| re: Does anyone know if Sondheim had written appraisals of those peers of his who are still alive? | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 11:24 pm EST 12/15/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Does anyone know if Sondheim had written appraisals of those peers of his who are still alive? - toros 06:51 pm EST 12/14/21 | |
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| Hi, toros. In a footnote on page 286 of Finishing the Hat, Sondheim commented on the perception among some that Brustein was ”an astute critic.” He wrote this: ”A surprising valuation, if his review of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum in The New Republic is any example: every instance of brilliant staging he attributed to George Abbott was the work of Jerome Robbins. In fairness, not being able to differentiate among the contributions of actors, directors and choreographers is common to most reviewers, not just Brustein. But most reviewers don't apply their ignorance to producing.” Abbott was mentioned in one sentence of Brustein’s review. Here is the entire paragraph of which that sentence was part: ”If the play seems an evocation of happier years, so do the performances. American actors have never lost their comic talents, but these are so rarely exercised that they almost have to be resurrected, and much of the acting seems the result of expert antiquarian research by the director, George Abbott. Jack Gilford as Hysterium ('slave of slaves') has borrowed the nervous vacancy of Hugh Herbert, twitching with terror as, dressed in female costume, he runs from a lustful old man; Ruth Kobart, as the shrew Domina, has turned to Margaret Dumont for her fine impersonation of a coquettish ogre; Ronald Holgate as Miles ('I am a parade') Gloriosus reminds one of a muscle-bound Nelson Eddy; and David Burns, puffing, blustering and cooing as the impotent-amorous Senex—traditional Plautine butt—has reached back to the top banana style of the old girlie musicals.” He then spent a paragraph on Zero Mostel. As you see, not one piece of staging was attributed to Abbott or even really mentioned (I don't think ”running” counts). If Sondheim had lambasted Brustein as being silly or ignorant for crediting Abbott with ”expert antiquarian research” in having helped the actors to evoke comic acting styles and character types of the past, I might have agreed as several of the actors he praised were known experts in those styles of acting. But it also seems clear that Brustein was being intentionally silly himself when he credited Abbott with ”expert antiquarian research.” I think Sondheim may have been thinking of Jerry Tallmer of the Village Voice who went on and on about Abbott in his review, but I don't have the review handy to check whether Tallmer mentioned specific bits of staging. And why would Brustein have credited Robbins? Robbins was not credited anywhere. There had been a couple of mentions in the press that Robbins had come in to help out on the show, but just a couple. And I can imagine that Sondheim would have criticized a reviewer for crediting someone who had just been rumored to have helped out on a show. So even if Brustein had overly credited Abbott at the expense of Robbins, that would not have been an instance of theatrical ignorance. Admittedly, the larger point that Sondheim was making is that the critic he remembered — whether it was Tallmer or yet someone else — should have credited the choreographer (Jack Cole was credited with choreography and musical staging), not the director, with certain staging. But I would think that most theatre professionals, including Sondheim, would agree that it is often hard to know whom to credit with particular bits of staging unless you were there during rehearsals, and sometimes even then it is hard to know. Coincidentally, just last night I was listening to a recent rebroadcast of one of the Sondheim-Frank Rich talks that offers a good example. (It was one from Portland, which may still be listened to and downloaded at the link.) One thing he talked about, prompted by Rich, was Robbins wanting to cut ”Little Lamb,” and, in fact, cutting it for one performance, leading to the threat of legal action by the authors. Sondheim says that Robbins then said to them, ”You stage it,” so Arthur Laurents staged it. (Laurents told the story slightly differently in Original Story By.) Would Sondheim have thought that a critic who praised Robbins for a beautifully simple staging of ”Little Lamb” was ignorant? I would think there is a good chance that even some cast members did not know. Returning to Brustein: He was the only critic I have read from the time who criticized the Forum score on precisely the ground that Sondheim later criticized it (he said that James Goldman pointed it out to him): a mismatch between the sophistication of the score — Brustein specified the lyrics — and the low-comedy book. I disagree with them both on this. |
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| Link | Sondheim and Frank Rich in Portland |
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