Strangest thing about traversing Los Angeles with a gaggle of other drama critics earlier this month was how everyone got my obscure theater jokes. I’m not used to communing with other arts journalist—at the paper I’m most associated with as a critic, I was pretty much a one-man arts department for 17 years. When I meet other Connecticut critics for quick chit-chat in theater lobbies, the others either play it way too close to the vest (you’re not betraying professional secrets to say whether you’re excited about a season line-up, guys) or are so clueless I wonder how they ever got their gigs.
This L.A. throng was something else—a fantasyland of like-minded passionate professionals.
The ultimate example of how this odd community, which sprang up for 10 days in L.A., shared and cared? The Pub Trivia contest thrown together by Lou Harry of the Indianapolis Business Journal. This was a late-night gathering held after a long day of sightseeing on one of our last nights in town, yet 15 or 16 of the 21 NEA/Annenberg fellows turned out to play.
Lou gave me permission to reprint his questions here. I had to transcribe from his reporter’s notebook—in which he’d scrawled questions on the fly in the scant moments amid our whirlwind sched of fellowship events and obligations. So if there are mistakes here, blame the editor (me):
ROUND ONE: Warm-ups
1. Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber have each done musical with titles that involve puckering. Name them.
2. Place these Rodgers & Hammerstein musicals in the order in which they were first produced:
Carousel
Oklahoma
The Sound of Music
The King & I
Me & Juliet
3. Name four women who played Mama Rose on Broadway.
4. Which of these jukebox musicals had the longest run?
The Times They Are A-Changin’
Ring of Fire
Good Vibrations
5. Name Broadway’s Amish musical. Hint: A revival has been playing in Nappanee, Indiana since 1986.
6. There was a superhero musical long before Spider-Man, in 1966. Give its full title.
ROUND TWO: Hot Shows
“Hot” Shows:
1. A David Mamet drama about a machine that runs without gas.
2. Musical about a gospel-singing church family.
3. Charlaine Woodard one-hander.
4. 1973 Lanford Wilson play.
5. 1986 Lanford Wilson play.
6. Thornton Wilder play adapted into a popular musical.
7. Rumored to be the next Mel Brooks film to get the Broadway treatment.
8. Cole Porter musical starring Jimmy Durante, Ethel Merman and Bob Hope.
ROUND THREE: Replacements.
Name the Broadway shows which had…
1. Liza Minnelli replacing Gwen Verdon.
2. Pearl Bailey replacing Ethel Merman.
3. Sarah Jessica Parker replacing Andrea McArdle.
4. Raul Julia replacing Frank Langella.
5. Elaine Stritch replacing Angela Lansbury.
6. Jane Kaczmarek replacing Mercedes Ruhl.
7. Anthony Hopkins replacing Anthony Perkins.
8. Whoopi Goldberg replacing Nathan Lane.
9. Vanessa Williams replacing Chita Rivera.
10. John Stamos replacing Antonio Banderas.
Answers in a future post, plus more questions.
You can easily look this stuff up online. What I really want to convey is how much fun we critics all had in L.A.
Glad you had as much fun as I did with pub trivia night. I think we may have freaked out the waitress a bit.
Anyway, quick modficition: Make it: …Played Mama Rose in Gypsy on Broadway. (The other way, it’s much harder–although I’d have enormous respect for anyone who could name four Louises)
–Lou
Consider it modified. You gotta have a gimmick—or in my case, a glaring mistake. It’s my shtick.