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| Ruth Warrick, Mark Alaimo. |
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.
ANY
RESEMBLANCE TO PERSONS LIVING OR DEAD [Comedy/Fantasy/Religion/Sci-Fi/Wealth] A: Eliot
Caplin; D: Loukas Skipitares; S: Donald Padgett; C: David Toser; L: Richard
Nelson; M: Saul Honigman; P: Lou-Na-Poseidon, Ltd. b/a/w Robert L. Steele; T:
Gate Theatre (OB); 5/24/71-5/31/71 (8)
A “feeble fable” (Clive Barnes), staged
with fairly elaborate means, in which a young man named Lars (Mark Alaimo)
wants to play God and solve the world’s problems. By means of various
accomplishments and personal conquests, including his invention of a female
robot financed by the world’s wealthiest woman (Ruth Warrick) and sold for all
his money to the world’s wealthiest man (John Call), Lars succeeds in accumulating
all the power in the world and fast talks himself onto God’s throne. His
efforts on behalf of mankind go disastrously astray and Lars finishes up by
raving angrily at the audience for what man has become.
Barnes spotted a few moments of “ironic
wit and comic inversions,” but decided the piece was neither “coherent,
original [nor] meaningful.” Richard Watts called it “a phenomenal bore,” and
Joseph Mazo thought it “a purely puerile” play. “It is amateurishly
constructed, poorly written, and has all the intellectual depth of a
pre-prepared telegram,” he noted.
Ruth Warrick, who played the female lead
in this disaster, was an actress of some note, her credits including her having
played Orson Welles’s bride in Citizen
Kane. She was to enjoy a remarkably long career as a soap opera star on TV’s
“All My Children.”
Previous entries:
Abelard and
Heloise
Absurd Person
Singular
AC/DC
“Acrobats”
and “Line”
The Advertisement/
All My Sons
All Over
All Over Town
All the Girls Came
Out to Play
Alpha Beta
L’Amante Anglais
Ambassador
American Gothics
Amphitryon
And Miss Reardon
Drinks a Little
And They Put
Handcuffs on the Flowers
And Whose Little
Boy Are You?
Anna K.
Anne of Green
Gables
Antigone
Antiques