 |
| Jack Mallory, Black-Eyed Susan, Bill Vehr, Charles Ludlam, Robert Beers, Lola Pashalinski. |
"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unpublished series—introducing all mainstream New York shows between 1970 and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.
CAMILLE
[Dramatic Revival]
A: Alexander Dumas; AD/D: Charles Ludlam S: Bobjack Calejo; C: Mary Brecht; L:
Richard Currie; P: Ridiculous Theatrical Company; T: Evergreen Theatre (OB);
5/13/74-10/27/74 (113)
The Off-Off Broadway troupe known as the Ridiculous
Theatrical Company produced two plays during the first of their regular
Off-Broadway seasons: Camille and Hot Ice. Unlike the latter and others in
their repertoire, the troupe offered here a revival of a familiar play (10 20th-century
revivals prior to this one) not written by their own leader, Charles Ludlam,
although he was responsible for the adaptation. As expected, the show was not
like any conventional revival.
Camille (a.k.a. La Dame aux Camelias or The
Lady of the Camelias) had been done by the company in an earlier Off-Off
version and was scarcely changed for this mounting. Ludlam himself played the
role of Marguerite Gautier (Camille) in drag, in addition to his other
production duties. He wore the frilly garments of the languishing, tubercular,
19th-century courtesan-heroine but made no attempt to hide his hairy
chest. Gender-role switching, a frequent Ludlam device, was used within an
interpretation that tried to be both a spoof of the original and a bathetic
experience at the same time.
Clive Barnes, who called it “one of the most
hilarious and unbuttoned camp evenings in New York,” also pointed to its
ability to draw tears. Barnes noted the constant sense of the material being
played straight while also subject to various grotesqueries of behavior and
intonation. Ludlam’s drag impersonation typified this approach.
“Now this is no ordinary drag act played for laughs.
. . . He is a completely convincing Camille. . . . He plays every scene with
total sincerity—but that sincerity is occasionally punctuated by what might be
called subtitles of humor,” Barnes reported. John Simon, as was often the case,
stood at the opposite end of the critical spectrum. He abominated the show as “the
very essence of a drag show.” “Ludlam and his campy crew are funny at times,
but in a destructive, unwholesome way. One hates oneself for laughing at
Marguerite being travestied by a short, stocky, homely man in drag, who is
outrageous even when . . . he is playing it . . . straight.”
Others on hand included Bill Vehr as Armand Duval, Lola Pashalinski as Prudence Duvernoy, Black-Eyed Susan as Olympe de Taverney, and John D. Brockmeyer as Baron de Varville.
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
