Drunken Words from Eugene O'Neill's "A Moon for the Misbegotten"

The Pearl Theater Company's current production is A Moon for the Misbegotten - Eugene O'Neill's follow up to Long Day's Journey into Night. After watching the play, which first premiered in 1947, I was struck by the various "drunken" words in the play; some I have not heard in years. Let's take a look at some of them.  

 

Blotto - drunk.

You must have seen how blotto I was, didn’t you.

D.T.’s (Delirium Tremens) – the shakes.

You didn’t get the D.T.’s from my whiskey.

Heebie jeebies - A feeling of anxiety, apprehension or illness.

…he’s blue and heebie-jeebies are after him…

Soused – To make intoxicated.

Trying to get me soused, Josie?

Stewed - Intoxicated, drunk.

I guess I'm more stewed than I thought…

Stinko - Intoxicated, drunk.

I've never seen him that stinko before. Must have got him all of a sudden. He didn't seem so lit up at the Inn, but I guess I wasn't paying much attention.

Teetotaller - One who abstains completely from alcoholic beverages.

You're such a virtuous teetotaller—

Rotgut - Raw, inferior liquor

That isn't Phil's rotgut. That's real, honest-to-God bonded Bourbon.

Temperance - Restraint in the use of or abstinence from alcoholic liquors.

They was too busy preaching temperance to have time for a drink. 

Quote from Alfred Uhry's "Driving Miss Daisy"

Spoken by Hoke to Daisy in Alfred Uhry's Driving Miss Daisy.

Things changin', but they ain't change all dat much.

Train Wreck Judy Depicted in "End of the Rainbow"

Right after a screening of Young Adult starring the beautiful Charlize Theron, the woman next to me leaned over and asked what I thought of the film. I replied that it is always difficult to watch a train wreck, referring to the delusional character Mavis who just cannot get herself together. A similar feeling overcame me watching Peter Quilter's End of The Rainbow during a recent preview on Broadway.

The year is 1968. Judy Garland and her new young manager/fiancee Mickey Dean have just arrived in London to do a five week comeback run at The Talk of the Town. Judy has significant debt and needs the money. While he seems to have an agenda, Mickey (initially) tries each day to get Judy to abstain from alcohol and popping just about any drug so that she can complete the run. In between the struggle, the audience witnesses Judy's wit and portions of her show at The Talk of the Town.

The talented and petite Tracie Bennett who plays Judy in End of the Rainbow gives the most energetic female performance I’ve seen on Broadway in recent memory. However, while we constantly witness Judy’s self destruction (the train wreck) and hear her music, we do not walk away from the theater feeling her soul, understanding her core. There is a moment in End of the Rainbow when Judy laments having potential but never quite living up to it. Unfortunately, that’s the problem with End of The Rainbow. 

"Once" and "Tribes" Lead 2012 Lucille Lortel Awards Nominations

Leaders in the Lucille Lortel Award Nominations

The 2012 award season has begun. Last week, the Lucille Lortel awards nominations for Off Broadway achievements were announced. Winners will be honored on May 6th. 

Looking at just the show categories, the nominees are as follows: 

Play: Blood and Gifts, Milk Like Sugar, Sons of the Prophet, The Big Meal, The School for Lies. 

Musical:Once, Queen of the Mist, Silence! The Musical, The Blue Flower, The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World.

Revival: Blood Knot, Edward Albee's The Lady from Dubuque, Look Back in Anger, The Cherry Orchard, The Maids. 

For full list of nominees in all 14 categories, see press release here. 

Random Happenings - March 2012

The Oreo cookie turns 100. Twisters ravage 12 states; for a moment, miracle toddler gives us hope but then dies and is laid to rest with her parents and siblings. Third generation Eric Nederlander is “black sheep of Broadway” with "a Jekyll and Hyde personality" according to Page Six Magazine. New York City is ranked the most competitive city in the world. Deluge closes preview performances of Evita. Sutton Foster leaves Anything Goes. I take in the revamped Carrie Off Broadway. Mike Daisey called a fabulist by This American Life. Overheating iPad 3 debuts. Raven-Symoné replaces statuesque Patina Miller in struggling nun musical Sister Act. Frank Langella drops names in new memoir. Jesus Christ Superstar comes to Broadway. Ranting Jet Blue captain freaks out; passengers wrestle him down on Flight 191.Candice Bergen says “It’s a privilege to get old.” I didn't win the $600M Mega Millions Jackpot. The cherry blossoms begin to bloom.

