A Centennial Tribute to Bette Davis

Seeing Bette Davis in Now Voyager was an event involving a full box of tissues for all the tears that came flowing down the cheeks of my mother, my sister and myself. Could there ever be one so courageous as to fight that dominating mother? To step out on the edge with no wings? To fall helplessly, hopelessly into the arms of a married man? To be a savior to his child? Ah, how could anyone play that part to perfection, as did dear Bette, to be so noble, so selfless, so enthralling. And those cigarettes! Well my dear, you never see anything like that anymore. Paul Henried would take two cigarettes, put them both in his mouth, light them, and take out one and hand it to her. They were BIG smokers! (Although I cannot remember ever seeing either one of them inhale). Somehow that scene has stayed with us over these many years.


If you are in Los Angeles, The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences in association with the Film Department of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art presents A Centennial Tribute to Bette Davis Hosted by Robert Osborne with special guests Joan Leslie, Michael Merrill, Gena Rowlands and James Woods.


A Centennial Tribute to Bette Davis will honor the legendary actress with an evening featuring clips of her indelible screen performances as well as onstage discussions with several of her colleagues and friends.


WHEN: Thursday, May 1, at 8 p.m.

WHERE: At the Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

STANDBY TICKET INFORMATION: Additional tickets typically become available at the last minute due to no-shows or cancellations. On Thursday, May 1, a standby line will form at the corner of Almont and Wilshire at 5 p.m.; the number of standby tickets available for sale will be determined shortly before the 8 p.m. showtime.


For additional program information, please call (310) 247-3600.


“Fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.”

The scene from Now Voyager, the ending...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=2-KGiwGn1d8&feature=related

Courtesy of You Tube

See you next time!

Jiva

SOUTH PACIFIC AGAIN! ON BROADWAY!

Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
photo credit

I saw South Pacific at the Shubert Theater in Chicago circa 1950.

Janet Blair played Nellie Forbush. I was an usherette, and after everyone was seated, I found a seat in the front row! Fabulous. My favorite part was when the sailor sang "Bloody Mary is the Girl I Love" wearing coconuts for a brassiere. The audience howled. I was very young, and it left an impression of the thrill of musical comedy that stays with me even today. (As you can probably see in this blog)!

It opened again Thursday night at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater, only four days earlier than the original production which opened on April 7 in 1949 at The Majestic. The Broadway production of South Pacific was nominated for nine Tony Awards and won all of them, including Best Musical, Best Score, Best Libretto, and Best Director. It was the only musical production ever to win all four Tony Awards for acting. The musical was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1950.

Thursday's revival won rave reviews, David Finkle from Theater Mania saying this: Full disclosure: South Pacific was the first show I ever saw on Broadway. Its beauty, humor, and power are in no small way responsible for why I write about theater today. So it's not in the cards that I'm going to say a discouraging word about this musical theater classic, which remains every beat and measure as magnificent as it was on its original opening night, April 7, 1949.

The New York Times has this review:

Optimist Awash in the Tropics
By BEN BRANTLEY
Published: April 4, 2008
Love blossoms fast and early in Bartlett Sher’s rapturous revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “South Pacific,” which opened Thursday at the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center. And while you may think, “But this is so sudden,” you don’t doubt for a second that it’s the real thing.

See the entire review here:

http://theater2.nytimes.com/2008/04/04/theater/reviews/04paci.html?ex=1365048000&en=c2608b0e8ff95e5c&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

In other news, Gypsy opened in March starring Patti LuPone who also drew raves from the critics. I don't know if you are aware of this or not, but Stephen Joshua Sondheim, lyricist for Gypsy, was close friends as a boy with Jimmy Hammerstein, son of Oscar Hammerstein II, who became a surrogate father to Stephen and basically mentored him, encouraging his love of musical theater. Indeed, it was at the opening of Hammerstein's hit show South Pacific that Sondheim met Harold Prince, who would later direct many of Sondheim's most famous shows.

Hammerstein gave Stephen lessons on creating musical comedy and this liason between the two, along with Sondheim's deep interest, later resulted in six Tony Awards.

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Here is the striptease from Gypsy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99tftNHE7ok&feature=related

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And here's a clip of a high schooler singing "Out of My Mind" from Follies five years ago.

I wonder where she is today?? I hope she's singing somewhere in New York!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6I-hKQgGCI&feature=related

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Courtesy of YouTube

See you next time,

Jiva

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APRIL 1ST = ALL FOOLS' DAY !

Don't you just want to sing, "What Kind of Fool Am I" today? Did anyone play an April Fool's joke on you?

The best April Fool's joke I ever played was on a Manager where I worked in Naples, FL. We all got together (there were six of us) and made up a new schedule for the day, showing that everyone had the day off except the Manager. This was a home for abused and abandoned children, so the place was packed with twenty little kids.

We all hid in the closet, with the door cracked open, so we could see the look on his face when he saw no one was around, and then looked at the schedule to see who was supposed to be in that morning. He leaned in closely to the schedule, squinted, did a double take, and then jumped back in horror! That was when we all jumped out of the closet and yelled, "April Fool!"

It was great. Hope you were a good fool today.

Here is a wonderful video surprise for some Canadians!

http://video.yahoo.com/network/100284668?v=1434223&l=3815931

Jiva