this for over two hours, so I'll pick up with the last three entries in the next post.
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