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| Gracie Finley. |
The following precedes each entry
"In Lieu of Reviews"
Around 40 years ago, I began a major project that eventuated in the
publication of my multivolume series, The Encyclopedia of the New York
Stage, each volume covering a decade. For some reason now lost to the sands
of time, I chose to start with the 1970s. After writing all the entries through
1975 and producing a typed manuscript of 1,038 pages my publisher (Greenwood)
and I decided it would be best to commence with the 1920s. So the 1970-1975
material was put aside as I produced volumes for 1920-1930, 1930-1940, and
1940-1950. With those concluded, Greenwood decided it was all too expensive and
not sufficiently profitable, so the remaining volumes were cancelled, leaving
my 1970s entries in limbo.
To compensate, I used the research I’d done on the 1970s to write a
book for Greenwood called Ten Seasons: New York Theatre in the
Seventies, which described all aspects of that era’s theatre, onstage and
off. Many years later, in 2012, I began a postretirement “career” as a theatre
reviewer, which led to my creating this blog as an outlet for my reviews. Over
the past eight years or so I’ve posted nearly 1,600 reviews, a substantial
number having first appeared on other websites: Theater Pizzazz, The Broadway
Blog, and Theater Life.
Now, however, with the New York theatre in suspension, and my
reviewing completely halted, is probably the perfect time to post as many as
possible of the entries I prepared for the never-published 1970-1975 book. The
entries that follow are in alphabetical order. Each entry has a heading listing
the subject categories of the work described: the author (A), the director (D),
additional staging (ADD ST), when credited; the producer (P), the set designer
(S), the costume designer (C), the lighting designer (L), the source (SC), the
theatre (T), the dates of the run, and, in parentheses, the length of the run.
The original entries also contained the names of all the actors but I’ve
omitted those here.
I will try to post at least one entry daily. When time allows, I’ll
provide more. The manuscript exists on fading, fragile paper and, because no
digital files exist, must be retyped. Hopefully, the tragic health situation
we’re all enduring will abate before I get too far into posting these entries
but, for the time being, devoted theatre lovers may find reading these
materials informative.
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| Jeff Hyslop, Gracie Finley, and the company of Anne of Green Gables. |
ANNE OF GREEN GABLES [Musical/Canadian/Children/Period]
B: Donald Harron; M: Norman Campbell; LY: Donald Harron and Norman Campbell;
SC: L.M. Montgomery’s novel, Anne of
Green Gables; D/CH: Alan Lund; S: Murray Laufer; C: Marie Day; L: Ronald
Montgomery; P: City Center i/a/w The Charlottetown Festival in the Canadian
National Musical Theatre Production; T: City Center 55th Street Theatre;
12/21/72-1/2/72 (16)
This visiting musical from Canada, which
played a limited engagement, had been part of an annual production at a
festival on Prince Edward Island for seven years and played in various other nations,
including Japan.
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| Gracie Finley and company. |
Anne
of Green Gables,
of course, is Lucy Maud Montgomery’s beloved, frequently dramatized, 1908 story
about the young orphan of the title growing up in a late 19th-century Canadian
town. An extremely sentimental tale, its musical adaptation had “a folksy air
to it,” wrote Clive Barnes, “and it is unpretentious, undemanding and with a
certain special charm.” A few boring stretches and an “unmemorable” score were
flaws cited by this critic. Walter Kerr “didn’t much care for” the show,
finding its simplicity “synthetic,” and its humor too obvious.
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.