There is No Freedom in Female Genital Mutilation

In Lynn Nottage's powerful 2009 Pulitzer Prize winning play, we meet a group of women in war torn Conga who are trying to survive after being Ruined - that is, raped and genitally mutilated. Ms. Nottage's play is based on first hand accounts heard during her 2004 trip to Congo; therefore what we see and read probably occurred. In the film Desert Flower (a somewhat more uplifting survival story), we meet real life Waris Dirie, who was circumcised at age 3 and sold into marriage at 13; Waris Dirie would later make her way to the UK and become a model, writer and activist. 

I was reminded once again of the destructive practice of female genital mutilation or FGM during one of the opening pieces in last weekend's Nimbaya! performance at Symphony Space. Nimbaya! is an all female percussion, singing and African dancing group from Guinea. The group is comprised of some 40 woman; however, only 13 were able to secure visas to visit the US for the current tour. 150 women are on a waiting list to join the group.  

Through their art, Nimbaya! has chosen to bring attention to FGM with the hopes of eradicating the tradition which supposedly (according to the talkback after the show) helps prevents girls from being "loose." In the evening's performance leaflet, a spokesperson for Nimbaya! writes that "FMG has no known health benefits," "it's about controlling women" and "3 million girls are estimated to be at risk of undergoing the procedures every year." 

There seems to be a decline (though small) in the practice of FGM. Some countries have even banned the practice. However, the tradition remains firm. But then again, so are the resolve of FGM activists.

The Bloomsbury Group on the "Eternal Equinox"

Eternal Equinox

Meet a few members of The Bloomsbury Group - a tight knit group of English intellectuals: Virgina Woolf (writer), Vanessa Bell (artist and Virginia's sister), John Maynard Keynes (economist), Clive Bell (art critic/writer), Duncan Grant (artist), EM Forester (writer) and Lytton Strachey (writer). 

Now, let's see if I can get this straight. Virgina was married to Leonard Woolf and had lesbian affair with Vita Sackville West, who was married to diplomat Harold Nicholson. Vanessa was married to Clive Bell and had affair with artist Roger Fry and then later fell in love and had a child with gay artist Duncan Grant, who had an affair with John Keynes among others. John Keynes initially had gay affairs but then got married and settled down with a Russian ballerina. Lytton, who was gay, had a relationship with painter Dora Carrington, who shot and killed herself due a broken heart after his death. She was married to Ralph Partridge.

The small Bloomsbury Group produced an arsenal of intellectual ideas, art and literary works. But almost equally fascinating is the unheard of sexual freedom the group exercised and enjoyed in early 1900s England. Even by today's standard, this is surprising.

Now how does this all relate to the theater. Well, if you would like to observe a little bit of the dynamics of The Bloomsbury Group, now is a good time to do so. Currently playing on the NYC stage at 59E59 Theaters is Joyce Hokin Sach's Eternal Equinox which imagines an encounter between companions Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant and Everest mountaineer visitor George Mallory in the fall of 1923. All I will say is - art will be made; affairs will be had.

Ethan Lipton's "No Place to Go"

Having secured a job early during on campus recruiting, I confidently completed my last semester of college. By the time I started my career at the NYC arm of a regional corporation, I was shocked to see that the department I interviewed with was completely different. The department head was gone; only a few people remained. A month or so later, I was called into a conference room and told that the department would be disbanded. I could leave NYC and move to headquarters or I could stay through year end and receive a retention bonus for my commitment. I stayed and was fortunate to get a new position at another company. However, days before I started, articles in NY papers foreshadowed a 15% reduction in workforce at my new company. What a way to start a career!! 

