Taking Out The Improvements
By Mitch Berg
My college theatre professor, Pat Lavin, used to talk about one of her jobs when she was an LA theatrical producer and director – which was going in to have a series of rehearsals with long-running shows to “take out the ‘improvements'” that’d crept into the show over months or years of live performances.
Sounds like writers need to come back from the grave and do the same thing.
Joe Doakes, formerly of Como Park, emails:
The Guthrie Theatre keeps sending me begging letters. Please, please come see a show to support us. We need the money.
Well, okay, what are you showing? “Dial M for Murder,” hey, I know that one, it’s a classic. Wait, what’s this in the description?
“While in London promoting her new murder mystery, Maxine drops in on her former lover Margot who shares some distressing news: She’s being blackmailed for a love letter from Maxine that went missing after their affair ended . . . This clever, fast-paced adaptation adds extra layers to the iconic tale, making the “Will he get away with it?” question even more thrilling.”
I remember “Dial M for Murder.” There were no lesbians. I can’t see that this “clever, fast-paced adaption” adds anything worthwhile to the story. It looks to me like base pandering. That’s why the Guthrie needs money, because they’re so busy signaling their virtue that nobody wants to see their shows. They can’t just tell a good story, they must “improve” it by making it a morality tale, by beating their audience over the head with how hip and woke and sensitive they are. They must bastardize every classic into boring message fiction, even though “boring message fiction is the leading cause of puppy-related sadness” and people really shouldn’t make puppies sad.
Nope, not going. Which saves me a c-note or more, with dinner and parking, so silver lining.
Joe Doakes, staying home but not in Como Park
I’m all for updated retellings of classics. For example, “Richard III” set in the 1930s was brilliant, because it showed the eternal truths of the original play in a setting – interwar Europe – where those truth were acting in real time within living memory. (Perhaps a version set in the 2020 election would be in order).
So – how is Dial M improved with an extraneous lesbian sub-plot?
I’m open to suggestions.
January 24th, 2024 at 7:55 am
how?
Well for starters one of the “lesbians” could secretly be a transsexual still possessed of their naughty bits – big reveal at the denouement.
January 24th, 2024 at 8:06 am
JD, for future reference whenever you see the name JEFFREY HATCHER attached to a production you can be assured that it is enthusiastically sanctioned by the Ministry Of Truth and will deliver the the ne plus ultra of mediocrity.
January 24th, 2024 at 8:22 am
Pig, you’re thinking of a different comedy. That’s the script for Big Mike replacing Biden on the ballot.
January 24th, 2024 at 8:25 am
Not to mention the ever increasing possibility of car jacking, or at least if you are lucky, having a side window busted out so that a thief can get a clear view of whatever might be inside.
Which raises the question: why does the Guthrie need a physical audience? Can’t this all be done on Zoom or Youtube and funded by the Cargill or Dayton families?
Why involve the peasants at all?
January 24th, 2024 at 8:56 am
Damn, Greg!
You may be on to something. Maybe they could do “pay per view!”
January 24th, 2024 at 8:59 am
At the link I took the time to read the Guthrie’s Land Acknowledgement which I recommend for light entertainment value(spoiler: Guthrie manages to give itself a reach around) but nowhere do they suggest they will give the land back to the Indians.
January 24th, 2024 at 9:45 am
The Guthrie is sitting on land stolen from the Indians
The Guthrie won’t give back the stolen land
The Guthrie are COLONIZERS
Hamas showed us how to
deal with colonizers
If Dial M needs lesbians
can we assume the actresses
chosen to play the part of lesbians are
ACTUAL lesbians and not cultural appropriators
or do we need some proof and would that be an X rated show
which might raise revenues while returning to downtown’s risque past?
January 24th, 2024 at 12:02 pm
Somehow I am reminded of a truly horrendous production from “Prairie Fire Theater”, not surprisingly sponsored by that set-aside from the state. My family has tolerated some bad theater, but this was so bad we walked out.
Maybe we ought to consider the possibility that when the Guthrie or whoever doesn’t need to sell a lot of tickets to make ends meet, the “artistic freedom” of the producers (or of “The Producers”?) expands to a point where sanity no longer matters.