Back in April, I wrote a piece here about the The Play That Goes Wrong troupe, and their British TV series, The Goes Wrong Show, but mostly to write about their absolutely hour-special, Peter Pan Goes Wrong, which I embedded on the site. In a later post, I mentioned that a two-hour stage adaptation played on London’s West End to huge success, and earlier this year it was on Broadway and was such a big hit they had to extend the limited run. And it moved to Los Angeles where it opened on Friday. I saw it with a couple of friends at the Sunday matinee. O dear God in heaven and all that’s holy, is it ever hilarious. Two hours of, for much of the play, a theater-full of almost non-stop laughter. It’s seriously impressive what they do – and able maintain laughter for that long. This takes physical comedy to another level, making it artistry. And what I love is that at the end, they bring out the entire backstage crew to join the cast in the curtain call. And it’s deserved. Which speaks to how truly amazing the physical production is. I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen a backstage crew honored this way. But it almost would have felt wrong if the company didn’t include them, you wanted to cheer them, especially as they took their bows. That’s how outlandish the entire show is. The TV production was an hour. This has an extra hour, and there doesn’t see an ounce of fat. (I think they may have originally written it for the stage, but never put it on, and cut it down for TV. I think.) In the article, I mentioned that there is a role written for a narrator in such a way (since he carries a book with him and only appears periodically throughout the play) where they can have a celebrity actor play the part. In the TV version, it’s performed by David Suchet, who famously starred as ‘Hercule Poirot’ in the long-running television series. For the Broadway run, they had two or three narrators, but I know the first one was Neil Patrick Harris (who extended his run). There are two narrators set for the Los Angeles performances – for the first part of its stay, the role was played by Bradley Whitford, who was a hoot. And there was material written that was specifically tailored for him. If you live in Los Angeles and have any sensibility for physical comedy, do yourself a favor and try to go. It’s slapstick done on an almost Shakespearean level. And this isn’t the sort of production that any community theater can just toss together. This may be your only chance to see it, until they bring it back or happen to be putting it on somewhere else where you happen to be. The play runs at the Ahmanson until only September 10. You can get information about tickets here. Rather than describe again everything about the “Goes Wrong” people, and the production, I'm embedding that original article again below -- followed by the video of the hourlong TV version. Getting Panned I’ve mentioned here in the past a wonderful British TV series I adore, The Goes Wrong Show from the same people who did the stage shows, The Play That Goes Wrong and its various sequels. (I’ve posted several videos of them. It’s a TV series I’ve highly recommended to many, but as far as I know only one person has ever taken me up on, with his great thanks, but ahem, I’ll leave it at that…) The premise of The Play That Wrong is that this small, not terribly competent theater company, the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society, puts on a play where, as you might imagine, everything goes wrong. They keep up the lunacy all evening, and it’s a total joy, making slapstick almost Shakespearan. The London production has remarkably been running for 11 years. The creators – who star in the show, with others making up the regular troupe – then adapted the concept into two TV specials with celebrity guest stars, which did so well that they made it a series, which was on the air for two seasons. (I don’t know if they’re planning more or not.) It’s the same premise, the Cornley Drama Society puts on 30-minute plays each week – without guests -- in a different genre (a WWII drama, a legal drama, a horror story, a Christmas show and so on. Their version of a hot, steamy Tennessee Williams drama, called 90 Degrees, is a masterclass in physical comedy and slapstick. The legal drama is a close second, A Trial to Watch). Most of the shows are available for free online on YouTube and on the DailyMotion.com website. And also for a fee on Amazon Prime and on Amazon Prime via the BroadwayHD Channel. (The way the shows were released in the U.S. made it appear as if the two hour-long specials were done in the series’ third year. But after watching everything, I learned that they were actually first.) Yesterday, I read about them about to open a new show on Broadway that’s similar but a touch different from their others. It’s Peter Pan Goes Wrong – not a totally original work like their other productions, but obviously based on a real play. Why this caught my eye is that it’s a stage adaptation of one of their TV specials in their first season! It opens on Broadway April 19 and will have a limited run of four months. (Hopefully it will tour.) As I noted, in their third year, they only did two shows, both based on existing material and both with name stars. One was A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong (that featured Derek