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| The Elephant Man movie vs. the play (and TV adaptation) | |
| Posted by: bobby2 03:02 am EDT 09/04/18 | |
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| Carole Shelley's death encouraged me to rewatch the TV adaptation of the play online. How does it compare to the movie with John Hurt? I'm not sure if I ever saw that. It always seemed a little sleazy of Mel Brooks and company to basically steal the momentum of the play and make their own version of the story. I think there were lawsuits. | |
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| re: The Elephant Man movie vs. the play (and TV adaptation) | |
| Last Edit: WaymanWong 04:48 am EDT 09/04/18 | |
| Posted by: WaymanWong 04:36 am EDT 09/04/18 | |
| In reply to: The Elephant Man movie vs. the play (and TV adaptation) - bobby2 03:02 am EDT 09/04/18 | |
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| Bernard Pomerance's play ''The Elephant Man'' opened on Broadway on April 19, 1979. David Lynch's movie ''The Elephant Man,'' with a screenplay by Christopher DeVore, Eric Bergren and Lynch, opened Oct. 8, 1980. Both tell the story of John Merrick, a terribly deformed man who was rescued from a sideshow and became a darling of London society. Because the play and the movie are based on Dr. Frederick Treves' account of Merrick, there are similarities in both versions, such as the inclusion of Mrs. Kendal, a London stage actress (he may or may not have met). The biggest differences are that the play was more poetic and metaphorical in depicting Merrick. Philip Anglim was an attractive young man who contorted his athletic body to suggest the grotesqueness of Merrick's misshapenness. In Lynch's black-and-white movie, however, John Hurt wore remarkably realistic makeup, supervised by Christopher Tucker, which was directly designed based on casts of Merrick's body. Reports say it took seven to eight hours to apply the makeup to Hurt and another two hours to remove it. Both versions would be celebrated: On Broadway, it got 7 Tony nominations and won 3 of them, including Best Play. In Hollywood, it got 8 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. And both Anglim and Hurt were nominated for their performances. (Oddly, the Oscars didn't single out Tucker's movie makeup.) So was it a coincidence that there were two properties about John Merrick within a year or so? Depends on who you ask. According to a 1979 People magazine interview with Anglim: ''The Elephant Man'' might never have been staged in the U.S. if it were not for Anglim. In the fall of 1977, after hearing about the London opening of the play, Anglim plunged his savings on a cheapie Freddie Laker ticket and flew over. He saw the drama twice, called playwright Bernard Pomerance’s agent and, posing as a theatrical scout, returned to New York with a script. There he “hounded” producer Richmond Crinkley into staging the play. Anglim’s persistence paid off.'' ''The Elephant Man'' changed Anglim's life. He had been rejected by three drama schools, and until this play, had been making ends meet by walking dogs, doing office work and driving a buggy in Central Park. Playing Merrick led to a Drama Desk and Obie, plus a Tony nomination, and the TV movie brought him an Emmy and Golden Globe nominations. In 2014, when Bradley Cooper revived ''The Elephant Man,'' the N.Y. Post's Michael Riedel interviewed Nelle Nugent, who with Elizabeth McCann and Crinkley, put on the original production, which cost $350,000. Riedel writes: ''The return on that $350,000 investment was something like 500 percent. The only thing missing was a movie sale. Mel Brooks shrewdly realized that Merrick’s life was in the public domain, so he produced the 1980 movie without having to write a big check to the producers of the Broadway play.'' The producers sued Brooksfilms over using the same title. Lynch, for his part, says: ''I never heard of 'The Elephant Man' until I saw the script.'' But he added: ''When I put myself in [the Broadway producers'] position, you can't blame them for being upset.'' However, as the Washington Post reported at the time: ''Titles, per se, cannot be copyrighted. The lawsuit was settled with Brooksfilms' agreement to disavow, in its announcement and advertising, any link to the play. Nugent says: “You’ll see in the opening credits that it says, ‘Not based on the play.’ And that’s all I’m going to say about that.” I once had the honor of interviewing Anglim when he brought ''The Elephant Man'' to A.C.T. in San Francisco, his hometown, in 1980. Apparently, he's left showbiz. Nugent says: ''I think he's raising horses in Kentucky.'' But he sure left his mark with ''The Elephant Man.'' |
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| Link | ''The Elephant Man'' (1982), starring Philip Anglim |
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| re: The Elephant Man movie vs. the play (and TV adaptation) | |
| Posted by: den 08:50 pm EDT 09/04/18 | |
