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| NBC Live's production of Pulitzer Prize winning play "All the Way Home" is on Amazon Prime | |
| Posted by: Teacher64 05:48 pm EDT 08/13/20 | |
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| I was surprised to see this on Amazon Prize. This is from the early 80s I think. It was broadcast live on NBC from University of CA. Starring William Hurt, Sally Field, Ned Beatty, Polly Holiday, Jeremy Licht, and Murray Hamilton. A beautiful production of a haunting play by Tad Mosel that won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama back in the 60s. | |
| Link | All the Way Home |
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| re: NBC Live's production of Pulitzer Prize winning play "All the Way Home" is on Amazon Prime | |
| Posted by: BHandshy (bradleyleroy@hotmail.com) 04:13 am EDT 08/18/20 | |
| In reply to: NBC Live's production of Pulitzer Prize winning play "All the Way Home" is on Amazon Prime - Teacher64 05:48 pm EDT 08/13/20 | |
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| OK, so I enjoyed this, especially Sally Fields' performance (especially since I've always held a grudge against her for winning the Academy Award for NORMA RAE, when I felt Bette Midler in THE ROSE was more deserving), but, REALLY? - a Pulitzer Prize for this play? It astounds me some of the shows that have been awarded the Pulitzer Prize - one of the the most astonishing being FIORELLO. I've seen two productions of FIORELLO and it's one of the worst musicals I've even witnessed. | |
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| re: NBC Live's production of Pulitzer Prize winning play "All the Way Home" is on Amazon Prime | |
| Last Edit: AlanScott 08:37 pm EDT 08/18/20 | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 08:36 pm EDT 08/18/20 | |
| In reply to: re: NBC Live's production of Pulitzer Prize winning play "All the Way Home" is on Amazon Prime - BHandshy 04:13 am EDT 08/18/20 | |
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| You may already know this, but perhaps not everyone does: the Pulitzer judges at the time, John Gassner and John Mason Brown, not only didn't choose Fiorello!, they didn't even consider it seriously (or perhaps not at all). Their choice was Toys in the Attic. The Columbia Advisory Board overruled their choice. Someone on the board suggested Fiorello! and that made the Board happy, but it did not make the judges happy. They said nothing at the time but when their choice was overruled again with Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? they made a statement and they resigned as the judges. (Actually, their term as judges was over, but they might well have been invited to continue, they were a prestigious pair.) Passing over Lillian Hellman might seem to suggest a political motivation, but Toys in the Attic is the sort play that the Pulizer Advisory Board at that time might have deemed too negative and unpleasant to receive the award. I suspect that members of the Advisory Board found it distasteful. At this time, I think the original description of the award was still in effect: "For the original American play, performed in New York, which shall best represent the educational value and power of the stage in raising the standard of good morals, good taste, and good manners." Oy! Admittedly, they had clearly overlooked some of that with several of the earlier winners, but the particular unpleasantness of Toys might have been a step too far for the Board, even though the critics mostly didn't seem to care and neither did audiences. What productions have you seen of Fiorello!? I don't think it's a great musical, but I'm surprised you find it so bad. As for giving the prize to All the Way Home, it was a weakish season. Still, Gassner and Brown were enthusiastic about it. Btw, even though it won the Pulitzer and the New York Drama Critics Circle award, it never came close to recouping. It almost closed at the end of opening week, and it almost closed several more times. Even the film sale did not bring it close to recouping, and I don't think even royalties from later productions and the two television productions brought it to recoupment, although it may have eventually gotten close. When it closed, it had returned almost none of the investment. Many Pulitzer choices seem, at best, puzzling now, and I think some were puzzling even at the time. Harvey over The Glass Menagerie? |
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| re: NBC Live's production of Pulitzer Prize winning play "All the Way Home" is on Amazon Prime | |
| Posted by: BHandshy (bradleyleroy@hotmail.com) 04:30 pm EDT 08/19/20 | |
| In reply to: re: NBC Live's production of Pulitzer Prize winning play "All the Way Home" is on Amazon Prime - AlanScott 08:36 pm EDT 08/18/20 | |
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| Thanks for all of that info! The productions I saw of FIORELLO were community theatre productions. The groups that performed it are pretty good, so I don't really blame them (other than for choosing the show - LOL!). Part of why I find FIORELLO to be so bad might have to do with expectations - a Pulitzer Prize, a Bock and Harnick score, etc. I just expected better. Further, the story seems a little thin. Lastly, I have little interest in the lives of politicians. |