Jacobi and Diana Rigg), and the other was this one on Peter Pan, that had David Suchet as the Narrator. (If you’re not a Masterpiece Mystery fan on PBS, he famously played ‘Hercule Poirot’ for years.) Both specials were a lot of fun, but the Peter Pan show was (for my taste…) spectacular. Utterly hilarious. It starts enjoyable and fine, sort of their standard, good, clever stuff – but then it builds. And then builds. And in the last third they pretty much throw out any pretense of sanity and go full-bore crazy. And the role of narrator is much bigger than the guest star roles in the Christmas Carol production. (There’s one sequence in it that Suchet has which is joyously inspired.) For the Broadway production, it appears that they will have a different guest star as the Narrator for a couple of weeks, and then bring in new ones. The first guest star announced is Neil Patrick Harris. I’m not exactly sure how they’ll do the stage show, since an hour is a little short – perhaps they’ll expand it slightly. Plus there are a lot of bits in the last third of the TV version that they couldn’t ever, even conceivably do on stage, so they’ll probably adapt it slightly differently. The good news for anyone interested in the original TV special of Peter Pan Goes Wrong is that – we are happy to embed it here! If you don’t like physical comedy and slapstick, it’s not for you. But even at that, know that this is unlike most slapstick you’ve likely seen as they make it a fine art. So, for the rest (or if you decide to give it a try), curtain up. (Note: If the video doesn't run in the browser, just click the "Play in YouTube" link -- or click here.)
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This is a really great article in the New York Times about composer John Kander who wrote Cabaret, Chicago, Kiss of the Spiderwoman, the scores to the movies All That Jazz and New York, New York, and so much more. And clearly such a deserving subject, at age 96, still working on Broadway. It will not shock you that my favorite line had nothing to do with the theater, but was the description by the reporter about Kander still -- "...making the bed, tight as a drum, as he was taught at Camp Nebagamon when he was 10." For the record, I started at Nebagamon at age 11 (though my friend, Los Angeles Times journalist Patrick Goldstein, who was in my cabin, was a mere kid of 10). And, yes, we did have to make our cots each day, because every cabin was graded by the Day "Push" (a lumberjack term, since the camp was in Wisconsin's North Woods, on the grounds of the original Weyerhaeuser lumber mills) on how clean it was. What the article doesn't note is that two other people at camp with John Kander at the time were brothers William Goldman and Jim Goldman. They all stayed lifelong friends, were roommates in New York, and even collaborated on a musical together, A Family Affair. Later, Kander went off to his legendary career, William Goldman went off to write Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and All the President's Mean, and James Goldman went off to write the play A Lion in Winter and the musical, Follies, with Stephen Sondheim. My one quibble with the article is when the reporter says that Kander doesn't like the song "New York, New York." I've never heard him say that. All that I've heard him say is the same thing he says in the article. That he "doesn't get it." But not getting why something is SO popular is not even remotely the same as "not liking it." Anyway, how great that he's been getting all this attention -- finally -- at age 96. You can read the terrific article here even if you don't subscribe to the Times, because I've embedded it with a gift subscription link. I loved seeing John Kander get a Lifetime Achievement Award on the Tonys last night. And nice for Joel Grey, as well. But very weird that when being presented -- the show didn't explain *anything* about who they were or why they were being honored. Not one word. They did have a dance number -- but didn't even explain what it was (and it had nothing to do with Joel Grey.)
Most people watching probably knew Joel Grey, and since they liked theater enough to watch, may have known of John Kander. But I'm sure many didn't. ("Who are they, mom?") But "most watching" is true for anytime someone gets a Lifetime Achievement honor on any awards show, and there's always something about their careers -- whether a speech or film clips. That they didn't take even 60 seconds to describe why these two legends were being given Lifetime Achievement Awards is just strange, and thoughtless. In brief, John Kander has now won four Tony Awards for writing the music for Cabaret, Woman of the Year and Kiss of the Spider Woman -- and that doesn't include writing Chicago and The Happy Time, which won Best Musical, and 10 other musicals. Not to mention the song, New York, New York. And not including his work in films, Emmys, and Grammys. You can find more about him here. And for the theater alone, Joel Grey has five Tony nominations, winning one for creating the role of the Emcee in Cabaret. Has been acting on Broadway for over 55 years and was in other original casts as George M!, Chicago, Wicked and the recent revival of Anything Goes. And got a Drama Desk Award for directing The Normal Heart. Here is more about him. There, listing those credentials didn't take