Move forward many years later and I've seen layoffs at almost every company I've worked. I've seen corporate restructurings due to mergers, acquisitions, power struggles, outsourcing and offshoring. I've seen victims of quartiling. I've seen an anxious executive assistant tap the shoulders of devastated employees and escort them across the floor to receive their packages only 21/2 months after one of the most devastating events on US soil. 

Several films in recent years have also depicted layoffs. We've seen the headcutter's perspective in Up in the Air. We've seen the dedicated Tom Hank get laid off due to lack of college degree but then reinvent himself in Larry Crowne. We've seen a trading floor sweep in Margin Call. And we've seem the arrogant Ben Affleck humbled in The Company Men. 

Today, as NY's unemployment rate resides at 8.3%, audiences can experience playwright/ songwriter Ethan Lipton's topical and understated fusion of monologue and song No Place to Go cabaret style at Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater. Lipton's part time job as an information refiner at a publication company is moving to a place that might as well be another planet. He is entitled to no severance. He says goodbye to his coworkers, rashly considers moving in with his parents and lets us in on his three tear plan to "cry then weep then bawl." All of this is done with wry humor, an eclectic mix of tunes and the support of a capable band boasting a sax, guitar and bass. Check out the music video for Ethan Lipton's Three-Tear Plan below: 

  

Now, you don’t have to be business minded to understand the rationale for downsizing (euphemistically rightsizing in consultant speak) even though in some instances there can be alternatives. However, the human side can hurt. In a TONY interview, Lipton's speaks about how he developed the idea for No Place to Go - an "ode to the working man." After getting a commission to develop a musical narrative piece for Joe's Pub, he learned that he was going to lose his job. He says: 

I was anxious and nervous and bummed out and angry about it. I had some things to say here.

Yes, he does, but I promise he won't bum you out in the process. No Place to Go runs through April 8th.

A Ranking of the Greatest Plays - Daniel S. Burt

Since lists are still on my mind, here is Daniel S. Burt’s The Drama 100: A Ranking of the Greatest Plays of All Time.

Daniel S. Burt is the author of several books, including The Literary 100, The Novel 100, The Chronology of American Literature, and The Biography Book. Disagreements are encouraged by the author

One amazon.com reviewer - a "Tony Fleming" - recommends The Drama 100 because it can introduce you to dramas you may not know about and oh yeah - "you can sound knowledgeable about them" especially in trivia games.

One of My Worst Experiences Attending the Theater

Frustrated Theatergoer

In The L Magazine, David Callahan gave the Broadway version of Venus in Fur a negative review. However, he qualifies his review with the following:

To be fair and above board, the night I saw the play someone in the audience had a radio of some kind playing faintly throughout the entire performance, with the barely perceptible sound of a choir followed by waves of applause, which didn't help anyone's concentration. In fact, it has to count as one of the most maddening experiences of not just my theatergoing life but my life in general, and if you think I'm being overly dramatic, well, you weren't there—or I hope you weren't. But that's the peril of live theater, and I know that there was higher emotion among audience members looking desperately a round for the source of that noise than there ever was on stage.

Ironically I had a similar experience at a matinee performance of How I Learned to Drive at Second Stage Theatre last month. As the 90 minute performance with no intermission began, music could be heard playing faintly. I immediately scrambled and look in my purse to see if I had accidentally turned on my MP3 player. Whew, not me! However, the music continued throughout the entire performance. Audience members looked around trying to identify the culprit to no avail. At pivotal moments in the performance random tunes blasted. I left the theater frustrated and disgusted feeling like I had just squandered $40 in cash. I did not enjoy the performance of Paula Vogel's masterpiece. It had to be one of the worst theater experiences I have ever had. The culprit was either seriously hearing impaired or the most inconsiderate person I ever experience at the theater – right above the jerk who read emails throughout a matinee performance of The Lion King and the young couple with multiple facial piercings who held a conversation throughout the entire first act of a recent matinee of Carrie. Do I need to stop attending weekend matinees? Or is the communal experience of live theater on the New York City stage deteriorating? 

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