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| Mary Woronov, Madeline Kahn. |
"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unpublished series—introducing all mainstream New York shows between 1970 and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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| Peter Bartlett, Madeline Kahn. |
BOOM BOOM ROOM (see below for IN
THE BOOM BOOM ROOM) [Drama/Homosexuality/Nightclub/Sex/Show Business] A: David
Rabe; D: Joseph Papp; S: Santo Loquasto; C: Theoni V. Aldredge; L: Martin
Aronstein; P: New York Shakespeare Festival Lincoln Center; T: Vivian Beaumont
Theatre; 11/8/73-12/9/73 (37)
This
was the first production staged by Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival
after it succeeded Jules Irving’s troubled artistic leadership at Lincoln
Center. Papp’s policy—which would be equally problematic—began by fostering
new, as opposed to classical, works at the Beaumont but soon underwent a
change. His first season included several notable works, among them this
controversial drama about a Philadelphia go-go girl named Chrissy (Madeline
Kahn). Papp relieved Julie Bovasso of the directorial reins shortly before the
opening but the generally unkind criticism that resulted revealed that not much
had been done to salvage the work. A revised version would appear under a
slightly different title a year later.
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| Charlotte Rae, Charles Durning, Madeline Kahn. |
Boom Boom Room is the sad story
of the clumsy, neurotic Chrissy, her bisexual misadventures, her unhappy
upbringing, her yearning for love, her ineffectual relationships, and the
rather rancid conditions of her lifestyle. It was presented in a three-hour
drama that had little narrative push, showed barely any development for its
central character, and was unfocused and without a clear
-cut
goal.
Rabe’s
first play not related to the Vietnam War ran into hostility from critics who
found Chrissy simply too shallow to live with for so long a drama. Clive Barnes
called the jokes “corny” and the writing “empty and poorly crafted.” Walter
Kerr found it all a disconnected “series of set pieces,” and its “psychologizing
. . . simplistic, the daring old-hat, the humor ranging from tittery to
strained.” There was too much “woolgathering and maundering” in this “drawn-out
identity crisis” to please John Simon.
Many
felt that the production, which utilized a number of distracting, floating,
go-go girl dance cages, only made matters worse. Brendan Gill said the show’s
inability to find either an appropriately realistic or non-illusionistic style
hurt the “simple and touching” tale. But Rabe’s ability to express how the
world’s little people can still cling to “natural human desire and aspiration,”
despite their being ground down by or modern world, greatly moved Harold
Clurman, ho faulted the production for not fully realizing the author’s intent.
Madeline
Kahn’s Chrissy received mixed reviews. T Barnes she was a failure but to Gill
she was “superb.” And Charles Durning, Robert Loggia, and Mary Woronov as,
respectively, Chrissy’s father, truck driver boyfriend, and lesbian dance
captain, were considered the strongest of a strong cast, which also included
Charlotte Rae, among others.
Despite
its critical rattling, Boom Boom Room received
a Tony nomination as Best Play, Kahn got one for Best Actress, Play, and also
landed a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance, while Martin Aronstein
was nominated as Best Lighting Designer. Woronov got a Theatre World Award.
IN
THE BOOM BOOM ROOM. D: Robert Hedley; S: David Mitchell; C: Milo Morrow; L:
Martin Aronstein; CH: Baayork Lee; P: New York Shakespeare Festival; T: Public
Theater/Florence Anspacher Theater (OB); 11/20/74-12/15/74 (31)
 |
| Ellen Green, Helen Hanft, Tom Quinn. |
Producer
Joseph Papp, thinking the work deserved another chance, brought it back a year
later under a slightly different title, offering it his Greenwich Village
institution with a new director, set and costume designers, and cast, led by
Ellen Greene as Chrissy.
Clive
Barnes thought the writing, of which about 25 percent had been redone, was
improved. He also believed the direction and design were improvements over the
Lincoln Center version. Rabe’s new script had a clearer focus on Chrissy but
the original problem of making her an interesting character had not been
solved. The result was “a good production of a moderately bad play.” Edith Oliver,
however, censured the pervasive realism of the new staging for bringing the
play “down to earth.” “It has hit with a bump, and the bump hurts.” She, too,
thought Chrissy not a character “that can hold our attention for long.” Her
views were supported by John Simon, who denigrated the work because of “Robert
Hedley’s indecisive and clumsy direction which stays resolutely below minimal
professionalism.”
The
only performer who appeared an improvement over the original’s casting was
Ellen Greene as Chrissy, although Simon said she “needs only more experience
and better direction.” Among the more significant names in the cast were Christopher Lloyd and Helen Hanft.
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
The Beauty Part
The Beggar’s Opera
Behold! Cometh the Vanderkellens
Be Kind to People Week
Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill
Bette Midler’s Clams on a Half-Shell Revue
Black Girl
Black Light Theatre of Prague
Black Picture Show
Black Sunlight
The Black Terror
Black Visions
Les Blancs
Blasts and Bravos: An Evening with H,L.
Mencken
Blood
Bluebeard
Blue Boys
Bob and Ray—The Two and Only
Boesman and Lena