ABSTRACT

First Published in 2000. Why do we go to the theater? There's a question! Or put it this way: Why, oh why, do we go to the theater? If we go to a movie and it isn't any good, well it's not the end of the world. We're usually quite content just the same. It passes the time. Though, as Samuel Beckett pointed out, the time would have passed anyway. But if we're disappointed at the theater, everything changes dramatically. We cannot while away the time at the theater. Time becomes precious. This is a collection of writings about the world of the theatre and includes pieces about Sir John Gielgud, Sir Ralph Richardson, Arthur Miller, Michael Bennett, Noel Coward, Barbra Streisand, Ralph Fiennes and more.

chapter

Introduction

chapter |24 pages

Empire of the Stage

chapter |9 pages

Lunch with Gielgud and Richardson

chapter |6 pages

Noël Coward at Seventy

chapter |4 pages

England's Great Clown

chapter |5 pages

His Name Escapes Him

chapter |5 pages

In Memoriam Michael Bennett

chapter |5 pages

Peter Brook, Barbra Streisand, and Me

chapter |6 pages

Angels in America Parts 1 and 2

chapter |3 pages

Janet McTeer-Up-the-Stage

chapter |3 pages

Hurry Up Please It's Time

chapter |5 pages

The Great Gambon

chapter |3 pages

Mr. Brantley's Torsos

chapter |4 pages

The Ralph Fiennes Hamlet

chapter |4 pages

We Like It a Lot

chapter |3 pages

The Mayfair Medea

chapter |4 pages

Who Was the Jew Shakespeare Knew?

chapter |3 pages

Anything Goes with the Professor

chapter |4 pages

Art Is Good for You

chapter |4 pages

A Helluva Musical

chapter |3 pages

Whatever Happened to Class?

chapter |3 pages

Farewell, Carousel

chapter |4 pages

My Blood Brother and Me

chapter |3 pages

Sleeping at the Theater

chapter |3 pages

The Killing of Wonderful Tennessee

chapter |3 pages

How to Murder Your Mother

chapter |3 pages

Brave New World

chapter |3 pages

Safe Pedophilia

chapter |4 pages

The Sad Tale of Jack the Cat

chapter |4 pages

Brilliant Blues

chapter |4 pages

Holocaust Denial

chapter |3 pages

The Amazing Vanessa Redgrave

chapter |4 pages

The Still Subversive Joe Orton

chapter |4 pages

Theater Thingie of the Year

chapter |4 pages

Slumming with Sam Shepard

chapter |3 pages

No Tony for Julie

chapter |4 pages

What Is the Sound of One Hand Acting?

chapter |4 pages

Country Matters

chapter |3 pages

Oscar Wilde's Brilliant Lunatics

chapter |3 pages

A-Plotz for David Ives

chapter |3 pages

Lost in Suburbia

chapter |3 pages

Voltaire-Shmoltaire

chapter |4 pages

Et In Arcadia Ego

chapter |3 pages

The America Play

chapter |3 pages

How America Was Lost

chapter |3 pages

These Gentle Artists

chapter |4 pages

The Jerry Stiller Three Sisters

chapter |3 pages

Needles and Opium

chapter |3 pages

The Three Ages of Woman

chapter |3 pages

The God of Lies

chapter |5 pages

Mametspeak

chapter |4 pages

How Good Is David Mamet, Anyway?

chapter |4 pages

Beckettscape

chapter |4 pages

Everything Is Beautiful

chapter |2 pages

Pimp Fop Flop

chapter |4 pages

Hakuna Matata!

chapter |4 pages

Don't Shoot the Composer

chapter |3 pages

A Great Electra

chapter |6 pages

Nicole Kidman, Live Naked Movie Star

chapter |4 pages

Judi! Judi! Judi!

chapter |4 pages

Harv the Marv

chapter |3 pages

Amazing Grace

chapter |4 pages

The Anglophile New York Times

chapter |4 pages

Iceman Cometh

chapter |3 pages

Act of Love

chapter |4 pages

Arthur Miller Comes Home