Yep, there's probably a lot more that could be written about Papp's experience at Lincoln Center. But that was a long time ago, it may only apply to Papp, and I'm not sure anyone's interested in writing another book about him.
As for "The Au Pair Man" -- it was charming but was reportedly done because Charles Durning had seen a production of it in London and had persuaded Papp to do it so Durning could play the lead. Then he and Julie Harris were almost undermined by another of Gerald Freedman's weird visual concepts. Yep, the play was about England and Ireland, not just about a woman and a burglar. But dressing Harris as Queen Victoria in various stages of her life, complete with many unnecessary costume and wig changes, seemed mostly silly. Still, the audiences were spared Freedman's biggest odd idea for the production: behind the huge, open-shelved bookcase that made up much of the back wall of the set was an as huge photo blow-up of Victoria, I think to be revealed at the end. Fortunately, someone -- maybe Papp -- talked Freedman out of it.
And I didn't know about the ever-switching title of "In The Boom Boom Room." Guess I never looked at the programs. The biggest silliness on that production -- at least the most obvious to the audience -- is the script builds to the central character's humiliating herself by exposing her breasts, and then Madeline Kahn wouldn't do it. Instead she wore this very obvious, seamed, supposedly transparent bra which looked exactly like what it was, even from the far balcony -- where people might have used binoculars anyway. |
