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re: A Delicate Balance tonight

Posted by: AlanScott 08:28 pm EST 11/20/14
In reply to: re: A Delicate Balance tonight - bret17 01:12 pm EST 11/20/14

"The London revival performed in acrimony. Maggie Smith, inspired by Stritch's success as Claire, instigated it, and then persuaded Albee to beef up the part with more lines, to Eileen Atkins' outrage. There was a feud."

Did not know that. There seems to have also been a feud (or more than one) among the cast of the 1996 production. This is discussed, though nonspecifically, in the Gussow bio of Albee. It upset Albee because the cast (or at least a couple of them) refused to continue with the production when their contracts were up. I think the production was extended once, and I guess when it came time for a second extension, a couple of people refused.

According to the Gussow book, the production was doing well enough that it could have run longer (this is confirmed by a look at the grosses). Albee, after having been so happy that the production was so successful and had enhanced the play's reputation, was very annoyed at the cast for not being able to get along with each other. And he probably was sorry not to continue to get the royalties, too.


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re: A Delicate Balance tonight

Posted by: bret17 10:02 pm EST 11/20/14
In reply to: re: A Delicate Balance tonight - AlanScott 08:28 pm EST 11/20/14

The Smith Atkins feud was related to me by a London theater critic friend. Agnes is the lead but Smith was convinced by Stritch's success that she should play Claire. At her behest, Albee took lines of Agnes' and rewrote them as Claire's to build it up. Atkins was outraged but Smith was the muscle of the production. Since hearing this I've always been attentive to interviews of Atkins. Neither of them really mentions this production.

The 1996 revival did end cryptically and prematurely considering the acclaim. awards, and grosses.

At the time there was hearsay that Stritch and Harris didn't get along. Yet, Harris was at the Stritch memorial on Monday as a spectator.


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re: A Delicate Balance tonight

Posted by: AlanScott 10:12 pm EST 11/20/14
In reply to: re: A Delicate Balance tonight - bret17 10:02 pm EST 11/20/14

I was wondering if Harris would be at the memorial. Thank you for the info. It may be that they didn't get along, but she still greatly respected Stritch's talent and prefers to remembers the good times that perhaps they had in rehearsal and the early parts of the run.

Or perhaps the biggest problems were not between them.

I'll add that there may have been a bit more to Harris's being at Strich's memorial than meets the eye.

Perhaps one day there will be a bio of one of the folks involved that reveals more about what went on. Of the three leads, only Harris is still around to speak about it, although it may be that others who were in the production and still around may have seen a good deal of the conflicts and may yet write or speak about them.

Yes, I like gossip a lot.


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