edjames

The performance last night was good. The score is sublime and proves just how genius Jerry really was. The acting was OK, but by the end of the show, you understand why it doesn't work. They have been tweaking the script for decades. It ends unhappily, and I think that's a major problem. People don't want to go to a musical comedy and end up depressed. Shame. Would have loved to have seen Robert Preston tackle the lead role.

Alas, another troubled musical at Encores. This review by Laura Collins-Hughes in today's NYTimes revisits this revival. Despite the troubled book, the music is a highlight. I'm seeing it tonight.
 
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/20/theater/mack-and-mabel-review.html

Attended Spunk last night and had a great time. Beautiful boys and hot men.

He was a hustler in his pre-Hollywood days. Who knew?
 
Edd Byrnes, Who Combed His Way to TV Stardom, Dies at 86
He became one of television’s first teen idols as Kookie, the hair-combing, jive-talking youth on the hit series “77 Sunset Strip.”
 
CHICAGO, Aug. 22, 1959 — Some fainted, others sobbed with delight and still others surged toward him to gaze into his face, crowned with a crop of wavy hair.
And so went the mass love affair between Edd (Kookie) Byrnes, 26, and a throng of 18,000 cheering bobby sox fans yesterday at Midway Airport. — The Associated Press
Edd Byrnes, who became one of television’s first teen idols as Kookie — the hair-combing, jive-talking youth on the
— but found ever after that he could not live the character down, died on Wednesday at his home in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 86. His son, Logan Byrnes, said the cause was probably a stroke.
Broadcast on ABC from 1958 to 1964, “77 Sunset Strip” starred Efrem Zimbalist Jr. and Roger Smith as a pair of suave Los Angeles private eyes and Mr. Byrnes as the parking-lot attendant at the restaurant next door to their office.
As he ministered tenderly to the Thunderbird convertible driven by Mr. Zimbalist in the show, Kookie (né Gerald Lloyd Kookson III) ran his omnipresent pocket comb through his lush ducktailed pompadour, cracked his devil-may-care grin and spouted aphorisms that even at midcentury had all the gnomic obscurity of Zen koans:
“A dark seven” (a depressing week); “piling up the Z’s” (getting some sleep); “headache grapplers” (aspirin); “buzzed by germsville” (to become ill); and, most emblematically, “Baby, you’re the ginchiest!” — a phrase of the highest Kookian approbation.
Mr. Byrnes, an immediate object of desire for the show’s young female viewers, was soon receiving 15,000 fan letters a week. At public appearances he was pelted with combs. With Connie Stevens, he recorded a single, “Kookie, Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb,” which sold more than a million copies and reached No. 4 on the Billboard chart, despite the fact that by his own cheerful admission he could not sing.
Mr. Byrnes was an entirely self-taught actor — and originally hired to appear in only a single episode of the show. By his own account, his life began with a turbulent, impoverished childhood followed by a stint as a male prostitute; peaked with fame, riches and a roster of celebrity friends; and ebbed amid alcoholism and drug addiction before culminating in sobriety and steady, if relatively low-profile, television work.
Edward Byrne Breitenberger was born in Manhattan on July 30, 1933, and reared in the Yorkville section, then a rough-and-tumble, down-at-the-heels ancestor of today’s gentrified Upper East Side neighborhood.
His father, Augustus Breitenberger — alcoholic, verbally abusive, usually unemployed and often absent — was, Mr. Byrnes wrote in his memoir, “‘Kookie’ No More” (1996, with Marshall Terrill), the black sheep of a distinguished family: Augustus’s father was a noted civil engineer who had helped build the city’s subway system.
From boyhood on, Ed — he would add the extra “d,” with its double dollop of cool, circa “77 Sunset Strip” — held a series of jobs to support his mother, brother and sister: shining shoes, delivering ice, coal and newspapers and operating a drill press.
When Ed was 13, his father was found dead from a head wound of uncertain origin — the death may have been a homicide, Mr. Byrnes wrote — leaving Ed as the head of the family. His only escape, he later said, was the movies, and he dreamed of becoming a star.
At 15, he dropped out of school, and at 17, his build honed by gymnastics, he began working as a photographer’s model. A photographer for whom he posed “set us up on dates with older, rich men,” Mr. Byrnes wrote, drawing him into hustling.
“It was a strange world I had been introduced to,” his memoir continued. “Art, wealth, sadism, limousines, sex for money, theater and fine restaurants.”
He kept watching movies, making a meticulous study of actors’ techniques. He gained valuable, if unorthodox, dramatic experience by helping a friend from the neighborhood, a New York police detective, interrogate suspects, playing bad cop to his friend’s good cop. His role, he wrote, consisted largely of whacking suspects over the head with the Manhattan Yellow Pages.
Around this time, desiring a professional name and wanting to disavow his father, he began calling himself Edward Byrnes.
The young Mr. Byrnes parlayed his N.Y.P.D. training into roles in summer stock. In 1955, he drove to Hollywood in search of stardom.
He landed bit parts in television shows like “Wire Service,” “Cheyenne” and “Maverick,” and, eventually, larger parts in movies, including “Reform School Girl” (1957), “Life Begins at 17” (1958), “Darby’s Rangers” (1958) and “Marjorie Morningstar” (1958).
In 1958 he was cast in “Girl on the Run,” a movie that became the de facto pilot for “77 Sunset Strip.” That film, which starred Mr. Zimbalist as a detective, was meant to be a one-off; Mr. Byrnes’s character was a murderous psychopath who, in a bit of business he came up with on the set, keeps running a comb through his hair.
In test screenings, Mr. Byrnes engendered such a frenzy among the women in the audience that the film soon became a series and his character — resuscitated, one assumes, after a spin in the electric chair — was reborn as Kookie. (In later episodes Kookie
has graduated from parking cars to playing junior detective.)
Although Mr. Byrnes appeared elsewhere in other roles, he found it hard to slip Kookie’s yoke. He reprised the character on several shows of the early ’60s, including “Hawaiian Eye” and “Surfside 6,” as well as in “Kookie & Co.,” a 1964 movie for West German television.
By the time “77 Sunset Strip” wound down, Mr. Byrnes wrote, he had become mired in drugs, alcohol and depression — first amid the pressures of fame, later amid the reality of being unable to land more significant roles. He hit bottom in 1982, eventually attaining sobriety with the aid of a 12-step program.
Mr. Byrnes’s marriage to Asa Maynor, whom he wed in 1962, ended in divorce. In addition to their son, Logan, a news anchor at KUSI in San Diego, he is survived by his partner, Catherine Gross; a sister, Jo-Ann Breitenberger; and a brother, Vincent Breitenberger.
His other television credits include “The Love Boat,” “Fantasy Island,” “Simon & Simon” and “Murder, She Wrote.” His film roles include Vince Fontaine, the oleaginous host of a TV dance-party show, in “Grease” (1978).
If Mr. Byrnes’s later career did not accord him the stardom of which he had once dreamed, he was, by his own account, content. There was one topic, though, on which he would seldom consent to be interviewed.
The subject was hair care. “I won’t talk about it,” he told The Washington Post in 1998, “unless someone’s paying me.”

