A BRUSH WITH GENIUS

Recently, I watched a brief television documentary about Leonardo da Vinci, from a series entitled ‘Raiders of the Lost Art’, which examines cases where famous and celebrated works of art have simply disappeared. It featured art experts, each of them seated, talking to someone slightly off camera. How refreshing not to have some manic presenter walking around, waving his or her hands in the air, or talking to the camera whilst driving, with interspersed shots of the vehicle’s rear view mirror, a gear change etc. Worst of all is when they are walking away from the camera, talking back to it over a shoulder.

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, born in Tuscany in 1452,  is one of history's most brilliant brainiacs, whose areas of interest included invention, painting, sculpting, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, writing, history and cartography. Phew! 

I came across some quotes attributed to him, and I reckon they have relevence to treading the boards.

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Yup! Don’t over-egg the pudding when you are performing in a play!

“The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.” – could relate to the ego-trippers who regard appearing on stage as an opportunity to set aside the script and show off.

“Every action needs to be prompted by a motive.”… echoes my advice to actors... only move if there is a reason for it.”

“Intellectual passion drives out sensuality.” Here, I define “sensuality” as, “the condition of being pleasing or fulfilling to the senses.” So, one simple definition of vaudeville comedy seems to fit … “Straightout nonsense, expertly done.”

“It is better to imitate ancient than modern work.” Yes! Learn from Stan and Ollie, the Marx Brothers, and others of their ilk who did it years ago, but it’s never been bettered... and never will be.

Leonardo da Vinci died in 1519, just one year after Niccolo Machiavelli had written the five-act comedy, ' La Mandragola' (‘The Mandrake’), one of the earliest plays with commedia-like characters and plot. It was published in 1524 and first performed in the carnival season of 1526.

On February 25, 1545, a troupe under the leadership of Ser Maphio signed the first contract of theatrical incorporation in Padua, Italy. The document, is the oldest extant record of actors conceiving of their work as a legitimate industry. Commedia dell'Arte (which translates as “comedy of the guild/professional”) put the “business” into “show business”!

From Commedia dell'Arte came slapstick and pantomime.

HEADLIGHTS

I came across this novelty recently, in a discount store for £1.00 (each). It’s a light-up, LED, fibre-optic, multi-colour, flashing, Mohawk headband, and is meant to be worn as Illustrated left, to replicate the haircut sometimes called the Mohican, Mahican, or Iro, (in reference to the Iroquois, from whom the hairstyle is derived).

 

However, the headband can be swivelled, so that it can be worn as illustrated right, which I thought might be suitable for a fairy, sprite, or similar supernatural being. 

It could of course be simply used as a head decoration for a group of dancers, where it would probably look quite amazing, especially in a blackout... carefully rehearsed, of course. Let your imagination run wild… that’ll put a sparkle in your fish bowl, if nothing else!

They are available on t’Internest.

FAVOURITE FLICKS

When I was a young shaver… in fact long before I needed a Chas and Dave, I became a big fan of the flickers. One Saturday I went to a morning matinee, an afternoon matinee, and an evening show. I spent so much time in cinemas that I could see in the dark!

However, I reckon the last time I actually went to the ‘pictures’ in person, was at least five years ago, when I took my grandson to see ‘The Muppets’, starring Jason Segel, Amy Adams… and… of course… the Muppets!

Nowadays, in charity shops and at car boot sales there are stacks of super-cheap, second-hand DVDs available, which one can watch as and when, in the comfort of wherever. Recently, I came across a copy of ‘On the Town’ for only 50p.

The sleeve note reads… “New York, New York, it’s a wonderful place – especially when sailors Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Jules Munshin have a 24 hour shore leave to see the sights… when those sights include Ann Miller, Betty Garrett and Vera-Ellen.

Co-directed by Kelly and Stanley Donen, based on the Broadway hit and set to an Academy Award-winning adaptation score, ‘On The Town’ changed the landscape of movie musicals, opening film-makers’ eyes to what could be done on location. And when brilliant location and studio production numbers are blended, it could be - as here - ebullient, up-and-at-‘em perfection.”

I’m not a great fan of movie musicals in general, but here you really have to marvel at the sheer professionalism… not just the singing and dancing in the main production numbers, but in the little bits of ‘business’, the timing, the reactions, the facial expressions, etc. etc.

Out of the six leading actors, the least known are Betty Garrett and Jules Munshin, but they match the stars in ability and appeal.

A graduate of the ‘Borscht Belt’ and Orson Welles’ Mercury Theatre, Betty Garrett was a singer, dancer and comic actress, who starred in several Hollywood musicals and stage roles. She found fame on television in the U.S. sitcoms, ‘All in the Family’, and ‘Laverne & Shirley’.

