Theater/movies/netflix

[ellen_datlow]

I forgot to mention that I saw The Adding Machine by Elmer Rice, produced as a musical last week at the Minetta Lane Theater--a small venue in Greenwich Village. I'd never read or seen the play before and knew very little about it but that a friend of mine who had seen it a few months ago hated it. But because it won some awards and it was cheap (through TDF) I decided to take a chance. I enjoyed it. It's dated, but as a snapshot of boring, numbing, bookkeeping work in the 20s it was interesting, and I liked the production. Middle aged guy with horrible screeching, complaining wife goes to work daily and does numbers with a woman helper who obviously is interested in him. Boss fires him, guy murders boss and ends up on death row. Dies and instead of the Hell he expects he ends up in what seems like Heaven, a place he can do whatever he wants. Freedom. Plus, the co-worker (who he was interested in) kills herself because with him gone she has nothing to live for--and she ends up where he is. They CAN live happily ever after, but he freaks out and would rather go back to being a cog in the machine...

Today I went to a matinée performance of Clifford Odets' The Country Girl, with Morgan Freeman, Frances McDormand, and Peter Gallagher. Directed by Mike Nichols. I thought I remembered the play getting mixed reviews --I'll have to check--but it was brilliant. Great performances (some of you might have seen it as a movie with Grace Kelly --who I'd think would have been totally miscast--, William Holden, and Bing Crosby. I've never seen the movie). Once good actor who has been a lush for at least ten years is given a chance by a producer to star in a new play. The actor's wife, the "country girl" of the title, is either a support or hindrance, depending on who you believe.

The last two episodes of the first season of Deadwood--and yes, it keeps getting better and better; I Can't Sleep, a thought-provoking French film by Claire Denis about several "outsiders" in Paris whose lives connect interestingly--told against the background of a series of murders of old ladies based on real murders in the early 1990s.

And Swimming With Sharks, with a vicious Kevin Spacey as a movie executive, Frank Whalley, as his green put upon assistant, and Michelle Forbes (who I'd never seen before but has apparently been on a lot of tv series including "Lost" and "In Treatment") as a producer who is trying to get a deal for her script. Nasty nasty film.

Comments

[csecooney.livejournal.com]

That's interesting -- Adding Machine started in Chicago. David Cromer, the director, is (was?) a directing teacher at Columbia College where I majored in writing/acting. He handed off a production of West Side Story at Columbia to MY very good friend to bring Adding Machine to New York. I didn't get to see Adding Machine when it was here in Chicago (heard great things), but I DID see Kesselman's The Juniper Tree at CityLit Theatre, which Cromer directed. It's a musical based on that faerie tale where the stepmother cooks the boy in a stew and serves it to his father, and the boy's bones, buried under the Juniper Tree, make all sorts of strange things happen. Beautiful birds, weird winds, the works...

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Ooh yes--that's a well-known fairy tale--I'd like to see that production if it ever comes to NY--is CityLit in Chicago?

[csecooney.livejournal.com]

CityLit is a very little theatre company in Chicago's north side that is committed to doing either original adaptations from literature or very classical pieces like Shakespeare. Kesselman's Juniper Tree is a very simple musical, wherein two people, a man and a woman, play ALL the parts. Mother, father, sister, brother, ghost-bird. I thought it was very cool; I heard Cromer wasn't enamored of the project.

Here's some information about the play: http://isbndb.com/d/book/the_juniper_tree_a_tragic_household_tale.html

And here's a picture of the tree (it was the biggest thing on set, and it LIT UP from the inside, very cool. A bony white monster, sort of hungry looking, with arms...), done by stage designer Grant Sabin, who is a buddy of mine:

http://www.grantsabindesign.com/junipertree/index.html

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I like that tree lit up--very neat. Thanks.

[voidmonster.livejournal.com]

Oooh! I hadn't even heard of that Claire Denis film. I'll have to find it.

I've only seen two of hers, but I've loved both. (Trouble Every Day and Friday Night).

I also said I'd report back after I saw Enchanted, and I've seen it, and I'll be writing about it soon. Short version is: I liked it!

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I liked the Denis enough to queue up those two movies.
Oh good.

[jenwrites.livejournal.com]

Michelle Forbes also played Ensign Ro on Star Trek: the Next Generation.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Thanks--I think I noticed that when I looked her up at imdb but never having watched the show, I forgot :-)

[bev-vincent.livejournal.com]

I remember Michelle Forbes from when she played the quirky pathologist on Homicide: Life on the Street. I think she was also on 24.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Glad to see she's been working steadily. I never saw her in any of those shows as I don't watch tv. (except as complete series on DVD)

[mtrimm1.livejournal.com]

Glad you liked "Swimming With Sharks". I thought it was criminally under-exposed, and featured not only a brutal script but one of Spacey's great performances.