long... I’ve mentioned here in the past a wonderful British TV series I adore, The Goes Wrong Show from the same people who did the stage shows, The Play That Goes Wrong and its various sequels. (I’ve posted several videos of them. It’s a TV series I’ve highly recommended to many, but as far as I know only one person has ever taken me up on, with his great thanks, but ahem, I’ll leave it at that…) The premise of The Play That Wrong is that this small, not terribly competent theater company, the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society, puts on a play where, as you might imagine, everything goes wrong. They keep up the lunacy all evening, and it’s a total joy, making slapstick almost Shakespearan. The London production has remarkably been running for 11 years. The creators – who star in the show, with others making up the regular troupe – then adapted the concept into two TV specials with celebrity guest stars, which did so well that they made it a series, which was on the air for two seasons. (I don’t know if they’re planning more or not.) It’s the same premise, the Cornley Drama Society puts on 30-minute plays each week – without guests -- in a different genre (a WWII drama, a legal drama, a horror story, a Christmas show and so on. Their version of a hot, steamy Tennessee Williams drama, called 90 Degrees, is a masterclass in physical comedy and slapstick. The legal drama is a close second, A Trial to Watch). Most of the shows are available for free online on YouTube and on the DailyMotion.com website. And also for a fee on Amazon Prime and on Amazon Prime via the BroadwayHD Channel. (The way the shows were released in the U.S. made it appear as if the two hour-long specials were done in the series’ third year. But after watching everything, I learned that they were actually first.) Yesterday, I read about them about to open a new show on Broadway that’s similar but a touch different from their others. It’s Peter Pan Goes Wrong – not a totally original work like their other productions, but obviously based on a real play. Why this caught my eye is that it’s a stage adaptation of one of their TV specials in their first season! It opens on Broadway April 19 and will have a limited run of four months. (Hopefully it will tour.) As I noted, in their third year, they only did two shows, both based on existing material and both with name stars. One was A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong (that featured Derek Jacobi and Diana Rigg), and the other was this one on Peter Pan, that had David Suchet as the Narrator. (If you’re not a Masterpiece Mystery fan on PBS, he famously played ‘Hercule Poirot’ for years.) Both specials were a lot of fun, but the Peter Pan show was (for my taste…) spectacular. Utterly hilarious. It starts enjoyable and fine, sort of their standard, good, clever stuff – but then it builds. And then builds. And in the last third they pretty much throw out any pretense of sanity and go full-bore crazy. And the role of narrator is much bigger than the guest star roles in the Christmas Carol production. (There’s one sequence in it that Suchet has which is joyously inspired.) For the Broadway production, it appears that they will have a different guest star as the Narrator for a couple of weeks, and then bring in new ones. The first guest star announced is Neil Patrick Harris. I’m not exactly sure how they’ll do the stage show, since an hour is a little short – perhaps they’ll expand it slightly. Plus there are a lot of bits in the last third of the TV version that they couldn’t ever, even conceivably do on stage, so they’ll probably adapt it slightly differently. The good news for anyone interested in the original TV special of Peter Pan Goes Wrong is that – we are happy to embed it here! If you don’t like physical comedy and slapstick, it’s not for you. But even at that, know that this is unlike most slapstick you’ve likely seen as they make it a fine art. So, for the rest (or if you decide to give it a try), curtain up. (Note: If the video doesn't run in the browser, just click the "Play in YouTube" link -- or click here.) Back in 1966, when I was but a kidling, I went on a family trip to Europe, and when we were in London, I went with my older brother to see Agatha Christie's play The Mousetrap. (Our folks went to a different play.) I was very excited about going, since I liked Agatha Christie mysteries and had heard so much about this monumentally long-running play. So long-running that it was a phenomenon. I'd read the short story (though a long one, almost a novella) beforehand, so I knew whodunnit -- but at intermission I asked my brother who he thought the killer was. (Don't worry, I won't give it away.) He kept changing his guess -- "no, wait, I think it's..." -- and I just politely sat there smiling at him. (Fun fact: He didn't guess it.) Two years later, on another family trip, I got a poster for the show. I later had it framed, and it sits on my wall -- For the record, I saw the play in its 14th year. What I love about the poster is how it trumpets, "THE LONGEST RUNNING PLAY OF ANY KIND IN THE HISTORY OF THE BRITISH THEATRE." That was in 1968. Its 16th year. Today, the production celebrates its 70th! The play opened on November 25, 1952. And yes, it's still running. After 21 years, it moved next door to the St. Martin's Theatre, and it's