Jules Munshin has, as far as I know, no connection with the little folk in the Oz books. He too served an apprenticeship in the Catskill resorts, where he was a popular song-and-dance man and comedian, and he became a Broadway star after starring in the musical 'Call Me Mister' in 1946. Apart from ‘On The Town', he had roles in the films ‘Easter Parade’ (1948), and ‘Silk Stockings’ (1957).

Interestingly from this Blogger’s point of view, Jules Munshin co-starred with Peter Sellers in the play "Brouhaha" in London's West End in the late 1950s, but he frequently fell out with Sellers as the latter would often improvise new lines and bits of business during a performance, claiming that sticking to the play's text bored him.

Oh dear!

Not to beat about the bush… or any other kind of foliage… I am not a fan of Peter Sellers, who is generally praised far too highly for my liking.

He is regularly described as ‘inimitable’, and yet, many Goons ago, when I was at grammar school, just about every one of my mates could do a passable ‘Bluebottle’… and… Bloodnok, Grytpype-Thynne, and Henry Crun were not too difficult. Clouseau is nothing more than ‘comedy’ French, and Dr. Kabir in ‘The Millionairess’ is likewise Indian.

Sellers appeared on the Parkinson tv show in 1974 and delivered what one critic described as a "masterful George Formby rendition".

Hecky thumpers! There are branches of The George Formby Society throughout the country. They hold regular monthly meetings, where juniors to geriatrics do a ‘George’.

If Sellars was bored with acting he was obviously in the wrong profession, perhaps for excitement he should have been a bomb disposal expert, a bullfighter... or a bobsleigh tester.

"I'm honest with my audiences. I never fool them… the public has learned that I will be there with every ounce of entertainment I can give. I respect my public." May Irwin quoted in 'Funny Women. American Comediennes 1860-1985 - Mary Unterbrink. McFarland & Co. 1987

THAT THINKING
FEELING

Here are some thoughts on comedy from an expert. It is part of an interview on the 'Archive of American Television', which can be found at...

emmytvlegends.org/interviews/people/jonathan-winters.

It's not quite verbatim, but almost. 

"I find an interesting thing with the word “funny”… “comic”… “hilarious”… “comedian”… I can make anybody funny. When I say “funny”… I can give you a funny look… not just makeup, red nose on you… some eyebrows… not just a clown thing… a funny little moustache… a goatee beard. I can give you a strange wardrobe… sleeves are too long… funny pants… shoes. I can give you schtick*… funny, little cane… à la Charlie Chaplin. But… the big thing I can’t do… I can’t make you think funny."

*‘schtick’ is a comic theme or gimmick. 

Jonathan Harshman Winters III, born in 1925, was an American stand-up comedian, actor, author, and artist. In a career spanning more than six decades, he appeared in hundreds of television show episode/series and films. 

He made his big screen debut in the 1963 classic comedy, ‘It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World’. The cast also included Edie Adams, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Jimmy Durante, Buddy Hackett, Ethel Merman, Dorothy Provine, Mickey Rooney, Dick Shawn, Phil Silvers, Terry Thomas, and Spencer Tracy, alongside Peter Falk, Don Knotts, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Carl Reiner, Jim Backus, and Leo Gorcey (in his first film appearance since leaving the Bowery Boys in 1956). 

There are cameos by Jack Benny, Ben Blue, Andy Devine, Paul Ford, Sterling Holloway, Jerry Lewis, Buster Keaton, Zasu Pitts, Carl Reiner, Arnold Stang, and the Three Stooges.

The great Stan Laurel was asked to appear, but had made a firm pledge to do no more acting roles after the death of his comedy partner Oliver Hardy. 

A devotee of Groucho Marx and Laurel and Hardy, Jonathan Winters died in 2013, at the age of 87.

So, there you go! In pantomime certainly, clothes, along with greasepaint, and wigs, do not maketh the man, the Dame, the Villain... or any other character.

Think about it!

THE LADY VARNISHES

From the BBC NEWS website, 22 November 2016…

"UK author Jeanette Winterson has helped school children re-imagine the fairy tale Cinderella for a new generation.

As part of the BBC's 100 Women season, she visited a primary school in the Cotswolds to discuss ways in which Cinderella is sexist and then asked the children to come up with their own version."

According to Wikipedia, one of the oldest known variants of ‘Cinderella’ is a Chinese fairy tale, about a young girl named “Ye Xian" or "Yeh-Shen" or “Yeh-hsien”, first published in a 9th-century compilation. She triumphs over her stepmother and stepsisters who are killed by flying stones.

