| God's Follies | |
| Posted by: BruceinIthaca 10:15 pm EDT 06/21/20 | |
| In reply to: Plain awful! - fredfrankg 02:38 pm EDT 06/21/20 | |
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| The only previous writing of Grissom's I am aware of reading is his book on Tennessee Williams' women, "Follies of God." I enjoyed much of that book, despite Grissom's best efforts to get in the way of Williams' own observations about the actresses and characters. And one thing I did notice about that book is that it seemed poorly organized and lacking in any kind of argument or analysis. A playwright need not have a thesis, but a critic, soi-disant scholar, whose main qualification seems to have been making successful contact with a lonely, alcoholic artist at the end of his life, does need to figure out how to make his writing coherent. As incoherent as Williams may hav been by the time he "befriended" Grissom, his observations about the women in his life and plays are often eloquent and insightful. Not so with Grissom's tirade. And Johanna Day is an actress whose work I typically admire--I saw her in the pretty thankless role of the sister in "Proof," where she made as good a case for that character as I think can be made, in Second Stage's double-bill of Albee's Zoo plays (I can't remember what it was called then) in an equally colorless role, in which she injected some warmth, best of all as Amy Morton's replacement in "August: Osage County" (she wasn't Morton--who is?--but she did a fine job with making the role her own), and in "Sweat," a play I didn't remember much after I saw it, though through no fault of Day's (I am underimpressed by the play and still think it got the Pulitzer because the committee decided to throw working-class drama bone that year). In recent years, she has done a good, workmanlike job as the Admiral on "Madam Secretary." I can always depend on her to be solid, professional, believable but I can't say I would go to a production BECAUSE she was appearing in it. I think to those outside NYC theatre insiders, Marvel doesn't have much more of a name. The only thing I think I've seen her in onstage (I have seen her on at least one of the Law and Order franchises) is the Glenda Jackson "King Lear." About her performance in that I can only say is that her Goneril was somewhat better than Aisling O'Sullivan's astonishingly awful Regan, but the whole thing was a mess and I suspect the director is at fault for many of the less than splendid performances. I do think of Marvel as an actress who is known for taking interesting roles and working with interesting people, but I do think the difference in box office between the two is negligible, all things equal. But all things may not be equal--it may be that Day was giving a performance that made the producers think would not garner word of mouth to draw audiences to a "serious" play, and that Marvel might. Obviously, we are likely to hear only from one side. I hope Day has a good agent for her TV work. |
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| Next: | re: God's Follies/Future Brando Book? - nyc23 12:50 am EDT 06/23/20 |
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