DIAMOND STUDS
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| Jim Wann, Rick Simpson, Tommy Thompson, Jim Watson, Bill Hicks. |
"In Lieu of Reviews"
Reviews of live theatre being impossible during these days of the pandemic, THEATRE'S LEITER SIDE
is pleased to provide instead accounts of previous theatre
seasons--encompassing the years 1970-1975-for theatre-hungry readers. If you'd
like to know the background on how this previously unpublished series came to
be and what its relationship is 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 entries
beginning with the letter “A.” See the list at the end of the current entry.
 |
| Joyce Cohen, Jim Wann. |
DIAMOND STUDS
[Musical/Biographical/Crime/Period/Western] B: Jim Wann; M/LY: Bland Simpson
and Jim Wann; D: John L. Haber; CH: Patricia Birch; P: Chelsea Theatre Center
of Brooklyn; T: Westside Theatre (OB); 1/14/75-8/3/75 (232)
A decidedly pleasant diversion, staged
in the three-quarters round, in a familiar Off-Broadway venue converted to the
semblance of a Western saloon, including several tables and chairs where
audience members were served drinks while watching and listening. The saloon “waitresses”
were actresses who also figured in the action.
Diamond Studs,
which originated in Chapel Hill, NC, and which called itself a “Saloon Musical,”
was a loosely put together assortment of old and new country and western songs
telling, along with narrative bits and brief sketches, the story of Jesse James’s
fabled outlaw exploits after the Civil War. The story was not meant to be taken
serious although the suggestion was made that Jesse’s life of crime resulted
from contemporary social conditions.
The evening was a rousing, energetic
one in which the chief ingredient was fun. The musicians, made up of two bands—the
Southern States Fidelity Choir and the Red Clay Ramblers—also constituted the
basis of the acting company, with assists from several non-musician performers.
An artfully amateurish air hung over the enterprise, but the show was staged
with a robust dose of professionalism.
Patricia Birch’s “musical staging”
garnered kudos for its invention and skill. “Without showing off fancy dances
and smart steps,” wrote Martin Gottfried, “she can make an entire production
musical and that is exactly what she has done.” He also remarked that there was
“little to fault the production.” His opinion was shared by others, including
John Simon, who regretted that the show was “only in the remotest sense
theatre,” but nevertheless offered “a passel of innocent pleasures.” Edwin
Wilson, unimpressed by the boisterous, knee-slapping music, which he found
somewhat inferior to that of similar groups around the country, still
recommended the show as “a evening of good, clean fun,” while others sang the
music’s praises. Clive Barnes, in fact, rated it as “super,” as well as “funny
and sassy.”
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
The Boy Who Came to Leave
Bread
A Breeze from the Gulf
Brief Lives
Brother Gorski
Brothers
Bullshot Crummond
Bunraku
The Burnt Flower Bed
Butley
Button, Button
Buy Bonds, Buster
The Cage
Camille
Candide (1)
Candide (2)
The Candyapple
Captain Brassbound’s Conversion
The Caretaker
La Carpa de los Raquichis
The Carpenters
The Castro Complex
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
The Changing Room
Charles Abbott and Son
Charley’s Aunt
Charlie Was Here and Now He’s Gone
Chemin de Fer
The Cherry Orchard
The Chickencoop Chinaman
The Children
Children! Children!
Children in the Rain
Children of the Wind
The Children’s Mass
A Chorus Line
The Chronicle of Henry VI: Part 1, Part
II,
The Circle
Clarence Darrow
Cold Feet
Conditions of Agreement
Coney Island Cycle
The Constant Wife
The Contractor
The Contrast
The Constant Wife
The Country Girl
Crazy Now
The Creation of the
World and Other Business
Creeps
The Crucible
Crystal and Fox
Cyrano
Dames at Sea
The Dance of Death
Dance wi’Me/Dance with
Me
A Day in the Life of
Just about Everyone
Dear Nobody
Dear Oscar
The
Desert Song