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"Voice Of The Arts'
Editor’s Note: Eric Cushman Moore is a new writer for
the BARB. He is a distinguished actor, writer and sin
ger, and has worked with Newspapers, Television and
Radio Stations across the country. He has also handled
press relations for many theatre groups, including the
PLAYHOUSE in Roswell, New Theatre Productions, and
the Emory University Summer Theatre. We welcome him
to our staff, and hope that you will enjoy reading his col
umn, which will expand BARB coverage of local and nat
ional cultural affairs.
by Eric Cushman Moore
Theatre
Stuart Culpepper is to be
admired for attempting to
bring a-typical dinner
theatre fare to the Druid
Cellar Dinner Theatre; the
current offering “Story
Theatre,” is just that. His
two previous productions
there, “The Lion in Win
ter” and “Everything In
The Garden” were not seen
by this critic, so I have
nothing with which to com
pare “Story Theatre.”
However, I cannot agree
with Mr. Culpepper taking
a delightful, beautiful show
like “Story Theatre” and
adding enough tasteless
sexual schtick to fill up
two Burlesqe evenings at
the Empire, thereby reduc
ing the show to typical din
ner theatre garbage.
“Story Theatre” is a
collection of loosely adapt
ed fables and fairy tales,
originally put together by
Paul Sills and a company
of extremely talented per
formers. I have seen the'
Sills company, and am per
haps prejudiced, but the
Druid Cellar production
just doesn’t make it. One
of the main stumbling
blocks in this production is
the use of dialect, and the
company can’t seem to de
cide which dialect, they are
using when. Ellen Heard
has a “jewish mother” se
quence where she slips in
and out of southern and
semi-bronxese that doesn’t
work. Patty Shaw and Kath
ryn Thompson turn out two
of the most amazing Fran
co-German accents in the
history of live theatre, and
Patrick Cuccaro’s italian
(and he is Italian) is no
better.
The production is poorly
paced. “Story Theatre” is
presentational t h e a t e;
there isn’t a great deal of
“acting” involved in it.
The show is a performer’s
show as opposed to being
an actor’s show. It has to
be crisp, move rapidly and
be very audience involving,
or the audience begins to
squirm in their seats be
fore the first act is over.
I did.
I found one sketch very
insulting. It is the familiar
tale of the fisherman
(“fisherperson” in this
production) who catches a
flounder that is really an
enchanted prince(ss) and
throws him(her) back into
the sea. The “fisherper
son” ’s wife then orders
the man to go back and get
the flounder to grant some
wishes. The flounder in this
case is an overly stereo
typic faggot. This kind of
garbage went out with
vaudeville. The flounder
flits on and offstage to
strains of “The Dance of
the Sugar Plum Fairy” (I’m
NOT kidding!) and slips in
and out of a Paul Lynde
voice. I don’t like the con
nection between ballet and
this disgusting faggot, or
the cheap, tasteless direc
tion. Delightful, perhaps,
for an overly stereotypic
heterosexual dinner thea
tre audience, but hardly a-
musing to yours truly.
There are some good
performances and some
lovely moments. Astrid
Jackson is hysterically
funny as Henny Penny and
The Princess Who Would
Not Laugh. Her comedic
timing is great, and she was
one of the few performers
in the show who seemed to
be enjoying herself. She al
so showed great versatili
ty as a goat, a cow and an
owl. Terry Beaver is also
quite good, particularly as
the Master Theif. Most of
the evening PatrickCucca-
ro is very good, very ver
satile and simply delight
ful, especially as the Par
son in the Master Theif
sketch.
“Story Theatre” is
worth seeing: The folk tales
involved will surely bring
back fond memories. I sug
gest closing your eyes to all
of the breast and bottom
tweaking and sitting back
for some good laughs.
“Story Theatre” runs at
the Druid Cellar Wednes
day through Saturday eve
nings at 8:30, with Cock
tails at 6:00 and dinner at
7:00. The show is sched
uled to run through October
19.
Books
“Hollywood,” by Gar son
Kanin (Viking Press, $8.95
is an affectionate, if some
times caustic, memoir of
the people and institutions
that were (are?) Hollywood.
The book does not attempt
a definitive history of the
film capital, nor even a
definitive account of Mr.
Kanin’s years in the Tinsel
Town as a screenwriter,
director and production as
sistant; rather, it is a se
ries of vignettes.
As with Mr. Kanin’s
other books (“Tracy and
Hepburn, ” “A Thousand
Summers,” etc.), this one
is uneven. At points the
narratives are very boring
and poorly written. This is
possibly why Garson Kanin
is remembered most for
his work as a dramatist and
screenwriter. His play,
“Born Yesterday” is a
marvelous one. Yet plays
are a question of conver
sation, and in “Hollywood”
the recounting of conver
sations is magnificent. It
is in the areas of descrip
tion and narrative that the
boeks falls short. Just when
you are about ready to put
the book away, though,
Kanin comes up with a fas
cinating character study
and you read on.
