On this Date "My Fair Lady"

On this date in 1976* “My Fair Lady” opened at St. James Theater in New York City and had 384 performances.

I didn’t see the play but did see the movie starring Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn. I don’t remember much about it, but pretty much got the idea. It was about a professor of phonetics saying he take any wench out of the slums of London and turn her into a proper speaking lady with just a little training…. And I think there might have been a wager involved to make it more interesting… and probably their relationship developed into a romance, which even made it more interesting.

I only remember one line, which impressed me. Eliza Doolittle’s (Audrey Hepburn) father Alfred wanted some quick cash money for the professor to teach his daughter how to speak properly.

Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison) said something like, “Good God man! Don’t you have any morals?”

And Alfred Doolittle said, “Morals? What’s that? – never mind! I can’t afford them!”

That is a complicated statement - just think about it.

*originally it first premiered on Broadway March 15, 1956, with Julie Andrews playing Eliza Doolittle.

Why Was It Named A Man FOR ALL SEASONS?

Yesterday we went to see A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS play at The Theater In The Square. I thought I remembered A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS a story about the growing pains of America in its formative years – a movie I heard about in the 1960s – or so I thought. In other words, I thought there would be plenty of horses and shooting.

The play was about King Henry the VII and his scheme to leave his Spanish royalty wife because she hadn’t given birth to a son for him and marry someone else. The ‘someone else’ was not part of the play. The Catholic Church did not approve of King Henry’s divorce, so he, more or less, left the Catholic Church, and created a church that would condone is divorce, which was the Church of England.

Back to the play in a moment.

In the lobby before we went in we were near a little middle age bantam rooster looking guy … all wrapped up in himself, telling his date that he hopes and prays no one assassinate Obama.

“How nice” I thought.
“while he is in office, anyway.” He added.
“What a shit head” I thought.
He went on to say if he is assassinated in office he would be martyr and “We don’t want that.”
He went on to say that he is waiting to the end of March when all the 401Ks hit the bottom and the people get riled up…and the economy goes in a downward spiral again – he said, that is what he “is waiting for.” Not only is he waiting for it, he is wishing for it.
"Asshole!" I thought.

He wants the economy of the U.S. to collapse just to make Obama look bad. I could tell the guy thought he was very patriotic.

Now, the play: The play was basically the mental struggle of Sir Thomas More, the Lord Chancellor of England, which was the highest office of the Catholic Church is England, which that position also served as chief adviser of the King.

His position in the church could not condone the King’s action, but instead of saying so, he chose to resign his position. Most of the play was about was he speaking out against the King if he did not speak at all. They went around and around that subject approaching it from several angles and rewording it……. On and on… then suddenly two emergency lights on each side of the audience went on and all other lights went out. It could only mean one thing, a power failure – that used to happen at the post office all the time… the power goes out and instantly the emergency battery lights come on. Then the theater lights on the stage came on and the play was resumed. And the endless theories of is silence disapproval? Went on and on.

If one disagreed with the King it could be considered treason and punishable by death, so by all means Sir Thomas More wanted to be sure no one said he disagreed with the King - I mean having principles is one thing and keeping your head is something else.

I heard a distance nose in the background. I thought it was a generator. But the more I listened the more I think it was the sound of several people snoring.

The actors were superb. They were all very convincing. They new their lines and how to deliver them like it was really the characters talking. I wondered if the bad guy ever convinced some people in the audience he really was a rotten scoundrel and a few wait outside the actors exit door in the alley… some with roses and others with a baseball bat to “knock a little sense” in the “bad-guy” head?

Shakespeare in Pieces

I recently read in an Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader book Vol 21 that Shakespeare never wrote a play that you could hold in your hand and read from beginning to end.

He wrote in fragments. He wrote on pieces of paper. He would give one actor several sheets of paper of what he was suppose to say and another actor he would give other sheets of paper with what his lines would be… each actor would not know what would come out of the other actor’s mouth – they only had to memorize their own response.

Shakespeare’s plays from beginning to end were not published until after he died.

Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader also said it is believed because of the fragment collection of his works probably about two plays are missing or undiscovered…. If they exist at all.

I wonder if when the people started collecting these dialog fragments if all parts went into the right plays?

The collectors themselves may have given life to a new play without even knowing it – and it would have been totally written by Shakespeare!

Wait! I see how a buck can be made off this! Create a game with little blocks of all the lines spoken lines in Shakespeare’s plays and the player will arrange the lines anyway they want it to create your their William Shakespeare play… how is that for adding class to board games? Sort of like Mr. Potato Head!

Turned Funny

Turned Funny is an expression of somebody who has went off the edge so to speak… somebody that used to be sensible but now is nutty as a fruitcake, or you might say he or she lost their marbles. I am sure there is a more technical term. But that is the name of the play.

We got tickets for yesterday, Sunday for the matinée. The play is about columnist and news lady, Celestine Sibley who she had a desk at the Atlanta Constitution Newspaper.

The play was attended by mostly people of retirement age. That age would have known her writings the best.

In the lobby before the doors were opened I overheard several elderly women talking about pet dogs. One of them had a pet dog named Sherlock. Sherlock lived to be 13 years old. The lady who owned Sherlock said to the other ladies, “You know, dogs have the traits that we humans strive to have – they are always your friend, always by your side, they are humble, sincere, polite, and gentle.” The way she said it I almost choked up.

The play was great. The entire acting cast was made up of three people: one lady who did an excellent job playing Celestine Sibley and a man and a woman who played multi-characters – and all convincing. They also had sort of the classic chorus who would make kind of a folksy bluegrass music to put emphasis – they seemed to do their thing to separate scenes, when everything went back except a glow on the trio playing mountain instruments and singing.

Like many plays without elaborate stage abilities there is a game they enlist you without you knowing it to be a stagehand. Your imagination is your tools. If the leading lady sits in a chair, looks out at the audience and carefully apply lipstick or comb her hair, looking out the whole time, it won’t take you many seconds to think to yourself: – “Oh! I’m the mirror!”

They use your imagination rather cleverly, so I thought just mention it.

Another thing to mention – today in the lobby they had several architectural plans tastefully displayed on one wall showing their expansion plans. I think they are adding an additional theater and they also own one in neighboring Paulding County. It was not too many years ago they were almost broke. They were getting a rather large grant or endowment from the Cobb County Arts fund – and then a couple of conservative local politicians decided to play a little political football with Theatre In The Square. They announced the theatre company was supporting the gay life styles and therefore they were cutting off funds to them.

Those two politicians are gone now, only a bad memory… I think things have been restored to order and the theater apparently is doing great.

Preachers on Saturday

Today was a busy day. At 2:30 we went to a play at the Baptist Church my mother-in-law belongs to. It was taking the idea of the series “Left Behind” and added their own sugar and spices to the idea.

In the play not only were the Jewish people who were true to their faith left behind (however, the Jews for Jesus were not), but so were some Christians that were not born again.

The acting was mostly good and I thought the prop people did a good job. I got sleepy anyway. After the curtains went up the preacher gave us a talking to just how important this is.

After that we rushed 10 or so miles away to Anna’s sister-in-law and the sister-in-law’s daughter’s birthday.

The niece is 50 years old. Somebody paid a company to come out and stick 50 little white with black spots cows in their yard. They will come back in a couple days and retrieve all but one cow.

They had visiting with them a lady from Wales and a lady from Oklahoma. The husband of the niece is a missionary Baptist preacher and had a mission in Wales for about a dozen years. The two visiting women were from that era of their lives. The preacher will be receiving his honorary Doctor’s title next week from a Christian college in Pensacola. I am thinking about sending off for a title too…. I think he said his doctor’s honorary diploma will be DD – Doctor of Divinity. I asked him wasn’t that white candy that was so good.

I think I’ll send off for a Doctor’s Diploma. If it is a DD, I could say I am a veterinarian as in DD as in Doctor Doolittle. Or I might pick DF, which would be Doctor Feelgood.