Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf

[aarghh]

Just saw this with Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin - smashing performances both.

Highly recommended to any members in San Francisco.

 

[itsstillmatt]

Agreed. Bill Irwin is absolutly fantastcin everything he does. Yeas agowe saw himin "Full Moon" which is a mime show and he was amazing. Apparently he is one of the world's finest clowns.

 

[Ivan Kipling]

Oh, that's exciting. I read that Kathleen Turner has experienced some health troubles, of late. I'm happy to know that she's performing with success.

Bette Davis wanted desperately to play Martha, in the movie.

 

[GQgeek]

Originally Posted by iammatt

Apparently he is one of the world's finest clowns.

People actually rank clowns?

And I can't picture you at a mime show... It sounds really boring.

 

[matadorpoeta]

i love the film.

 

[itsstillmatt]

Originally Posted by GQgeek

People actually rank clowns?

And I can't picture you at a mime show... It sounds really boring.
I **** you not, it was the funniest thing I have ever seen. He hecked the audience so badly that people were hiding from him.

 

[Connemara]

I have severe coulrophobia (fear of clowns). Thank heavens I wasn't there.

 

[Ivan Kipling]

Originally Posted by matadorpoeta

i love the film.
I do as well. I've read that the play was based on an aging, homosexual couple. For the screen version, Edward Albee requested Bette Davis and Henry Fonda, to play the leads. Those two performers were not judged commercially viable; Liz and Dick got the parts. Elizabeth Taylor was only 32, playing a 50 year old woman. A daunting challenge. She did a fine job, although watching the movie now, as a 51 year old man . . . Liz does look and animate wayyyyyyy too young, for 'Martha's' role. Seems to me that Richard Burton did a little better, vis a vis the age factor.

 

[LabelKing]

I haven't seen this particular rendition of the play, but we need a modern Kenneth Tynan.

 

[matadorpoeta]

Originally Posted by Ivan Kipling

I do as well. I've read that the play was based on an aging, homosexual couple. For the screen version, Edward Albee requested Bette Davis and Henry Fonda, to play the leads. Those two performers were not judged commercially viable; Liz and Dick got the parts. Elizabeth Taylor was only 32, playing a 50 year old woman. A daunting challenge. She did a fine job, although watching the movie now, as a 51 year old man . . . Liz does look and animate wayyyyyyy too young, for 'Martha's' role. Seems to me that Richard Burton did a little better, vis a vis the age factor.

it's been a long time since i saw it, and i thought both performances were perfect. remind me to see it again when i'm 50. they were married at the time they filmed this, no?

 

[Ivan Kipling]

modern Kenneth Tynan
*******************
Label King, Vivien Leigh was intensely jealous of Kenneth Tynan. She thought him to be in love with her husband, Laurence Olivier. In Olivier's autobiography, the actor states that he told Kenneth Tynan to his face, that Olivier believed Mr. Tynan to be responsible for one of Vivien's nervous breakdowns.
Yes, matadorpoeta, the Burtons were married at the time. The movie had a closed set; nobody could see Ms. Taylor in costume except for production staff. btw: since the making of this film, Elizabeth Taylor has undergone a number of cosmetic operations, among them rhinoplasty. Her nose is now half the size of the one in profile, pictured here. The new nose makes Liz look a little like a bulldog. JMHO.

 

[LabelKing]

If I recall, wasn't Laurence Olivier bisexual? Anyways, Tynan's sexual preferences were rather dodgy at times, but then he maintained a strict adherence towards S&M.

On Vivien Leigh's performance, Tynan noted:

"Taking a deep breath and resolutely focusing her periwinkle charm, she launches another of her careful readings; ably and passionlessly she picks her way among its great challenges, presenting a glibly mown lawn where her author had imagined a jungle".

 

[Ivan Kipling]

LK, In the Anne Edwards book: VIVIEN LEIGH, the author presents a nebulous depiction of Olivier's sexual proclivities. But to this reader, implications of a long standing relationship to DANNY KAYE, emerged. Now. Picture Vivien Leigh. One of the world's greatest beauties. A neurotic, manic depressive. 'Madly' in love, with Laurence Olivier. And he's having a physical relationship with . . . Danny Kaye.
Ms. Leigh claimed however, that she preferred for Olivier to engage in homosexual affairs, than to stray from her affections, via another woman.
The Tynan review, is exactly what drove Viv into fits of fury. He called her Lady Macbeth, 'more nimminy pimminy than thundery blundery.'

and, to aarghh: apologies for going off thread.

 

[aarghh]

Originally Posted by Ivan Kipling

I do as well. I've read that the play was based on an aging, homosexual couple.

I believe Albee denied that - he refused to have same sex couples cast in the role, and said something to the effect that if he'd wanted to write a play about an aging homosexual couple, he would have written it.

 

[Ivan Kipling]

Thank you. As it happens, I've been acquainted with a few heterosexual couples who might have served as models for Albee's play.