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| re: NBC Live's production of Pulitzer Prize winning play "All the Way Home" is on Amazon Prime | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 05:37 pm EDT 08/19/20 | |
| In reply to: re: NBC Live's production of Pulitzer Prize winning play "All the Way Home" is on Amazon Prime - BHandshy 04:30 pm EDT 08/19/20 | |
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| I think biographical musicals (and plays, too) are generally problematic, unless they focus on just short periods of people's lives. Sometimes they succeed when the person's life is still so well known to audiences that people can fill in the blanks and bring their affection for the person to the experience, but later they seem terribly insufficient. Of course, there are exceptions. After all, Gypsy is a biographical musical that covers a long period of time. I feel Fiorello! has a terrific score, wonderfully orchestrated and performed on the OBCR. I think that even when I first read the book, when I was 12 or 13 or so, I found it pretty insufficient. I think time has been even less kind to it, especially the scene where Fiorello advocates for America to enter World War I, which I suspect bothered some people even in 1959. It might be OK if it didn't seem so clear that we're supposed to think this is the right position. It's too bad because the score is full of terrific stuff, some of it really brilliant, but the show tries to cover too much. I imagine that the original cast put it across with a lot of feeling and commitment, and in New York at least, enough of the audience knew enough that they could fill in some of the blanks. I wondered what productions you've seen because the last time Encores! did it, the book was apparently so heavily cut that it seemed worse than it is. (The first time Encores! did it, the book was cut even more heavily.) So I wondered if you'd seen one or both of those and were basing your assessment on those. A friend who saw the last one and who didn't know the show found some of it just puzzling. Then he read the script and he said, "Well, it's not a great musical, but at least it makes sense. At Encores! it didn't even make sense some of the time because of the cuts." |
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| re: NBC Live's production of Pulitzer Prize winning play "All the Way Home" is on Amazon Prime | |
| Posted by: BruceinIthaca 09:05 pm EDT 08/18/20 | |
| In reply to: re: NBC Live's production of Pulitzer Prize winning play "All the Way Home" is on Amazon Prime - AlanScott 08:36 pm EDT 08/18/20 | |
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| Yes, especially when we all know Chase's masterpiece was Mrs. McThing! (I played Chef Ellsworth in my high school production in 1974. The set fell down on opening night, and that was the highlight of THAT production!) | |
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| re: NBC Live's production of Pulitzer Prize winning play "All the Way Home" is on Amazon Prime | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 10:54 pm EDT 08/18/20 | |
| In reply to: re: NBC Live's production of Pulitzer Prize winning play "All the Way Home" is on Amazon Prime - BruceinIthaca 09:05 pm EDT 08/18/20 | |
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| LOL! Not Bernardine? I should read Mrs. McThing. It kind of sounds like something I'd get a kick out of. I was in a show once where part of the set fell down (I was not onstage at the time) on a night when so much went so unbelievably wrong that it was like all three acts of Noises Off happened on one night. |
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| re: NBC Live's production of Pulitzer Prize winning play "All the Way Home" is on Amazon Prime | |
| Posted by: Charlie_Baker 11:56 am EDT 08/14/20 | |
| In reply to: NBC Live's production of Pulitzer Prize winning play "All the Way Home" is on Amazon Prime - Teacher64 05:48 pm EDT 08/13/20 | |
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| This is a quite good production of a play that has always been a favorite of mine. (And I liked Transport Group's production too.) But I discovered the play via an even better TV production from 1971 with Joanne Woodward, Richard Kiley, Pat Hingle, Eileen Heckart, Barnard Hughes. | |
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| re: NBC Live's production of Pulitzer Prize winning play "All the Way Home" is on Amazon Prime | |
| Posted by: Teacher64 01:12 pm EDT 08/18/20 | |
| In reply to: re: NBC Live's production of Pulitzer Prize winning play "All the Way Home" is on Amazon Prime - Charlie_Baker 11:56 am EDT 08/14/20 | |
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| Yes, I have that one too somewhere. And if I recall, a very young James Woods played Woodward's younger brother. | |
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| re: NBC Live's production of Pulitzer Prize winning play "All the Way Home" is on Amazon Prime | |
| Posted by: Charlie_Baker 07:06 pm EDT 08/18/20 | |
| In reply to: re: NBC Live's production of Pulitzer Prize winning play "All the Way Home" is on Amazon Prime - Teacher64 01:12 pm EDT 08/18/20 | |
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| Correct! | |