changed casts (often) -- over 400 actors and actresses have performed in it -- but those are pretty much the only differences. (Though it's changed casts often -- in fact, now, they change casts every year, generally in November -- some actors stuck with the show for a long time. In the poster above, you'll notice at the bottom of the cast list one of the actors I saw, David Raven. He stayed in the show for 11 years! Not a bad daily job for a stage actor...) The show has currently run for over 28,000 performances over those 70 years. To put this in perspective, the longest running show in the of history New York theater is the off-Broadway musical The Fantasticks, which ran for 42 years and 17,162 performances. And eventually closed. (On Broadway, The Phantom of the Opera is still going with a remarkably long-running 34-year production, however its producers recently announced that they would be closing the show in five months, in April.) Meanwhile, Ol' Man Mousetrap, it just keeps rolling along. Agatha Christie wrote in her autobiography that her agent thought the play would run for an impressive 14 months, but she totally disagreed. "It won't run that long," she said. "Eight months perhaps. Yes, I think eight months." Even that would have been a great run for a play. Today, it's a joke. My favorite story about The Mousetrap is that before it opened, Agatha Christie signed a movie contract, though with one proviso: no movie could be made until the play finally closed for six months. And that was 70 years ago, with no closing notice in sight. (The show's website says that it is taking ticket orders through November, 2023 -- a year from now.) That's why you haven't seen a movie of The Mousetrap. (By the way, the movie producer in question was John Woolf, who happily went on the have an notable career despite this, most memorably winning an Oscar for Best Picture with Oliver! His other movies included Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File and Room at the Top, among many others.) Also fun is that when the play opened, Agatha Christie gave the rights to the play to her grandson Mathew Pritchard as a gift for his ninth birthday. (This article here is an interview with him about the birthday gift.) With the returns, he later set up the Colwinston Trust, which among its many donations to the arts has supported some of the most famous venues in Wales, including the Wales Millennium Centre, The Welsh National Opera, and Cardiff's Chapter Arts Centre. Noteworthy, too, is that in the opening night cast, a young actor Richard Attenborough played the investigator, 'Detective Sergeant Trotter'. His wife Sheila Sim was also in the cast as 'Mollie Ralston,' one of the owners of the snowbound Monkswell Manor where the play takes place. They each received a 10% profit-participation in the show, which was deducted from their combined weekly salaries. ("It proved to be the wisest business decision I've ever made," Attenborough later said, not shockingly, though added, "but foolishly I sold some of my share to open a short-lived Mayfair restaurant called 'The Little Elephant' and later still, disposed of the remainder in order to keep Gandhi afloat." However, considering that Gandhi won the Oscar for Best Picture, and Attenborough won for Best Director, it does seem like money very well-spent, and got its own financial -- and professional -- return.) There are a few things I didn't know about The Mousetrap until very recently. Starting with that it did not begin life as a short story. Rather it was originally written as a 1945 radio play for the BBC, in honor of the birthday of Queen Mary. (It was presented under the name Three Blind Mice.) Agatha Christie adapted the radio play as a short story, which she then adapted for the stage. The title had to be changed, though, because there had been another play with the same name, done before World War II. (The new title was suggested by Christie's son-in-law Anthony Hicks. Of all things, it comes from Hamlet. And in a nice bit of appropriate whimsy, from the famous "The play's the thing" scene when he is giving advice to the actors. Asked the name of the play, he jokingly refers to it as "The Mousetrap.") What I also didn't know about The Mousetrap until just a few weeks ago is that the background for the reason of the murder was loosely inspired by a true life story. In another odd twist, somewhat similar to that of the movie rights, Christie requested that the short story not be published in the United Kingdom as long as the play was running in London's West End. When I read about that, I couldn't figure out how I was able to have read it. But it turns out that the story was allowed to be published in the United States and appeared in the collection Three Blind Mice and Other Stories. I've still kept my copy all these years. A whopping 45-cents. And the original title is duly noted on the cover. By the way, if you haven't seen last year's movie See How They Run with Sam Rockwell, Saoirse Ronan and Adrien Brody, it's a fun, comic-murder mystery that's centered around a murder that occurs backstage during the early days of The Mousetrap. The story is totally fictional, but real details are mixed in -- including Richard Attenborough being a character, as is John Woolf, it taking place at the Ambassador Theatre and a few other matters, as well as Agatha