Word: leven
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...poisons: shrinking funds, disappearing audiences, indifferent critics. All three difficulties had to be overcome, but how do you approach more than one at a time? Not even Bud Collyer could have devised a more devilish game of Beat the Clock. By the time it all caved in this week, Leven's operation had led an exciting life--and one that did not have to end in failure...
Situated on Mass. Ave. near Central Square, housed in the former Edison Light Company, this political revue could not have grown up under more auspicious conditions. Operating with a $50,000 investment, Leven, who had originated the long-running Proposition a few months earlier, set out to renovate the building. It was to become a creative complex, including a coffee house, an art gallery, a poetry corner, and a 16 mm. film showcase. At the center of the plan: a 300-seat theatre, stocked with lots of multimedia gadgets. In an area where small groups like The Proposition...
LOCATED midway between MIT and Harvard, it would seem to be simple to achieve the proper blend of technology and cynicism, gimmickry and foolishness that the conventional kind of turned-on revue demands. Citing Leven's previous hits, the Boston papers spent a month predicting the same kind of success for the new project. But when the Light Company opened on January 7th, the unanimity that resulted was of another sort. Most critics saw some future for the company, but rejected its first offering as being heavy-handed, unimaginative, and just plain not funny...
...office take that followed left Leven's backers feeling skittish. Benjamin Ginsberg & Sons --one of the two principal backers-- threatened to throw Leven Enterprises out of the building, which Ginsberg owns. But Leven, who himself owns the equipment, furnishings, and stage inside the buildings, refused to go unless he took the whole cast and crew with him. The resulting negotiations turned up in a Boston After Dark article by Larry Stark. So, there it all was, right out there in front of the public. Finally, Leven ended the stalemate by accepting more of the financial responsibility. And so--in accord...
LAST Saturday night, it was obvious that Jeremy Leven as tired. He had been working the box office; the actors had played their last scene a bit too loudly; the audience didn't half fill the theatre and those that did were none too responsive. Leven seemed to regard it all with controlled stoicism mixed, quite surprisingly, with more hope than desperation. He appears an unassuming man with enigmatic pale eyes and a small mustache. If, someday, someone makes a film called The Jeremy Leven Story --which is quite unlikely given the pervasive tenuousness surrounding the man's present existence...