Like the Western “Cinderella”, the heroine is a humble creature, who discharges the household chores and is subjected to humiliating treatment at the hands of her stepmother and stepsisters.

The form of the tale popular today is due to a retelling of this ancient tale by Charles Perrault, published in ‘Histoires ou Contes du temps passé’, published in Paris in 1697. Wikipedia recounts this version as the story of “a wealthy widower who married a proud and haughty woman as his second wife. She had two daughters, who were equally vain and selfish. The gentleman had a beautiful young daughter, a girl of unparalleled kindness and sweet temper. The man's daughter is forced into servitude, where she was made to work day and night doing menial chores. “

In 1878 the Cinderella story was told in Scotland under the name, ‘Rashin Coatie’. It tells of a king who had one lovely daughter, and whose wife had died. He married for a second time, an ill-mannered woman with three ugly girls of her own whose envy of the king’s daughter was matched by their treatment of her. They made her sit in the kitchen neuk, gave her a garment of rushes to wear, and allowed her nothing to eat but their leavings.

So... Cinderella’s tormentors are other members of the female persuasion! Am I wrong, or does that not fit the definitions of ‘sexist’?

Don’t get me started on the Wicked Queen in ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’, Maleficent in Disney’s ‘Sleeping Beauty’, the Wicked Witch of the West in ‘The Wizard of Oz’, Miss Hannigan in ‘Annie’, Cruella de Vil, in ‘101 Dalmatians’, the Queen of Hearts in ‘Alice in Wonderland’...

As Rudyard Kipling so neatly put it "The female of the species is more deadly than the male".

And there's more...

The National Theatre's production of Peter Pan features a female Captain Hook... ooo... what a clever idea, I bet you need at least a First-class honours degree in woolgathering to dream that one up.

What next? 'The Pirettes of Penzance'? 'Jessie Christ Superstar'? Ooops... there's me giving away good ideas for free again.

A bleated HAPPY NEW YEAR to all our reader!
Please forgive my tardiness, but I have been very busy... and you have no idea how difficult it is to get a budgie out of a treacle tart!

BLOWING

ONES

LINES

According to the BBC News website (9.1.2016) a certain Stacey (Chanelle Charlene) Solomon… who I must confess, I wouldn’t know if she fell out of a cornflake packet, on to my breakfast table… has incurred the ire of some panto punters by reading lines from a clipboard, whilst “playing” (my quotes) the role of Fairy Bowbells on the opening day of ‘Dick Whittington’ at Milton Keynes Theatre.

It is reported that Solomon's representative told the Daily Mail she had not had time to learn her lines or rehearse with the rest of the cast because she had been co-hosting ITV's 'I'm A Celebrity Extra Camp' in Australia. Nuff said!

Pantomime producer Kevin Wood is quoted as saying, "Stacey chose to take to the stage having just returned from the jungle as she didn't want to disappoint her fans by not appearing in the show. The script was a "prompt" to ensure the show ran smoothly, and she "should be applauded for her professionalism", he added. To quote Mandy Rice Davis (allegedly) "Well, he would, wouldn't he?"

You think doing a pantomime is easy? It takes a lot of effort to come up with all the necessary excuses after a show like this is over!

Photographs of the event show that the clipboard was just a bog standard version with narrow strips of sparkly, sticky tape stuck across the top and bottom. Why not cover it with something fluffy or feathery, or… maybe just learn the lines?

Tickets for this tackiness cost on average, between £14 and £35.

If this should happen to anyone else in Pantoland, particularly if they are dealing with someone who is a legend before their time, I have written the following bit of dialogue to detract from the debacle...

BOWBELLS   I have just flown in from the land of Oz,

                     No… please… darlings…save the apploz!

                     Don’t know if I’m on my head or my heels,

                     And saying that… the fairy reels…

                     (REELS) Oooo…

                     Now that I’ve landed I’m feeling quite floored,

                     So here’s me lines… on this clipboard.

                     I'm hoping you’ll forgive me, just this once…

                     It’s jet lag… not ‘cos I’m a dunce!

                     CURTSEYS

This should be played over-the-top, and drum hits would enhance the reeling.

I well remember dear reader, that when I was in weekly rep I played the leading role in Molière’s ‘School for Wives’. The script was 100 pages long, I was on stage for 99 of those pages, and we did it in four-and-a-half day’s rehearsal. No clipboard, no prompter, just sheer "get out there" guts! That really was a wing and a prayer job. Ahhh... they don't write reminiscences like that anymore.

Clip Board and the Cribs... would have been a great name for a pop group in the sixties!