I forgot that I had one more Cyrano posting to go. This from the 1973 flop musical with a score by Michael J. Lewis and Anthony Burgess, who also wrote the book. This is the final number in the show. If you don't know Cyrano de Bergerac and don't want a plot spoiler, stop here, because I'm going to give the ending away. But given that the play is 121 years old and world renown, I figure that most people have a pretty good idea. Still, if you don't know and don't want to -- you should move on. Okay, that's out of the way. So... Cyrano, played here by Christopher Plummer who won the Tony Award for the show as Best Actor in a Musical, it dying. And his true love Roxana (played by Leigh Beery, who got a Featured Actress nomination) has learned that it was he who wrote all the love letters to her, not her late-husband Christian, who was killed in battle. Against every instinct, and in an act of self-sacrifice Cyrano refuses to acknowledge the truth to her, not wanting to allow her to lose the belief in her love of Christian. Yet even in his denial, the words here are deeply moving and difficult for him to totally deny, as he sings the achingly heartbreaking, "I Never Loved You." And a couple of bonus pieces. This first is the very end of the play, Cyrano's brief tribute to his plume high atop his hat, the symbol and heart of his credo, to live life with a sense of style and flourish. And then I figure I should end with the beginning -- the overture. I've read a bit on the show, and one of the better discussions of why the show failed came from the excellent musical theater historian Ken Mandelbaum, who wrote a great book on flop musicals, Not Since Carrie. He says that because Edmond Rostand's original play is so "musical" on its own through it's lush poetry of language, that no only are songs not needed, but they tended to slow down the action, breaking it for a song. That's a reasonable explanation. Though honestly, I suspect important, too, is that audiences in 1973 just didn't want to see a musical of Cyrano de Bergerac. Mandelbaum also isn't a huge fan of the score, though oddly he singles out a lot of the songs, mostly those I've posted here. And though I agree that all the songs aren't at this level, when you have that many wonderful songs, I would contend it's quite a good score. And besides, in the end, he recommends the cast album as being worthwhile. Anyway, here's the rich and lively overture, how it all begins. If you're interested in the full show, you can get it here. Curtain down.
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First, the New York Times reported that the actual death toll in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria was at least 1,000 Americans. Then, a study for Congress said that it was at least 1,400. Yesterday, there was a study done by George Washington University that reported almost 3,000 Americans died in Puerto Rico as a result of the hurricane. The Trump administration boasted 64 deaths,
Heckuva job. And to add appalling on top of appalling, it's notable -- and not surprising -- that there wasn't a single word about the loss of 3,000 American lives by Trump. To put this in perspective, 3,000 deaths is a bit less than twice as many American deaths after Hurricane Katrina. For that disaster, 1,800 people died. And not one word from Trump about such a massive, catastrophic loss. There aren't enough rolls of paper towels that can be thrown which will clean up this mess. On the other hand, while silent about 3,000 American deaths, Trump did post a tweet about one of the great supposed-accomplishments of his administration being that the World Cup will be held in the U.S. in 2026. And in the end...yes, this isn't about Trump. We know who he is, we know he'd make up some false, incredibly low number and lie about it. And not saying a word when a report came out that the deaths were in the many thousands. This is about the elected officials of the Republican Party. They were not only in a position to act during the hurricane and send aid, but did next to nothing -- but they too have been silent about 3,000 Americans having died from the hurricane in Puerto Rico. No outcry, no Benghazi-like outraged calls for an investigation of 3,000 American deaths, nothing. Just silence. Rest in peace. This is a terrific interview with Jason Alexander talking about Estelle Harris and Jerry Stiller who played his parents on Seinfeld. The great affection he has for them pours through -- and he even tosses in a very funny (and good) impersonation of them both. Happy anniversary! For the sake of perspective, any time some Republican insists that they're not egregiously hypocritical or perhaps tries to spin the charge back on others, today is the fourth anniversary of when the GOP went head-exploding crazy-outraged nuts because President Barack wore a tan suit. August 28, 2014. Yes, once upon a time when people got outraged over a President's suit, it didn't refer to the need for lawyers. paying hush money, Russian spies, porn actresses, sexual abuse, cooperating witnesses, understanding what "SDNY" stood for, or if a president could pardon himself. Just this. Here's the latest from Randy Rainbow. The whole production is pretty straightforward -- but -- though not splashy, the interview that precedes the song is SO fun (and well-edited) that you almost wish it would go on and don't need the song parody. But then the song is so sweet and adorable that it's a treat. Putting all the crassness of the weekend aside, I prefer to honor the memory of Neil Simon who passed away on Sunday at the age of 91. While I understand the wall-to-wall news coverage of John McCain, I find it unfortunate that when I saw Simon's death brought up on MSNBC, they gave it about 45 seconds. I'm absolutely fine with great attention being given to John McCain, and much of his work was far more substantive than a playwright's. But I might suggest that the joy and laughter and thoughtfulness that Neil Simon brought to the American culture over 50 years -- and which will continue for generations -- was no small matter. I never met him, but I was lucky enough to be in the audience when the Writers Guild of America presented an evening of "Caesar's Writers" -- a panel discussion of the legendary writers on the TV series, Your Show of Shows and Caesar's Hours -- and Neil Simon was among them, along with his brother Danny, Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, Larry Gelbart, Mel Tolkien (head writer for All in the Family), Aaron Ruben (who created Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.), Gary Belkin (longtime writer on The Carol Burnett Show and The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson), Sheldon Keller (who co-wrote, Movie, Movie with Larry Gelbart), and Sid Caesar. (Woody Allen was also one of the writers, but he didn't participate in the even in Los Angeles, but was at a similar one held in New York. It was one of the funniest evenings I've had in the theater, in large part because they were all not only trying to live up to one another, but the audience of their fellow-writers in the audience. An edited-down version of the evening is available on DVD here and highly recommended. I also saw Neil Simon speak when I was UCLA grad school, and they gave him some award -- as if he needed another one, given that he has four Tony Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, the Kennedy Center Honor, four Writers Guild Awards -- along with the WGA Laurel Award for screenwriting -- and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. And a Broadway theater is named for him. But he was gracious enough to come to UCLA for the award. One thing I recall him saying was how relentlessly he rewrote, and that whenever he saw a production of The Odd Couple, he'd see things that he could fix. (Side note: The Odd Couple was inspired by the living condition of Simon's brother Danny who moved in with a divorced male friend.) Simon wrote two autobiographies. The first, Rewrites, goes into his early life growing up, his starting out in TV comedy with his brother Danny, and his earliest and many of his biggest successes on Broadway, up through the death of his first and adored wife, Joan. The book is insightful, funny, open and rich. If you're interested in such things, you can get it here. The sequel, The Play Goes On, picks up with his subsequent plays, his Hollywood years, back to New York and numerous other marriages. It's not that it's bitter -- it's not -- but there's a lot of confusion and dissatisfaction that overwhelm the many positive areas of his life. It's admirably open and thoughtful, but I kept the first book for my shelves, and gave the second away. Rather than recap his career, this article in the Washington Post does a solid job of it, along with expressing what was substantive and meaningful about it. And here are 45 seconds when Neil Simon appeared on the TV series of The Odd Couple. |
AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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