Word: equus
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...mysteries of the movie business is Hollywood's predilection for filming hopelessly stagebound Broadway hits. Some plays transfer easily to the screen, but those built around theatrical gimmicks invariably drop dead. Same Time, Next Year, like last year's Equus, never stood a chance as a movie: it is a one-joke, one-set, two-character sitcom that should be allowed to retire in peace to the nation's dinner theaters...
...because "I'm not famous." Nor is it a book of Theatrical Celebrities gossip, though memories of Tallulah Bankhead and Laurence Olivier fill the pages. Instead, The Bright Lights interweaves anecdotes with analysis to describe "a lifetime of work in the theatre." The work ranges from the triumph of Equus, which offered the change to act with three stars--Anthony Hopkins, Anthony Perkins, and Richard Burton--and the tragedy of The Merchant, which died with its first star--Zero Mostel...
Then, questioned about John Dexter, the unkind director of Equus, the face contracts in remembered pain and somber reflection. "He really frightened me. For the first time in my life at a rehearsal I wondered 'Do I belong here?" A beat, and the muscles set in determined professionalism. "But that's not important. What's important is what happens on stage." She admires the director's work, and cannot ignore his contribution to the play or to her performance. With complete sincerity, she says "I love...
Small wonder, then, that The Bright Lights has no real bitterness, only an occasionally wistful--but unswerving--dedication to a capricious craft. In the chapter describing her role in Equus, she comments, "Chekhow has Nina say 'It seems to me a play must have some love in it.' So should a book that deals with the life of a play." And so does this book that deals with the life of many plays--and that of this actress as well...
...divided into recital artists and operatic rafter ringers. McCowen, 53, with his refined emotional pitch, his dryly witty intelligence and his meticulous craft, is one of the recitalists. He has had showpiece roles-notably the title role in Hadrian VII and the psychiatrist in the original London production of Equus-but even these called more for finesse than fire...