Greetings, readers! I hope you all had a nice holiday season and are as ready for the New Year as I am.
2024 was both challenging and exciting. It also zipped by so fast I had to use my Facebook feed to remind me of some of my activities. (The Facebook page has just reached 300 admirers—thank you all; tell your friends!) As far as plays are concerned, I was elated to receive feedback from members of the Homewood Theatre Writing Circle on two full-length plays, Jeroboam (a large-scale reimagination of a work of Edgar Allan Poe’s) and There Will Always Be a Fire as well as a devious little, short piece called Thrush. At the beginning of the year, I was clearly in poetry mode, cranking out some poems for someone called Madeline. The muses come and go so quickly here, said Alice.
The blog has certainly been a healthy addition to my writing life. Writing every week has been exhilarating, from filing reviews of films and television shows as well as local theatre productions in Birmingham, Alabama. Some of the troupes might have been happier than others, but I loved supporting live theatre and providing back what I hope is intelligent commentary that would elevate the discourse in a town where theatre is an afterthought. There were also a couple of blog pieces earlier this year on the daycare sex abuse hysteria of the ’80s-‘90s that, along with the theatre reviews, have had a high level of readership! Writing non-fiction strengthens my critical eye and always keeps you grounded in your own voice.
It was not all a year of winners, however. Eldridge Plays and Musicals decided to cease publication and licensing of my Pocahontas play, Cry of the Native Children. In the over-a-decade period it was in circulation, it failed to garner productions mainly due to the ginormous size of men required for the cast. But it can’t get me down. Watching Native Children grow from an idea into a production was one of the happiest moments of my writing life. The fact that it was published at all was a great honor. Speaking of which, we may see some publications in the coming year…Stay tuned!
Alas I only got a meager, brief vacation down to Destin, Florida earlier in the year before everything got wild, but Florida in Winter (even if just a taste) is glorious with its epic skies and lack of people.
As always, I continued reading a play every day this year, concentrating especially on musical and theatre libretti as well as screenplays and teleplays. In addition, I got my first reading of Herman Melville’s masterpiece Moby-Dick, or The Whale under my belt. Reading the classics is another sure-fire way of keeping in touch with the grand tradition of American writing.
As always, I include a tribute below to the people who have passed away who meant something to me. Here’s to a great New Year to you all!
Actors
Dabney Coleman was a genius at slapstick comedy as he showed in childhood favorites of mine like Hot to Trot, The Beverly Hillbillies, and 9 to 5.
Shelley Duvall was a quirky actress whose performances includes roles in Robert Altman’s masterpiece 3 Women (and his turkey Popeye) and Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. She also produced many projects for children when I was growing up, including the classic program Mother Goose Rock ‘n’ Rhyme.
Joe Flaherty was a face known well to kids of my generation for cameo roles in Back to the Future Part II and Sesame Street Presents Follow That Bird, but he was also known for his role in Freaks and Geeks and as a cast member of SCTV.
Teri Garr, the beguiling star of Tootsie and Young Frankenstein, whose interviews with an infatuated David Letterman, became hallmarks of great TV banter during his Late Night years.
Mitzi Gaynor, a name familiar to most from mid-century Hollywood, was well known for playing Nellie Forbush in the misguided film adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific.
Louis Gossett, Jr. was an actor of the very highest order, winning an Oscar for An Officer and a Gentleman and an Emmy for Roots, but his stage work was also highly admired.
Glynis Johns is known to most Disneyfiles as the mother of the Banks children in Mary Poppins, but she also was the original star of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s A Little Night Music, where her silvery, breathy voice inspired Sondheim’s biggest hit, “Send in the Clowns.”
James Earl Jones has too many roles for which he was someone’s idol, from voicing Darth Vadar to Mufasa to an extraordinary performance in the film and stage revival of Alfred Uhry’s Driving Miss Daisy to a stage career that included the original production of August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Fences. A blinding, brilliant light in the world.