Perhaps the most in
teresting portrait in the
book is that of Mr. Samuel
Goldwyn, of whom Lillian
Heilman is quoted as say
ing: “In order to under
stand Sam, you have to
realize that he thinks of
himself as a NATION!”
Kanin traces Goldwyn’s be
ginning in the movie indus
try (co-incidentally the be
ginning of the movie indus
try), and continues through
to his death. There is a
great deal of humaness in
Kanin’s work on Goldwyn.
He comes across as more
than just a sonofabitch
movie mogul, the usual way
men of his power are hand
led, Ona very interesting
sequence concerns the
making of a film that was
apparently one of Gold-
wyn’s pet projects,- “The
Goldwyn Follies.” It seems
that Sam Goldwyn thought
of himself as the movies’
answer to Florenz Zieg-
feld.
That name, ’ ’ Goldwyn
says at one point, “Ziegfeld
--is like Tiffany stamped
on a--you know--on any
thing! It’s like Goldwyn on a
picture.” He wanted to
make a picture of the size
and extravagance of Mr.
Zeigfeld’s famous “Fol
lies.” Countless writers,
actors, singers, variety
acts, artists, were hired,
including George Balanch
ine and the American Bal
let:
“George Balanchine and
his troupe, The Ameri-
can Ballet of the Metro
politan Opera, arrived
and made Hollywood his
tory. The requirements
and demands of his com
pany were unheard of.
Balanchine...had deter
mined that the sound-
stage floors were not
suitable for dance re
hearsals. Goldwyn
cheerfully ordered a new
building--a dance studio
--to be constructed on
the lot... Goldwyn seemed
to revel in the prolifera
ting difficulties. The
more unreasonable the
request, the more gold
wyn respected it. No one
except members of Ba
lanchine’s company were
allowed inside the (spe
cial) studio at any time,
including Samuel Gold
wyn.
“A month went by...Ru
mors abounded. Gold
wyn’ s well -planted spies
r e p o r ted eve ryt h i ng.
Goldwyn received them
impassively. He admired
Balanchine. Never had he
signed anyone who made
a greater impression on
the press. The publicity
that the company was
generating was price
less.
“Free publicity!” Gold
wyn exulted, looking
through the press book
...“Look at this...Any
body f’ Chrissake can
BU Y publicity - - but to get
it for nothing...” Any
body at the meeting could
have pointed out that the
free publicity was cost
ing him about $15,000 a
day...”
Mr. Kanin seems to ad
mire Samuel Goldwyn.
Even thougn much of the
writing about Goldwyn
could be classified as catty
could be classified as cat
ty, there is throughout the
book, a great deal of sen
sitivity and love shown for
the man.
Another absorbing chap
ter of the book deals with
John Barrymore, “The
Great Profile.” Kanin met
Barrymore early in his ca
reer and late in Barry
more’s. They worked to
gether on the film “The
Great Man. Votes,” Barry
more doing the lead over
the protests of Pandro S.
Berman, then headofRKO-
Radio Pictures. Barry
more was a “hands-off”
property by this time. His
drinking was legendary, his
tantrums expensive and de
bilitating. But, Kanin want
ed him for the film and no
other. He took final respon
sibility for any disasters.
There weren’t any. “His
(Barrymore’s) acting tech
nique was flawless,” re
calls Kanin. Many colorful
incidents follow, and par
ticularly one where Barry
more cries, on cue, four
different ways for four dif
ferent takes.
“Hollwood” also con
tains some interesting pas
sages about the “nitty-
gritty” of filmmaking. I
quote Mr. Kanin, describ
ing the work of Ginger Rog
ers:
“Making a film is hard
work. For a leading act
ress it involves rising at
6:00 A M. or 5:30 A.M.
Studio. Makeup. Hair
dressing. Wardrobe
Lines. Rehearsals
Changes. Hit those
marks. Watch those
lights. Act, feel, be
charming but don’t move
your chin. Hold it! she’s
sweating again,. Makeup!
Quiet, please! Quiet,
Please! Hold it down!
Roll ‘em! And so on. A
full day of tense, exacting
work seldom nets more
than three or four min
utes of screen time... In a
lifetime of work, of stri
ving for excellence, of
seeking ephemera, of
striving for excellence,
pondering impondera -
bles--only the result
counts.”
(continued page 9)
Patrick Cuccaro in "Story Theatre”
Photos this page by Zoe Bradford