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| And from the same series, Henry Fonda in "The Oldest Living Graduate" | |
| Posted by: davei2000 09:12 am EDT 08/14/20 | |
| In reply to: NBC Live's production of Pulitzer Prize winning play "All the Way Home" is on Amazon Prime - Teacher64 05:48 pm EDT 08/13/20 | |
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| with George Grizzard, Cloris Leachman, John Lithgow, Timothy Hutton, Harry Dean Stanton, David Ogden Stiers | |
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| re: NBC Live's production of Pulitzer Prize winning play "All the Way Home" is on Amazon Prime | |
| Posted by: Snowysdad 07:38 pm EDT 08/13/20 | |
| In reply to: NBC Live's production of Pulitzer Prize winning play "All the Way Home" is on Amazon Prime - Teacher64 05:48 pm EDT 08/13/20 | |
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| Interesting because Ahrens and Flaherty are in process of musicalizing this story using both Agee's original book and Mosel's play as source material. The title is Knoxville and it was scheduled to open at Asolo Rep last April. We can all figure out how that turned out. Now scheduled for NEXT April. I believe the book is by Terrance McNally, RIP. With all the hoopla around announcing it I remembered that I had been in the play as a child circa 1960 at Tufts University. | |
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| re: NBC Live's production of Pulitzer Prize winning play "All the Way Home" is on Amazon Prime | |
| Posted by: larry13 08:58 pm EDT 08/13/20 | |
| In reply to: re: NBC Live's production of Pulitzer Prize winning play "All the Way Home" is on Amazon Prime - Snowysdad 07:38 pm EDT 08/13/20 | |
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| No, the book is by the director, Frank Galati(who directed RAGTIME). It was to have starred Jason Danieley and Hannah Elless. If you know it has been rescheduled for next April, you know more than I could find online, including at the Asolo Rep website. | |
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| re: NBC Live's production of Pulitzer Prize winning play "All the Way Home" is on Amazon Prime | |
| Posted by: Snowysdad 08:39 am EDT 08/14/20 | |
| In reply to: re: NBC Live's production of Pulitzer Prize winning play "All the Way Home" is on Amazon Prime - larry13 08:58 pm EDT 08/13/20 | |
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| Oops, Frank would kill me if he knew I made this mistake, but you are correct. Link below to Asolo Rep's 2020-21 season brochure which plans to open Knoxville in May. | |
| Link | https://www.asolorep.org/season-tickets/our-season |
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| re: NBC Live's production of Pulitzer Prize winning play "All the Way Home" is on Amazon Prime | |
| Posted by: larry13 06:39 pm EDT 08/14/20 | |
| In reply to: re: NBC Live's production of Pulitzer Prize winning play "All the Way Home" is on Amazon Prime - Snowysdad 08:39 am EDT 08/14/20 | |
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| Thanks. I wish them--and all the artists involved in all the productions--the best of luck. Opening in November is very optimistic. | |
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| re: NBC Live's production of Pulitzer Prize winning play "All the Way Home" is on Amazon Prime | |
| Posted by: Snowysdad 11:20 pm EDT 08/14/20 | |
| In reply to: re: NBC Live's production of Pulitzer Prize winning play "All the Way Home" is on Amazon Prime - larry13 06:39 pm EDT 08/14/20 | |
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| Inside the theater Billy Elliot is already known to be scrapped, just not officially announced yet. I doubt any of the repertory plays will happen but fingers crossed for Hood and Knoxville. | |
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| re: NBC Live's production of Pulitzer Prize winning play "All the Way Home" is on Amazon Prime | |
| Posted by: Ann 06:14 pm EDT 08/13/20 | |
| In reply to: NBC Live's production of Pulitzer Prize winning play "All the Way Home" is on Amazon Prime - Teacher64 05:48 pm EDT 08/13/20 | |
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| I really liked the 2006 production at the Connelly - Transport Group. | |
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| re: NBC Live's production of Pulitzer Prize winning play "All the Way Home" is on Amazon Prime | |
| Posted by: Teacher64 06:24 pm EDT 08/13/20 | |
| In reply to: re: NBC Live's production of Pulitzer Prize winning play "All the Way Home" is on Amazon Prime - Ann 06:14 pm EDT 08/13/20 | |
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| Yes, I saw that one too. It was an amazing production. | |
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| re: NBC Live's production of Pulitzer Prize winning play "All the Way Home" is on Amazon Prime | |
| Posted by: Pokernight 06:59 pm EDT 08/13/20 | |
| In reply to: re: NBC Live's production of Pulitzer Prize winning play "All the Way Home" is on Amazon Prime - Teacher64 06:24 pm EDT 08/13/20 | |
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| I had the pleasure of seeing the original Broadway production with Colleen Dewhurst, Arthur Hill, Aline McMahon, and John Megna. It was PURE theater. | |
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