Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Everything But The Bloodhounds Yapping At Her Rear End

I have to say, dang the cliches, All About Eve is one of my favorite movies. It's a great tale, and fantastically acted, from Little Miss Bette Davis to Anne Baxter to the original Wanda Sykes - Thelma Ritter, to the young Marilyn Monroe. It's a movie I can watch again and again, but never at Chelsea Classics, on account of all the queens that shout out the lines ahead of Margo Channing.

Last year Tyler and I went to see a revival of Applause!, starring Christine Ebersole. I sort of blogged about it at the time, but to recap: in 1970 the creative teams behind Annie, Bye Bye Birdie, & more decided to make a Broadway musical out of All About Eve. It starred Lauren Bacall in the Davis role and television's Bonnie Franklin as the ingenue.

The show itself wasn't so good, and I think it's OK for it to go back in the vault for another 38 years. As Stritchy says, Christine Ebersole is coffee and a wonderful time was had by all (even by Amber, who spent the night on my couch watching the entire series run of Ellen Degeneres' hit sitcom, Ellen, costarring Cloris Leachman).

My favorite number was NOT the Buckle Up Your Seat Belt Dance, but this one here, "But Alive." What I like so much about are the genius rhymes.

Check it out here, from a TV production they did of the original show:






I feel half Tijuana, half Boston!

Partly Jane Fonda and partly Jane Austen!

Doesn't get better than that.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Wow.
Wow.
How the hell did "Gay Power" get through the censors of 1973?
And how the hell did it get nominated for 2 emmy's with all that subversiveness? I guess those emmy folks were more edgy then...
Wow.