Christie taking part, as well. Also, on more of a personal note, when I returned to London in that aforementioned 1968 family trip, I went to see a wonderful one-act play by Tom Stoppard called The Real Inspector Hound. It was a deeply-clever satire of theater, critics, drawing-room murder mysteries and, in particular, The Mousetrap. And such a total joy that even as a kid I could appreciate it (especially having seen The Mousetrap two years earlier). My poster of it sits on the wall next to the one of The Mousetrap. And let's just add another twist to the story. Because this is Agatha Christie and The Mousetrap, after all -- Though The Mousetrap has been running for 70 years in London's West End, it has oddly never played on Broadway. Until...now! Producers in London and New York just announced today that The Mousetrap will finally play on Broadway some time in 2023. That’s a pretty good, pre-Broadway tryout. (I still don’t know why it took this long. Nor do articles I've read about this Broadway opening. Though a large Broadway house might not be the best idea for this intimate show, at the moment its schedule for a limited engagement, so it seems like that could be the right choice. Of course, there's always the possibility of it being extended -- although for 70 years might be a bit of a stretch...) Producers say that the Broadway run's set design will include an authentic touch -- the only piece of the original set that still survives— the mantelpiece clock — will be loaned from the London production. Also, the backstage wind machine (which was described as "unique") that has the original producer’s name imprinted on it and still used today, will also be loaned. Anyway, to find out more about the original London production, you can check out the official website for The Mousetrap here. And here's their current trailer. Yesterday, in my tribute to Kukla, Fran and Ollie on their 75th anniversary, I wrote that I would be posting today the full, glorious episode when the Kuklapolitans present their version of The Mikado. Initially, I wrote that unfortunately I was mistaken -- I thought I had the full show, but it's only about two minutes. Although joyous ones. As it turns out, however, the full show does exist! O huzzah. I thought I had come across, but when I looked at my notes, I only had that two-minute clip. But thanks to reader Ken Kahn, he found the completely episode of The Mikado," and I've changed the video below to it. The rest of the article holds. No single episode of Kukla, Fran and Ollie gives a full sense of the different levels of the show. But this video gives an idea of it. And an idea of the range of the Kuklapolitan Players, and of Burr Tillstrom's unearthly skill with characters and voices. Madame Ophelia Ooglepuss, being the dowager protector of All Things Fine Art among the Kuklapolitans, would regularly try to organize everyone and put on some light opera production once a year, and more often than not it would be an operetta by Gilbert and Sullivan. And that's what we have here, The Mikado. What the video also shows is Fran Allison’s sweetness and total, pure belief in the puppets. Yet as sweet as she was, she would easily get perturbed with the others when called for. (Which was not uncommon...) And it also gives an idea of Burr Tillstrom at his most lunatic and artistic. Keep in mind, as you watch this, that he's handling both puppets: singing and dancing both characters, while ad-libbing the dialogue for the full show, of course. Not to mention holding his arms up for a half-hour.) In fact, much as there appears to be a happy accident in the song "Three Little Maids from School," upon having watched repeated viewings of it I’m pretty convinced that it was all impressively planned. Moreover, remember that for years, they did this for a half-hour every day, five days a week. There was another half-hour show the very next day. And after that. And... By the way, it's also worth noting the laughter of the audience. The show didn't always have an audience, usually if you heard laughing it was from the crew members cracking up, since much of the show was ad-libbed. But occasionally there were small audiences. The reason I bring it up here, though, is because what stands out is that the laughter isn't the sound of little kids at all, but rather adults. Much as Kukla, Fran and Olllie was a children's puppet show, it was as much for adults, at least those with a sense of the whimsical. I spoke to a friend who went to a TV Academy tribute to Burr Tillstrom on the show's 50th anniversary in 1997 (I was in Chicago at the time -- and went to the exhibit at the Chicago History Museum), where he said they played this episode in its entirety. The auditorium was full, with probably 1,000 people there, and as these adults watched this barebones, black-and-white puppet show almost 50 years after it was made in the early days of television, he said the place was filled with laughter. This, in small part explains why. It starts quietly, with a five-minute introduction by Col. Crackie to it all (including a brief tour of the studio and cast & crew participating) -- and then slowly builds through the songs and a wonderfully, if weirdly interpolated commercial. Until they make it through. |
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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