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| Susan Sullivan, Peter Kingsley. |
"In Lieu of Reviews"
For background on how this previously
unpublished series—introducing all mainstream New York shows between 1970 and
1975—came to be and its relationship to my three The Encyclopedia of the New York Stage volumes (covering every New
York play, musical, revue, and revival between 1920 and 1950), please check the
prefaces to any of the earlier entries beginning with the letter “A.” See the
list at the end of the current entry.
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| Joseph Bova, Cynthia Harris. |
Written as a vehicle for the great comic actor Bert Lahr, this
1962 play gave its star a chance to produce a gallery of half-a-dozen hysterically
funny portraits.The play is written in a revue-like sketch format in which the various characters are played by a versatile company in which actor plays several roles. Unfortunately, a newspaper strike that clashed with its run
left the public largely uninformed about the show and it achieved only a
10-week run.
Revived by the American Place Theatre in a rare departure from their new plays-only policy, The Beauty Part is the tale of a Yale student named Lance Weatherwax (Peter Kingsley) who, like a modern Candide, leaves his father’s profitable garbage disposal business to make his creative and financial way in the arts. This brings him face to face with the sordid realities of the fields of literature, films, fine art, and TV.
Revived by the American Place Theatre in a rare departure from their new plays-only policy, The Beauty Part is the tale of a Yale student named Lance Weatherwax (Peter Kingsley) who, like a modern Candide, leaves his father’s profitable garbage disposal business to make his creative and financial way in the arts. This brings him face to face with the sordid realities of the fields of literature, films, fine art, and TV.
Its negative reviews were typified by Clive Barnes’s, which
declared the play “old and tired, its personages a” gallery of shallow
caricatures. The scene was “not especially imaginative,” and Joseph Bova, said
Barnes, was “not especially funny in the Lahr roles.” Edith Oliver, however, could
not “imagine a better production,” laughed at Bova’s “funny, strong
performance,” thought Perelman’s wit “about impossible to top,” and called the
sets “extremely ingenious.”
Actors of note included Armand Assante, Ron Faber, Bobo Lewis, and Susan Sullivan.
Actors of note included Armand Assante, Ron Faber, Bobo Lewis, and Susan Sullivan.
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
Any Resemblance to Persons Living or Dead
Applause
Ari
As You Like It
Augusta
The
Au Pair Man
Baba Goya [Nourish the Beast]
The Ballad of Johnny Pot
Barbary Shore
The Bar that Never Closes
The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel
