There are storm clouds hovering over NYC. No, it's not global warming or some UFO like CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD. It's a possible strike for stage hands looms this weekend. A 2003 theater strike cost the city millions. With large ticket prices, can Broadway ever afford to not work together on these issues? After all, the play's the thing, right?
Theater, like so many things (sports, for example), cost. That's natural. But I worry for art forms because the general public sees them as luxury items when you and I know that life without art is work.
TV is successful because it's seen as a free or lost-cost entertainment. Live theater has a lightning-in-a-bottle aspect that non-fans just don't get. But that immediacy and originality happens with sports. It's even present with nature.
TV has a current writer's strike, but that will be over soon enough. There's too much money to be made. Movies and TV are expensive to make. But to see is relatively cheap. But a high end art form like live theater may have a harder time recovering and theater seems like a riskier venture because it costs so much. Prime example is LESTAT: THE MUSICAL. It looked like a hit on paper. It cost $12 million and closed in about a month. (http://www.scifi.com/sfw/screen/sfw12645.html). Another example of rock meets fiction is the upcoming Stephen King-John Mellencamp collaboration. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Brothers_of_Darkland_County). I remember reading that lyricist Bernie Taupin stated that LESTAT wouldn't be "dancing vampires" and it seemed the production would take a stately approach. Mellencamp, according to Wikipedia, said it wouldn't be Jack and Diane-meets Cujo. On the other hand, it's Broadway - show biz - isn't that what people expect?
People should remember that they can, in the meantime, get their theater experience through local venues. If sports and high salaraies ever get you down, remember there's always a local game, too.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
He made his mark: Norman Mailer dies
At 7:52 CST, Norman Mailer's Wikipedia entry included today - Nov. 10, 2007 - as his death date. That type of immediacy and importance was something mailer strived for in the iconic writer's lifetime of work. Along with Hunter S. Thompson, and Truman Capote, Mailer led the charge of the 1950's-1970s Era of the Journal-Novelist. Mailer said his generation wanted to be like Hemingway and often allowed his personality to be as big as the words.
The Literati may struggled with that.
Mailer was controversial. He certainly gets props for making his mark; one wonders how history will regard him. He found second fame in the 60's, putting easily the coat of literary rock star. The question is with literature is either how entertaining, accurate (as in "Truth") or creative one is - and how (if at all) one will be remembered (and why).
A great movie about writers, in case you ever want to see, is WONDERBOYS starring Michael Douglas and Tobey McGuire. The soundtrack includes a wicked song by Bob Dylan ("Things Have Changed"). Writing is about doing, but it's also about NOT writing. When you don't (or can't write), Life for a writer is like trying to walk across an ice rink full of marbles.
The Literati may struggled with that.
Mailer was controversial. He certainly gets props for making his mark; one wonders how history will regard him. He found second fame in the 60's, putting easily the coat of literary rock star. The question is with literature is either how entertaining, accurate (as in "Truth") or creative one is - and how (if at all) one will be remembered (and why).
A great movie about writers, in case you ever want to see, is WONDERBOYS starring Michael Douglas and Tobey McGuire. The soundtrack includes a wicked song by Bob Dylan ("Things Have Changed"). Writing is about doing, but it's also about NOT writing. When you don't (or can't write), Life for a writer is like trying to walk across an ice rink full of marbles.
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