THE SEASON THEN, THE SEASON NOW By Peter Filichia
It all started with my wanting to do something nice for The Theatre World Awards – the 79-year-old organization that recognizes performers who make their Broadway and off-Broadway debuts.
For the last 26 years, I’ve chaired the nominating committee and emceed the annual ceremony.
To raise money, we take a table at the annual Broadway Flea Market. We’ll do it again on Sunday, September 21.
I’ll have with me a copy of William Goldman’s landmark book The Season, in which he detailed most every Broadway production from the 1967-68 semester.
But it’s not just any copy. It’s one that I’ve annotated, with at least one comment – and often many, many more – on each and every page (with a different colored Flair pen).
Boy, have I filled in the margins! I noted that Goldman devoted eight solid pages to HAIR, concentrating on the never-seen-before, on-stage nudity. But he didn’t ever mention composer Galt MacDermot. Goldman should have, for HAIR’s cast album was the nation’s Number One seller for 13 weeks and sold three million copies in its first 16 months.
Other of his comments and mine:
“(Mike) Nichols is more of a movie man now.”
Sure, but unlike so many who taste the lure and money of Hollywood, Nichols never abandoned Broadway. After this 1967-68 season, he directed 13 more stage shows and had his biggest hit as a producer: ANNIE. It wouldn’t have got to Broadway without him. Messrs. Strouse, Meehan and Charnin should have sung, “We’d like to thank you, Mike Peschkowsky” – his real surname – to the tune of their Tony-winning musical’s fourth song.
Regarding a play called Daphne in Cottage D: “The director had never directed a success on Broadway, but rumor had it that his wife was a very close friend of Miss Dennis.”
Why didn’t he mention that she was Brenda Vaccaro? That same season, she received a well-deserved Tony nomination, mostly for her husky-voiced delivery of Carolyn Leigh’s extraordinary lyrics in HOW NOW, DOW JONES.
In discussing a play called The Exercise, in which a male and female performer do improvs, Goldman wrote, “Who cares about actors, anyway?”
Well, in seven years, theatergoers certainly would, and they since have for more than 50 years, thanks to A CHORUS LINE. The smash hit had its roots in the 1967-68 season through the musical HENRY, SWEET HENRY; it had dance music by Marvin Hamlisch and choreography by Michael Bennett. Hamlisch was fond of saying that after the show closed, he planned to stay in touch with Bennett – “but I’m not putting your name in my address book under ‘B,’ but ‘G’ – for ‘Genius.’”
“Stephen Sondheim, the lyricist for WEST SIDE STORY and GYPSY…”
Granted, at this point in time, Sondheim’s best days were ahead of him – COMPANY was still two seasons away – but he was always prouder of his music and had already shown his worth through FORUM and ANYONE CAN WHISTLE.
“The moment of Pinter has passed.”
Two years later, Sondheim in COMPANY mentioned “a Pinter play.” However, for only 51 days of that musical’s original run could you see one: Old Times. Pinter’s 17 Broadway productions have averaged 103 performances; COMPANY’s four have a 321 average. What’s more, the moment of Sondheim has definitely not passed; he has one Broadway and London theater named for him, while Pinter can boast only one.
“David Merrick was once turned down by a director for HELLO, DOLLY!… begging him to get rid of the title number… Hal Prince.”
There’s an irony here. At the 2016-2017 Drama Desk Awards, who presented the Outstanding Revival of a Musical prize to HELLO, DOLLY! – the one that was starring Bette Midler? Hal Prince!
Regarding the London hit but Broadway flop The Promise, Goldman says the problem was “a child is what Eileen Atkins plays” and “the girl in London had the single basic quality essential… she has to be a mother.”
True, “The girl” wasn’t very well-known then, but Goldman should have identified her, because this Judi Dench was at that moment wowing London audiences with her terrific Sally Bowles, as the cast album proves.
“Tiny Tim… is a figure capable of scaring children.”
No, not the Dickens’ character; at the time, an entertainer born Herbert Buckingham Khaury adopted the name. He was a flash-in-the-pan who strummed the ukelele while his shaky falsetto was heard on his trademark song – the 1929 hit “Tiptoe through the Tulips with Me.” This Tiny Tim is referenced in Kander and Ebb’s 70, GIRLS, 70 – their favorite show, by the way – in the song “You and I, Love.”
Hal “Holbrook talked about” Mark Twain Tonight!: “I built up the material working in nightclubs – fifteen-minute pieces, mostly.”
Good Lord, can you imagine going to a nightclub and seeing a performer get on stage and play Mark Twain? Wouldn’t an audience that’s been drinking show him apathy if not fury? Holbrook did better by eventually bringing Mark Twain Tonight! to Broadway where he won a Tony – not an honorary one, but for Best Actor in a Play – the first solo performer to do so and the first one to make two albums of Twain’s material.
“YOUR OWN THING was the first off-Broadway musical to win the New York Drama Critics Circle Award.”
Not really. In 1955, the committee gave its prize to THE GOLDEN APPLE. Granted, it had moved to Broadway (and had closed) by the time the critics voted, but it still was an off-Broadway show that won. Both musicals, incidentally, have fine scores, although APPLE is by far the more powerful achievement.
“The Harris girls – Julie, Barbara and Rosemary – everyone is after these days.”
Alas, Broadway had seen the last of Barbara Harris. After playing two different characters in ON A CLEAR DAY and twice as many in THE APPLE TREE, she left us, saying she loved finding aspects of the characters in rehearsals, but once she froze her performance, she didn’t take to doing the same material multiple times a week. We’re lucky we can still hear her performances.
Kander and Ebb “were at first turned down for THE HAPPY TIME, and the job was originally given to Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields.”
Coleman and Fields wrote wonderful songs for both SWEET CHARITY and SEESAW, but could they have possibly done as well as Kander and Ebb did with this sensitive and charming score?
And finally:
“Carl Fisher, general manager of FIDDLER ON THE ROOF and CABARET said, ‘I don’t know how much ticket prices can go up.’”
Yeah, $12 for a front-row orchestra seat for a musical was outrageously high, wasn’t it? Adjusting for inflation, it would now be $112 – which today might not even get you in the mezzanine.
And speaking of prices, we’ll see if my annotated Season goes for three pennies or a hundred million Benjamins. Although you’ll be able to see the book itself if you come to The Theatre World Awards table on the 21st, you’re still welcome to bid without attending; the auction ends at 11:59 p.m. on the 27th. I’m at [email protected]. We’ll see which one of you gives greetings to The Season.
Peter Filichia can be heard most weeks of the year on www.broadwayradio.com. His calendar – A SHOW TUNE FOR TODAY: 366 Songs to Brighten Your Year – is now available on Amazon.
