Present Laughter

If you like silliness, the Roundabout Theatre Company's Broadway revival of Noël Coward's 1942 comedy, Present Laughter, now at the American Airlines Theatre, will bestow you with two and a half hours of it. That’s a bit much for me, but the production, directed by Nicholas Martin, does offer some memorable comic moments, and is certainly lovely to look at.

Victor Garber is the human star of the show, playing the egotistical aging matinee idol Garry Essendine, but I swooned for an even more radiant star, Alexander Dodge’s creation of Essendine’s opulent 1930s art deco London duplex. When the curtain rose, the audience oohed and aahed before bursting into applause. With Rui Rita’s lighting design it shimmers. Expect many design nominations this spring. Jane Greenwood’s costumes -- smoking jackets, silk pajamas, evening gowns, you know the Coward world -- are topnotch as well.

As for the play, I wonder why Roundabout chose this Coward work to revive. There’s no real plot, just the vain star reacting to the various friends, lovers and business associates who revolve around him. “I’m always acting,” he says dramatically. I actually thought Garber and most of the cast overacted, but a show like this allows for a great dealing of hamming it up. And it was funny watching him sprint to the mirror atop the piano to primp when he hears the doorbell. (Essendine’s ego is so big his living room displays a massive oil painting of him as Hamlet. Coward devilishly devised Essendine as a tongue-in-cheek mockery of himself and even played him on tour in 1942 and later in London and America.)

Music lover that I am, I did appreciate Garber at Essendine’s baby grand singing Coward's "World Weary," and loved the touch at the curtain call of having Garber lead the cast in singing “I’ll See You Again.” I had been enjoying Simon Green’s recording of that song earlier, so it was a treat to hear it live.

My favorite character was Miss Erickson (Nancy E. Carroll), the droll Scandinavian housekeeper who is a devotee of spiritualism and who halfheartedly attends to her duties, cigarette dangling from her mouth, proffering her opinions, wanted or not. The always wonderful Harriet Harris is delightful as Essendine’s longtime secretary, Monica Reed

Tickets for Present Laughter, which plays through March 21, are available by calling Roundabout Ticket Services at (212) 719-1300, online at www.roundabouttheatre.org or at the box office, 227 W. 42nd St.

A View From the Bridge

When I first saw Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge more than 30 years ago at Baltimore’s CENTERSTAGE, I was thoroughly involved and left feeling deeply moved. Unfortunately, my experience of director Gregory Mosher's Broadway revival now at the Cort Theatre was vastly different.

Set on the 1950s Brooklyn waterfront, Bridge is the story of an Italian-American family headed by Eddie Carbone (Liev Schreiber, in photo center), a longshoreman who secrets lusts for Catherine (Scarlett Johansson in her Broadway debut, left), the orphaned niece he and his long-suffering wife, Beatrice (Jessica Hecht) have raised. Against that backdrop a second tale about undocumented immigrants trying to better their lives in America plays out.

Miller, a great lover of Greek tragedy, used that form as a model for Bridge, meaning the ending is inevitable early on. Getting there, though, should arouse enough passion to draw the audience in, but this cast seemed to be giving a first reading rather than a full performance. I felt no chemistry between Eddie and Catherine or between Catherine and Rodolpho (Morgan Spector, right), a newly arrived immigrant to whom she becomes engaged, setting the stage for Eddie’s fatal jealousy. All of the elements of Aristotle’s definition of tragedy are there -- an imitation of an action that is of certain magnitude, that through various literary devices is told in action, not narration -- except for the final one -- “through pity and fear causing a catharsis of emotions.” My primary emotion was of boredom, especially in the first act. A couple of sparks ignited in the second act, thank God, but not enough to make me care about these people. Too bad, because I certainly did when I saw the play at CENTERSTAGE.

I also had trouble with this cast in other ways. When they sat down to dinner and blessed themselves, I was jarred and thought, “Oh, that’s right. They’re supposed to be Catholic.” With their gestures and speech patterns I felt they were more like the Lomans, Brooklyn Jews. They didn’t come off as Catholic or Italian. When I mentioned this later to my friend Mary she joked that maybe they converted.

John Lee Beatty’s revolving sets -- dreary brick tenements and Eddie’s small apartment -- and Peter Kaczorowski’s lighting serve well the dark, brooding atmosphere of the script.

The inspiration for Bridge came to Miller after he heard a similar story while doing research for a screenplay on the Brooklyn waterfront in 1947. Eight years later -- in 10 days -- he turned a version of it into a short play and paired it with A Memory of Two Mondays for a Broadway run. He went on to expand it a decade later for an Off-Broadway production with Robert Duvall as Eddie.

Tickets for A View From the Bridge, which is playing a limited 14-week engagement, are available through Telecharge.com, (212) 239-6200 or (800) 432-7250, online at www.Telecharge.com, or at the box office, 138 W. 48th St.

For more information, visit www.AViewFromTheBridgeOnBroadway.com.

Julie Andrews

To commemorate her 69th birthday, Julie Andrews made a special appearance at Radio City Music Hall for the benefit of the AARP.   One of the musical numbers she performed was “My Favorite Things” from “The Sound Of Music.”   Here are the lyrics she used: 
  
 (If you sing it, its especially hysterical!!!)   
 
Botox and nose drops and needles for knitting, 
Walkers and  handrails and new dental fittings, 
Bundles of magazines tied up in string, 
  These are a few of my favorite things. 

Cadillacs and cataracts, hearing aids and glasses, 
Polident and Fixodent and false teeth in glasses, 
Pacemakers, golf carts and porches with swings, 
  These are a few of my favorite things.  

When the pipes leak, When the bones creak, 
 When the knees go bad, 
I simply remember my favorite things, 
     And then I don't feel so bad. 

Hot tea and crumpets and corn pads for bunions, 
No spicy hot food or food cooked with onions, 
Bathrobes and heating pads and
hot meals they bring, 
    These are a few of my favorite things. 

Back pain, confused brains and no need for sinnin', 
Thin bones and fractures and hair that is thinnin',   
And we won't mention our short shrunken frames, 
  When we remember our favorite things. 

When the joints ache, When the hips break, 
     When the eyes grow dim, 
 Then I remember the great life I've had, 
      And then I don't feel so bad. 

Julie received a standing ovation from the crowd  that lasted more than four minutes and repeated encores. Please share Julie's clever wit and humor with others who would appreciate it.
 

"Happiness is to be found along the way, not at the end of the road, for then the journey is over and it is too late."
-- Robert R. Updegraff

"What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tommorrow. Our life is the creation of our mind."
-- the Dalai Lama

Imagination

“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
-- Albert Einstein

Be ready

"Some things arrive in their own mysterious hour, on their own terms and not yours, to be seized or relinquished forever."
-- Gail Godwin, Evensong