Friday, January 20, 2006

About Last Night

Wednesday night we saw a dated, pointless production of David Mamet’s “Sexual Perversity in Chicago”. The play is more of a one-act, screen play outline. The play was written in the 70’s and is cynical view for four people in their twenties looking for love and sex. The homophobic and sexist jokes don’t hold up well. The laughs are as forced and cruel as racist humor. This was the second disappointing show in a row from American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. Last fall, ACT presented a badly cast production of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”.
Rob Lowe
The play was made into a much better movie in 1986 called “About Last Night”. It starred Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, James Belushi and Elizabeth Perkins. The movie featured several nude scenes of the very pretty Rob Lowe. The play could have used some gratuitous nudity.

Last Sunday, we took the two grade school kids to see “The Sound of Music” for the first time on the big screen. There is a local movie theatre that shows classic films in a beautifully restored theatre. There is a balcony, pipe organ with an organist that plays before and between films, an old movie poster collection on display in the lobby and a movie drape that opens and closes each film.
Christopher Plummer
I don’t think I have seen “The Sound of Music” on the big screen since I was a little kid. I don’t remember Christopher Plummer (Captain von Trapp) being so handsome and dashing. The actor playing Rolfe had a wonderful sexy voice (“Sixteen Going On Seventeen”).
Tonight we are off to see Elton John’s new musical based on Anne Rice’s “Lestat”. It has received mixed reviews in the press.

4 comments:

Ray Bridges said...

Curses! I'm due to see S.P.in C. in a week or two. You're sayin' ACT is doing a play about sex and there's not much gratuitous nudity? Damn.

Most of my theater group agreed with you about Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, thinking it was poorly cast. I was so delighted in hearing the language of Tennessee Williams that I forgave Brick's poor performance and simply enjoyed his body.

The last time I saw Sound of Music on the big screen, it was at the Castro Theater at a Sing-a-long. Having been clued in advance, I brought plenty of props to help those in my group to better participate.

I'm going to Brokeback Mountain this afternoon for the second time. I didn't enjoy it all that much the first time, so I'm hoping to see it through a different lens, now that I've read the story. I'll report.

Cheers.

Marc said...

I went to the Sing-Along Sound of Music a couple of years ago. OMG, it was one of the gayest things I've ever seen, but SO much fun.

Anonymous said...

Funny you liked the awful "About Last Night" but didnt like "Sexual perversity"... I thought the film was awful. (I found out later that David Mamet also hated it and wanted his name taken off. They did at least change the title, but that might have been for marketing reasons anyway....)

This week's New Yorker has a rave review of ACT's production of Sexual Perversity. Check it out.

Unknown said...

I loved ALN; haven't seen SP yet

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...