Bad service should be reflected in the tip.
A word to the manager might also help future patrons.

The show has various discounts available.
 
Show of the Month Exclusive! $79 Orchestra Tickets
//www.broadwaybox.com/shows/inheritance/
 
Valid Thru: January 16, 2020
TICKETS FROM $39!*
http://www.playbill.com/discount/playbill-discounts-for-the-inheritance
 
Rush Tickets: $40.00 - Available at the Box Office only on the day of the performance - Limit 2 tickets per customer - May not be available for all performances - Subject to availability.
https://www.telecharge.com/offerslist.aspx?productid=13020
 
And no doubt day-of-performance tickets available at TKTS in Times Square @ 47th St at reduced prices.

Opening night is Sunday, November 17.
Reviews shouldd be available on Monday, November 18.

Opening night is Sunday, November 17.
Reviews shouldd be available on Monday, November 18.

I saw Part 1 last night and all I can say..."it's fu*kin' unbelieveable!" And that's in a good sense.
This is a magnificent production.
Dramatic, emotional, and funny. The cast is superb.
Despite it' length, at 3+ hours, it goes by remarkably fast.
As a gay, NYC man, I was completely involved with the story and characters. The play has some interesting references to being gay in NYC,, for example, Musical Mondays at Splash(!) and there is a brief scene set in Peter Luger's Brooklyn Steakhouse where Eric, when asked what he'll be having, says "I think I'll have the sole." The audience roared at the NYTimes review reference.
I had tears in my eyes at the final Part 1 scene.
Can't wait for Part 2 on Friday night.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Tony, Grammy, and Emmy winner Cynthia Erivo sang a snippet of “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Loved You)” on The Late Show with Stephen ColbertOctober 30. The song was made famous by Aretha Franklin, who Erivo will play in the upcoming NatGeo series Genius: Aretha.
 
https://www.playbill.com/article/watch-cynthia-erivo-sing-i-never-loved-a-man-by-aretha-franklin-ahead-of-playing-the-musical-genius
 
Fast forward too about 5:28 to watch how incredible this woman is. She blew me away in the Broadway production of The Color Purple.