Martin Mull was both an adept comedian and comic actor. For those my age, he is most associated with his Col. Mustard in Jonathan Lynn’s Clue and as a hapless boss on Roseanne.
Ken Page was well known with Broadway properties, including the revue Ain’t Misbehavin’ and as Broadway’s first Old Deuteronomy in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats. He also voiced the role of the villain Oogie-Boogie in The Nightmare Before Christmas.
A ten-time Tony-nominee, Chita Rivera was a legend of the musical stage, including her appearances in important roles in West Side Story, Chicago, and Kiss of the Spider Woman.
Gena Rowlands was perhaps the best and least appreciated actress in American film. Her work in her husband John Cassavettes’ indie films is her best work, though she connected with newer audiences in the big screen adaptation of Nicholas Sparks’ The Notebook.
While John Savident was well known in the UK as a star of soap operas, he also appeared in the original West End run of The Phantom of the Opera and appeared on film in A Clockwork Orange, Gandhi, and The Remains of the Day.
Dame Maggie Smith was a legend of every medium in which she played. A keen performer of Shakespeare , she was also a strong and thoughtful presence on both the large and small screens, giving commanding performances in everything from the Harry Potter film series to the film version of Neil Simon’s California Suite.
Donald Sutherland was a great countercultural presence in the 1970s playing acerbic and transgressive roles in National Lampoon’s Animal House as well as the film version of M*A*S*H, and continued to deliver masterful performances throughout his long career, including in Oliver Stone’s JFK and the adaptation of John Guare’s hit play Six Degrees of Separation.
M. Emmet Walsh was a familiar face onscreen even if you didn’t know the name, giving strong performances in The Jerk, Blade Runner, Blood Simple, and Knives Out among many others.
Carl Weathers was a well-known action star in the ‘80s, including taking on a famous role in the Rocky films, but his comeback as himself in Arrested Development was a hilarious touch of brilliance.
Comedians
I would argue more comedians stole from James Gregory than you could shake a stick at and yet he never achieved the success of other Southern comedians in his lifetime. Nevertheless, when he was alive, he was “The Funniest Man in America.”
The self-deprecating Richard Lewis composed symphonies of neurotica for his audiences as a comic and stood out in many film and TV comedies, including Mel Brooks’ Robin Hood: Men in Tights and Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm.
The last of a dying breed, Bob Newhart was a hysterical comedian with two hit television series to his name as well as so many bits (most preserved on audio) such as his first-night security guard the night King Kong scaled the Empire State Building. Bye, Bob.
Writers
Marshall Brickman’s work with Woody Allen propelled Allen into more mature territory in their screenplays for Annie Hall and Manhattan. Before Brickman, Allen made funny movies. Afterwards, he made movies that made you think.
Frederick Crews was a major voice fighting in the wilderness during the “Freud Wars” of the 1980s when sober and intelligent folks railed against therapists reopening Freud’s most dusty and debilitating ideas and using them in horrifying ways, often destroying individuals and families. A warrior of intelligence.
Nikki Giovanni’s political poems may be her most well-known, but she was equally adept at universal themes and always brought a trademark play and wit to her verse.
Robert Towne crafted Chinatown, one of the finest screenplays ever to have been made. ‘Nuff said.
Producers
The younger brother of actress Angela, Edgar Lansbury was a producer with credits that included The Subject was Roses, Promenade, American Buffalo, and the revival of Gypsy starring his sister in a career-defining role.
Albert S. Ruddy produced Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, the greatest linear, narrative film ever made.
Directors
Ofra Bikel was a documentarian (whose best work was for PBS’ Frontline) who kept a cool head during moments of mass hysteria as evidenced in her masterworks The Case for Innocence, The Search for Satan, Divided Memories, and the Innocence Lost trilogy.
Eleanor Coppola’s major contribution to the world was a fly-on-the-wall documentary, Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, that chronicled her husband’s nightmare production on Apocalypse Now. A documentary on the same level as the film that inspired it.
Roger Corman was much more than a producer of B-movie schlock—he also took many future directors under his wing and gave them their first jobs, from Peter Bogdanovich to Martin Scorsese.
