THE DIRTIEST SHOW IN TOWN
 |
| Company of The Dirtiest Show in Town. |
"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like to know the background on how this previously unpublished series came to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.
 |
| R.A. Dow, Madeleine le Roux. |
THE DIRTIEST SHOW IN TOWN [Revue/Environment/Nudity/Sex/Topical] A/D: Tom Eyen; M: Jeff Barry; S:
T.E. Mason; C: Victor Bijou; L: Steve Whitson; P: Jeff Barry Enterprises, Inc.,
Ellen Stewart-Bruce Mailman i/a/w Theatre of the Eye Repertory Company, 1970;
T: Astor Place Theatre (OB); 6/27/70-9/19/71 (509)
Originally done Off-Off Broadway at La
Mama, this hit show was a collection of comical sketches and vignettes, much of
it backed by Jeff Barry’s music, although the general format was that of a
comedy revue. The material was largely about sex and pollution, and was
presented with camp humor and a considerable amount of male and female nudity.
In several senses, it was unlikely to have existed without the successful
example of Oh! Calcutta!, which opened a year earlier.
Clive Barnes and Howard Thompson were
both in favor of it, but others were less kindly disposed. Harold Clurman
wagged his finger at Barnes for too desperately wanting to join the youth
bandwagon. To Clurman, the show was little more than a “silly charade” lacking
wit and ideas. Edith Oliver ridiculed the show’s weak attempts at eroticism and
comedy, especially the latter. “[T]he jokes, almost exclusively homosexual
and/or Jewish, are a matter less of words than passwords, an on the evening I
attended they evoked a shrill, noisy response from the audience.” Only the
clever staging and lighting, she pointed out, saved the work from total
failure.
Madeleine le Roux gained her 15 minutes
of fame from the show, but it’s unlikely any of the other names involved are
likely to register today.
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
Diamond
Studs
Different
Times