I'll be across the plaza at the NYPhil's tribute to Sondheim on NYE.

I'll be across the plaza at the NYPhil's tribute to Sondheim on NYE.

A more simple answer...perhaps he is diabetic and takes daily insulin injections?
 
Finally, confront and ASK!

Saw it FOR FREE at the CinepolistWest 23rd St movie complex theater here in NYC.
Bought a ticket for the 1PM show.
Went into the theater where I, and about a dozen other patrons, sat and waited for the show to begin....NOT!
Theater manager came in at 1:15 and said the would start immediately....NOT.
Another theater employee came in at 1:30 and said they couldn't get the projector to work (do they still have those?), so we were all entitled to a full refund and free admission to the 1:45 showing.
Despite the aggravation, I enjoyed the movie very much and watching the Crawley's and the downstairs staff is like catching up with old friends.
Will definitely watch it again...and agin.

I have used Zappos many times. Never a problem.

Tom Ford has an incredible line of fragrances. I am addicted to his scents, especially FUCKING FABULOUS!

Living in NYC, I come across celebrities on a regular basis.
I live in an upscale building and one of my neighbors was a major manager/agent in show biz.
I almost died the day Kit Harrington walked out his door and we rode the elevator to the lobby.
Not only was he very good looking but sweet and nice.
Today, I rode the 23rd St crosstown bus with Adam Rippon.
Cute.

Today's NYTimes reports:
 
Hugh Jackman to Star in ‘Music Man’ on Broadway
 
Hugh Jackman is returning to Broadway next year in a revival of “The Music Man.”
Mr. Jackman teased the idea via Twitter on Tuesday, and on Wednesday the producer Scott Rudin announced a run, which he said would begin previews Sept. 9, 2020, and open on Oct. 22, 2020 at an unspecified Shubert theater.
Mr. Jackman, 50, has appeared on Broadway four times. In 2004, he won a Tony Award as best actor in a musical for “The Boy from Oz,” and in 2012 he was granted a special, noncompetitive, Tony for his professional and volunteer efforts in the Broadway community.
“The Music Man,” with book, music and lyrics by Meredith Willson, first opened on Broadway in 1957. Mr. Jackman will play Harold Hill, a scam artist who pretends to be a musician and makes money selling instruments and uniforms to boys aspiring to be part of a band in River City, Iowa.
The original production won the 1958 Tony Award for best musical, besting “West Side Story.” There was a brief revival at City Center in 1980 starring Dick Van Dyke, and a longer-lived revival, starring Craig Bierko, that opened in 2000.
No further casting was announced for the new revival, which will be directed by Jerry Zaks and choreographed by Warren Carlyle, who collaborated on a 2017 revival of “Hello, Dolly!” that was also produced by Mr. Rudin.
The “Music Man” announcement was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter.
 
Sure to be a hit. I think he's perfect for the role and this is a musical with a great score.

Living in NYC, I come across celebrities on a regular basis.
I live in an upscale building and one of my neighbors was a major manager/agent in show biz.
I almost died the day Kit Harrington walked out his door and we rode the elevator to the lobby.
Not only was he very good looking but sweet and nice.
Today, I rode the 23rd St crosstown bus with Adam Rippon.
Cute.

You're right, no sleep, his creative mind keeps working 24/7!
 
Just announced, Ewan McGregor as Halston for a biopic, a documentary about Andy Wharol, a series starring Jessica Lange about Marlene Dietrich in Las Vegas in the 1960's, and Patti Lupone and Holland Taylor in a Hollywood sex-industry tale.

Absolute right!
If they hadn't screwed up the production company for Cirque du Soliel, this would have been right up their alley!

Everybody hates Faye....
 
Gay personal assistant says Faye Dunaway called him ‘a little homosexual boy’: lawsuit
Actress Faye Dunaway relentlessly berated her gay personal assistant on play “Tea at Five,” calling him “a little homosexual boy” before he was fired for complaining, a new lawsuit alleges.
Michael Rocha says in his Manhattan Supreme Court suit that he began working for the Broadway-bound production — from which Dunaway was eventually fired — on April 5 and was tasked with shopping, helping the actress take her meds, arranging her schedule and getting her to and from rehearsals.
Rocha — who worked at the Oscar-winning star’s East 57th Street apartment and was paid $1,500 per week — alleges that Dunaway “regularly and relentlessly subjected plaintiff to abusive demeaning tirades” and used his sexual orientation as a gay man to “demean and humiliate him at work,” the court papers charge.
On May 2, the “Mommie Dearest” star called Rocha and other workers “little gay people” and later that month called him “a little homosexual boy,” which he says he has a recording of, the suit claims.
Rocha reported it to the general manager and general counsel for the one-woman play, in which Dunaway portrayed actress Katharine Hepburn, and also gave them the tape of the offensive comment, he claims.
About two weeks later, on June 12, Rocha was fired and told that Dunaway “is not comfortable with you anymore,” the court documents allege.
Rocha was not the only employee allegedly forced to endure Dunaway’s diva ways.

