The following precedes each entry,
"In Lieu of Reviews"
Around 40 years ago, I began a major project that eventuated in the
publication of my multivolume series, The Encyclopedia of the New York
Stage, each volume covering a decade. For some reason now lost to the sands
of time, I chose to start with the 1970s. After writing all the entries through
1975 and producing a typed manuscript of 1,038 pages my publisher (Greenwood)
and I decided it would be best to commence with the 1920s. So the 1970-1975 material
was put aside as I produced volumes for 1920-1930, 1930-1940, and 1940-1950.
With those concluded, Greenwood decided it was all too expensive and not
sufficiently profitable, so the remaining volumes were cancelled, leaving my
1970s entries in limbo.
To compensate, I used the research I’d done on the 1970s to write a
book for Greenwood called Ten Seasons: New York Theatre in the
Seventies, which described all aspects of that era’s theatre, onstage and
off. Many years later, in 2012, I began a postretirement “career” as a theatre
reviewer, which led to my creating this blog as an outlet for my reviews. Over
the past eight years or so I’ve posted nearly 1,600 reviews, a substantial
number having first appeared on other websites: Theater Pizzazz, The Broadway
Blog, and Theater Life.
Now, however, with the New York theatre in suspension, and my
reviewing completely halted, is probably the perfect time to post as many as
possible of the entries I prepared for the never-published 1970-1975 book. The
entries that follow are in alphabetical order. Each entry has a heading listing
the subject categories of the work described: the author (A), the director (D),
additional staging (ADD ST), when credited; the producer (P), the set designer
(S), the costume designer (C), the lighting designer (L), the source (SC), the
theatre (T), the dates of the run, and, in parentheses, the length of the run.
The original entries also contained the names of all the actors but I’ve
omitted those here.
I will try to post at least one entry daily. When time allows, I’ll
provide more. The manuscript exists on fading, fragile paper and, because no
digital files exist, must be retyped. Hopefully, the tragic health situation
we’re all enduring will abate before I get too far into posting these entries
but, for the time being, devoted theatre lovers may find reading these
materials informative.
 |
| Pamela Payton-Wright, Cleavon Little, Barnard Hughes. |
ALL OVER TOWN [Comedy/Family/Homosexuality/Race/Sex] A: Murray Schisgal; D: Dustin
Hoffman; S: Oliver Smith; C:Albert Wolsky; L: John Gleason; P: Adela Holzer; T:
Booth Theatre; 12/29/74-7/20/75 (233)
Movie
star Dustin Hoffman made his professional directing debut with this crazy farce
in which 18 zany characters were kept whizzing in and out of 11 doors as the
complications and hilarity kept dizzily accelerating. Murray Schisgal’s most successful
comedy since the 1963 Luv was set in
the East Side duplex of Dr. Lionel Morris (Barnard Hughes), a psychiatrist who
believes that the criminal mentality can be altered by exposing the wrongdoer
to a more congenial environment than he is used to.
 |
| Zane Lasky, Cleavon Little. |
To
prove his point, he arranges to house and then analyze tor two weeks an
oversexed, jobless young man named Louis (Zane Lasky), who has been
inconsiderate enough to father nine children with five women, putting them all
on welfare. When a black hipster named Lewis (Cleavon Little) arrives to
deliver a pair of shoes, he is mistaken for the prolific father (who is white).
Delighted with the perquisites about to come his way, Lewis decides to lay
along with the scheme.
When
the real Louis arrives, Lewis has his hands full keeping him occupied and out
of the way. Louis turns out to be a totally unprepossessing guy, who simply has
an unerring way with the opposite sex, a number of whom fall into his clutches
in the Morris household.
 |
| Cleavon Little, Barnard Hughes. |
The
basic situation is compounded by an army of outrageous types and subplots,
including the doctor’s daughter (Jill Eikenberry), his adulterous wife (Carol
Teitel), the wife’s Army officer lover (William LeMassena), his
wheelchair-bound wife (Polly Holliday), a randy Swedish maid (Pamela
Payton-Wright), a swishy black gay (Every Hayes), a Jewish Yogi (Michael
Gorrin), and others.
This
“cross between a sex farce and a satire on middle-class liberals” (Martin
Gottfried) tickled many critical funny bones, Flaws, however, were apparent,
including insufficient character development (Gottfried), implausibility (Clive
Barnes), and problems of plotting, focus, and “schoolboyish” jokes (Douglas
Watt). All Over Town was likened to a
Feydeau farce, a form in which the implied criticism of contemporary social
foibles is far outranked in importance by the need to stimulate riotous
laughter. As Barnes summed it up: “Profound it isn’t. Fun it is.”
 |
| Polly Holliday, Barnard Hughes, Cleavon Little. |
There
were sidesplitting performances by all the principals (notably Little and
Hughes), but Hoffman’s agile and well-timed direction was noted as the major
animating force behind the show’s success.
Previous
entries:
Abelard and
Heloise
Absurd Person
Singular
AC/DC
“Acrobats”
and “Line”
The Advertisement
Aesop’s Fables
Ain’t Supposed to
Die a Natural Death
Alice in
Wonderland
All God’s Chillun
Got Wings
All My Sons
All Over