One of my major regrets is that, even though I blog
daily, I just do not have the time, energy or patience to write on every
subject that grabs my interest. My pangs of conscience are keenest when I don’t
get to review all the shows I have attended, since one of the inspirations for
my little Internet enterprise was the “theater diary” faithfully maintained by
Canadian man of letters Robertson Davies.
Of all the productions just beyond my blogger’s
grasp, the one that bothered me the most was London Wall, a 1931
workplace dramedy by John Van Druten, best known for I Am a Camera (an adaptation of Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin Stories that, in turn, inspired
the musical Cabaret), Bell, Book and Candle and I Remember Mama. Mounted in late winter
and early spring, it admirably fulfilled the ambition of the Off-Broadway
troupe The Mint Theater Co. to
revive interest, through painstaking craft and care, in vintage plays that have
been inexplicably neglected since their original productions.
When I heard that the play would be, in effect,
shown again, as part of a new PBS series, Theater Close-Up, I was doubly
motivated to write about the event. You see, the latter, a collaboration between
Channel 13 and numerous non-profit Off- and Off-Off Broadway theaters, reminds me
of nothing so much as a similarly ambitious venture from my youth: Theater in America, which went out into
the regional theater scene then starting to explode outside New York.
If I had to point to an inspiration for my longtime
interest in theater, especially classic comedies and dramas, it was the latter
show. During my high school years, in the mid-to-late Seventies, its
productions piqued my interest in the likes of Shakespeare, Moliere, Chekhov, O’Neill, Rostand,
and George S. Kaufman, with some of the best actors of the day (Tammy Grimes,
Peter Donat, Frank Langella, Blythe Danner, and Susan Sarandon). After college,
with leisure time (and some limited money) available for the first time, I was
able to attend live performances at last.
Theater
in America was eventually subsumed under the rubric
of the still-running Great Performances—a
shame, I thought, as theater deserves to stand apart from opera, classical
music and dance. I’m not sure who is the creative godfather for greenlighting Theater Close-Up now—a Young Turk with
no memory of the past, or an aging baby boomer like me. But the decision shows
TV execs that, like the Mint Theater itself, it’s never too late to revive
something from the past.
The TV broadcast reminded me of why I had so enjoyed
the performance of London Wall in the
first place. The introduction of women into the workplace is a long-settled
fact, but the predatory male exploiting his power remains as much a presence in
today’s U.S. offices as in the pre-war London solicitor’s office of Van Druten’s
setting, so the play hasn’t dated. Moreover, his expert comic timing—along with
serious overtones posed by the precarious state of aging single women—did not
get lost in the translation from an intimate small-theater venue like the Mint’s
to television.
I wrote just now that I was glad of the intense
focus on drama that this series affords away from the Great Performances umbrella. But, in one sense, this show does
merit inclusion under the old banner, for this broadcast was another opportunity
to appreciate fine performances by Julia Coffey as Miss Janus, the
super-efficient senior typist and personal secretary at the firm with an
unexpected vulnerability; Jonathan Hogan as Mr. Walker, the senior partner in the
solicitor’s office; Stephen Plunkett as the office lecher, more enthralled by
his own charm than the pretty young things that always catch his eye; and Elise
Kibler as Pat Milligan, the naïve young typist who becomes the latter’s prey.
Theater
in America was hosted by Hal Holbrook; Theater Close-Up is introduced by a
later generation’s theater luminary, Sigourney Weaver. From the episode I saw
tonight—which included a post-performance interview with the Mint Theater’s
artistic director, Jonathan Banks—Theater
Close-Up will shine a spotlight on small companies away from the ballyhoo
of Broadway.
The series will continue on successive Thursdays on
Channel 13 at 10 PM, with repeat broadcasts on Sunday evenings following Masterpiece. WLIW21 will air the series
on Monday evenings beginning Oct. 6 at 10:30 PM. If the rest of the series is
as good as this inaugural opening, a new generation of theater fans will be as
inspired as I was by public broadcasting’s offerings nearly four decades ago.
No comments:
Post a Comment