Michael Reidel in today's NYPost reports Vannessa Redgrave will not be appearing in the Broadway production:
 
Here’s hoping Vanessa Redgrave isn’t done with Broadway
Let’s hear it for the great Lois Smith, who rode to the rescue this week when “The Inheritance,” coming in from London, was missing a key cast member: Vanessa Redgrave.
She won raves for her performance as a mother trying to make sense of her son’s homosexuality, and producers Sonia Friedman and Tom Kirdahy had their fingers crossed she’d reprise it here. But they didn’t press the 82-year-old, who, at the last minute, decided she just wasn’t up to reproducing what one critic called an “achingly frail” performance.
The scramble was on to find an actress of her caliber. Director Stephen Daldry met with Smith, and knew he had found the right replacement. The 88-year-old Obie award winner returns to Broadway for the first time since the 1996 revival of “Buried Child.”
Matthew Lopez’s “The Inheritance” is loosely based on E.M. Forster’s “Howards End,” with a lot of Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America” thrown in. Gay men fight over real estate against the backdrop of the lingering AIDS epidemic. Politics, sex, death and debates about the mainstreaming of gay culture swirl throughout this meaty epic. One New York theater producer who saw it says it’s the most brilliant, gay-themed play since “Angels.” Another says: “It has 2 ¹/₂ hours of brilliant writing, but it should have been cut. Why does every ‘important’ play have to be in two parts?”
Wherever you come down on it, “The Inheritance,” which starts previews Sept. 27, is shaping up to be a cultural event of the new season.
I hope we see Redgrave at least one more time here. She was rhapsodic as Vita Sackville-West in “Vita and Virginia” in 1994. She held audiences rapt as Joan Didion in “The Year of Magical Thinking” in 2007. And she broke our hearts as Mary Tyrone in the 2003 revival of “Long Day’s Journey Into Night.”
Brian Dennehy, who played James Tyrone in that production, has a great story about Redgrave. He had done the play in Chicago and thought the Broadway run would be fairly easygoing. After all, he knew the lines, the role and the play. But at the first table reading with Redgrave, he told me, “She was doing so many astonishing things, I realized I had to throw out everything I thought I knew and start all over again.”
Sometimes she’d make her first entrance from the porch, sometimes from the dark at the top of the stairs. Dennehy and co-stars Robert Sean Leonard and Philip Seymour Hoffman were never sure what she was going to be like each night — which made the production all that much more brilliant, since the Tyrones never know what to expect from Mary, a morphine addict.
Redgrave was not playing Mary Tyrone. She was Mary Tyrone. It was a remarkable performance for which she won the Tony.
Speaking of great Dames, another we may never see in New York again is Maggie Smith. Last spring, the 84-year-old returned to the London stage in a one-woman show about the secretary to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. Christopher Hampton’s “A German Life” sold out in about 20 minutes. Smith received raves and offers to bring the play to New York. But, like Redgrave, she apparently decided a run in the Big Apple was a bit much at this point in her life. That’s a pity: She hasn’t been here since 1990, when she starred in “Lettice and Lovage” — another performance that, if you saw it, you’ll never forget it.
“A German Life” is a very good play, by the way. I’m not sure Lois Smith is quite right for the part of Goebbels’ secretary, but there are other actresses of a certain age who could do it. I think one of our nonprofit theaters should look into it.
One Dame you will be able to see on Broadway is Eileen Atkins. The 85-year-old Emmy, Obie and Olivier award winner stars opposite Jonathan Pryce in “The Height of the Storm,” previewing Sept. 10.
A generation of great British actresses is receding. Atkins may be the last of that generation we see here. Don’t miss her.

Sorry to hear of your problems.
I have been having shoulder and neck pain for several weeks.
Had a spinal MRI and thankfully the results were "Normal spinal cord" and some left foraminal narrowing C3-C4 and some right foraminal narrowing C5-6.
I have a followup with the neurologist but you know how difficult it is to get a doctor's appointment .
I have been having weekly adjustments with my new chiropractor. I've also been going to the massage therapist, at least twice a week, and things are beginning to improve, but I am not out of the woods yet.
Been applying a hot pack on the neck a couple of times a day/evening.
Been thinking of intense bourbon therapy!
 
My thought and prayers are with you..

The Web - long gone but not forgotten.
Try The Cock in the east village for seedy action. (?)