Norman Jewison was a master of adapting stage properties to film, including Charles Fuller’s A Soldier’s Story (based on A Soldier’s Play), Jesus Christ Superstar, and the magnificent Fiddler on the Roof, but he was also known as the director for the film version of In the Heat of the Night, a perpetually powerful film.
Morgan Spurlock was a documentarian of the Michael Moore-ish variety in that he was often the subject of his documentaries. At a certain time, his Super Size Me was one of the most famous documentaries in the world.
Singers/Musicians
The greatest musician my father ever saw live was the Allman Brothers Band’s Dickey Betts, an old-fashioned country/western guitar-smith, the likes of which we may never see again.
While noted as a proffer of soft, soft (soft) rock from the 1980’s, Eric Carmen is on this list for his performance on Dirty Dancing’s “Hungry Eyes,” a glorious staple of ‘80s pop.
The 1960s were the best decade for pop music because of songwriters like Jerry Fuller, who gave us Rick Nelson’s “Travelin’ Man,” and Gary Puckett & The Union Gap’s “Young Girl” and “Lady Willpower.”
Toby Keith, in his later life, was most closely associated with post-9/11 paranoia and the “Tea Party,” but in his early years, he recorded fun (and funny) country songs like “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” and “How Do You Like Me Now?!”
Composers/Songwriters
Kris Kristofferson could equally be given a place under actors and singers above, but his great gift to the world was his songwriting that introduced us to marvels like “Me and Bobby McGee” and “Help Me Make It Through the Night.”
It is people like Quincy Jones that make you realize how little you’ve done with your life. After all, the man was known for dozens of pop arrangements, film scores, and his career-defining work with Michael Jackson, resulting in Thriller and Bad.
Will Jennings wrote the lyric for Howard Shore’s “My Heart Will Go On” from Titanic. While the lyrics are the purplest of purple, that song was the love song of the late ‘90s and, therefore, I danced more in my life to this song in high school than I ever have danced to anything.
Dave Loggins was a tremendous soft-rock songwriter, his best song being “Please Come to Boston,” which exists in his perfect recording and also and David Allan Coe’s.
Richard M. Sherman, the brother of Robert B. Sherman, was a Disney legend, cranking out tunes and words with his brother for some of the most famous films of all time, including Mary Poppins and some underrated gems (like The Happiest Millionaire).
Playwrights
Abdullah Al-Saadawi (Bahrain)
Tengai Amano (Japan)
Russell Atkins (USA)
Aziza Barnes (USA)
Jean Battlo (USA)
Michael Bawtree (Canada)
Alioune Badara Bèye (Senegal)
Edward Bond (UK), one of the original angry young men of the British theatre, shocked the world with Saved.
Nora Vagi Brash (Papua New Guinea)
Walter van den Broeck (Belgium)
Robert Cohen (USA)
Maryse Condé (France)
Roberto Cossa (Argentina)
Keith Curran (USA)
Christopher Durang (USA) was America’s major satirical playwright with works such as Beyond Therapy and Sister Mary Ignatius Explains it All for You.
Joan Holden (USA)
Gary Indiana (USA)
Gylan Kain (USA)
Jūrō Kara (Japan)
Jack Hibberd (Australia)
Kim Min-ki (South Korea)
Charles Juliet (France)
Ray Lawler (Australia)
Margot Lemire (Canada)
Antonette Mendes (India)
Neil McCafferty (Ireland)
Roy Minton (UK)
Manoj Mitra (India)
Enzo Moscato (Italy)
Wole Oguntokun (Nigeria)
Omchery N. N. Pillai (India)
Hans Plomp (Netherlands)
René Pollesch (Germany)
Armando Pugliese (Italy)
Orlando Rossardi (Cuba)
Odd Selmer (Norway)
Jimi Solanke (Nigeria)
John Waiko (Papua New Guinea)
Don Webb (UK)
Samm-Art Williams (USA)
Shaukat Zaidi (Pakistan)