| In reply to: re: The Elephant Man movie vs. the play (and TV adaptation) - WaymanWong 04:36 am EDT 09/04/18 | |
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| Both the play/TV adaptation and the film are wonderful though very very different. I used them in a high school Literature and Film class, and students were fascinated by how the same basic story could generate such different treatments. | |
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| re: The Elephant Man movie vs. the play (and TV adaptation) | |
| Posted by: bobby2 12:00 am EDT 09/05/18 | |
| In reply to: re: The Elephant Man movie vs. the play (and TV adaptation) - den 08:50 pm EDT 09/04/18 | |
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| Kevin Conway is really great in the TV version. I only knew him from playing seedier low life type characters. He really is great here. Anglim and Shelley/Fuller got all the praise but he deserved some. | |
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| re: The Elephant Man movie vs. the play (and TV adaptation) | |
| Posted by: WaymanWong 01:37 am EDT 09/05/18 | |
| In reply to: re: The Elephant Man movie vs. the play (and TV adaptation) - bobby2 12:00 am EDT 09/05/18 | |
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| Conway was very good on Broadway and in the TV film. He probably got less attention because Dr. Treves is the less showier role. In all 3 Broadway incarnations of ''The Elephant Man,'' the actors who played Merrick and Mrs. Kendal got Tony nominations. But in the 2014 revival, Alessandro Nivola, who was stellar as Dr. Treves, earned a Tony nomination for Featured Actor, too. |
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| Other than that, how did you like the play(s) about your life, Mrs. Lincoln? | |
| Last Edit: Delvino 07:03 am EDT 09/04/18 | |
| Posted by: Delvino 07:02 am EDT 09/04/18 | |
| In reply to: re: The Elephant Man movie vs. the play (and TV adaptation) - WaymanWong 04:36 am EDT 09/04/18 | |
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| It may seem irrelevant, but I'm unavoidably reminded of the infamous Broadway season ('72-'73) in which we had not one but three plays about Mary Todd Lincoln, starring Julie Harris, Eva Marie Saint, and Geraldine Page (with Maya Angelou as her co-star, sometimes forgotten). Three stories of Mrs. Lincoln, one season. | |
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| re: Other than that, how did you like the play(s) about your life, Mrs. Lincoln? | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 01:40 pm EDT 09/04/18 | |
| In reply to: Other than that, how did you like the play(s) about your life, Mrs. Lincoln? - Delvino 07:02 am EDT 09/04/18 | |
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| And in February 1972, a few months before the 1972-73 season, Thomas Pasatieri's opera The Trial of Mary Lincoln was shown on PBS, and it received much publicity. | |
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| re: Other than that, how did you like the play(s) about your life, Mrs. Lincoln? | |
| Posted by: Delvino 03:21 pm EDT 09/04/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Other than that, how did you like the play(s) about your life, Mrs. Lincoln? - AlanScott 01:40 pm EDT 09/04/18 | |
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| I'm probably fudging my argument a bit, since "The Lincoln Mask" is not exactly a singular bio of Mary Todd, but about the President himself as much (if that's what it's "about."). But for this woman to appear three times in such a brief window -- all on B'way -- still surprises me today. I wonder if "The Last of Mrs. Lincoln," Prideaux's, is done much. (Only one I saw; other than for Harris's work, it didn't mesmerize me.) | |
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| Who can forget the season of the dueling 'Wild Parties' by LaChiusa and Lippa? | |
| Last Edit: WaymanWong 11:39 am EDT 09/04/18 | |
| Posted by: WaymanWong 11:39 am EDT 09/04/18 | |
| In reply to: Other than that, how did you like the play(s) about your life, Mrs. Lincoln? - Delvino 07:02 am EDT 09/04/18 | |
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| And then there's Maury Yeston's ''Phantom'' vs. Andrew Lloyd Webber's ''Phantom of the Opera.'' Speaking of Yeston, I've always been curious about ''The Queen of Basin Street,'' his version of ''La Cage aux Folles,'' set in New Orleans. It was once announced that Mike Nichols would direct and Tommy Tune would choreograph. Jay Presson Allen would do the book. There's even a demo with some songs. (Anyone heard them?) Reportedly, it fell apart after Allan Carr couldn't put together the financing and it was postponed. Then, Carr found executive producers in Fritz Holt and Barry Brown, who fired Carr's creative team, except for Yeston, who later withdrew. Of course, Harvey Fierstein and Jerry Herman came aboard ''La Cage,'' and for them, it turned out to be the best of times. ... |
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