Pausing on a Sunday

Chicago Shakespeare Theatre and The Art Institute of Chicago put together an unusual art-meets-life experience on an ordinary Sunday.

They removed some of the characters from a very familiar painting.

photo: Leo Burnett

Bit by bit,

Putting it together...

Piece by Piece-

Only way to make a work of art.

Every moment makes a contribution,

Every little detail plays a part.

Having just a vision's no solution,

Everything depends on execution:

Putting it together-

That's what counts!*

Some museum-goers noticed that there was something missing.

It's only new, though. for now,
And yesterday's forgotten.
Today it's all a matter of promotion,
But then —*

The event was dreamed up locally by Chicago ad agency Leo Burnett and shared globally via social media.

That is the state of the art, my friend,

That is the state of the art *

Drop by the Google Cultural Institute for a “State of the Art” view of La Grande Jatte.

*lyrics from “Putting It Together” from Sondheim’s Sunday In the Park with George.

When I Grow Up

A scenic design model of Matilda The Musical by Tony-nominated designer Rob Howell.

Matilda The Musical tells the story of an extraordinary little girl who decides that her story is going to be an astonishing one, despite a bad beginning filled with rotten parents, a terrifying school and a vicious head mistress.

In Act Two, the children imagine what adulthood is like and sing “When I Grow Up.”

When I Grow Up

from Matilda the Musical

Music and Lyrics by Tim Minchin

Book by Dennis Kelly

Based on the book Matilda by Roald Dahl, with illustrations by Quentin Blake

When I grow up,

I will be tall enough to reach the branches

That I need to reach to climb the trees

You get to climb when you're grown up.

And when I grow up,

I will be smart enough to answer all

The questions that you need to know

The answers to before you're grown up.

And when I grow up,

I will eat sweets every day,

On the way to work, and I will

Go to bed late every night.

And I will wake up

When the sun comes up, and I

Will watch cartoons until my eyes go square,

And I won't care 'cause I'll be all grown up.

When I grow up (x 4)...

I will be strong enough to carry all

The heavy things you have to haul

Around with you when you're a grown up.

And

When I grow up (x 3)...

I will be brave enough to fight the creatures

That you have to fight beneath the bed

Each night to be a grown up.

And when I grow up,

I will have treats every day,

And I'll play with things that mum pretends

That mums don't think are fun.

And I will wake up

When the sun comes up and I

Will spend all day just lying in the sun.

And I won't burn 'cause I'll be all grown up.

When I grow up...

(Ms. Honey:)

When I grow up,

I will be brave enough to fight the creatures

That you have to fight beneath the bed

Each night to be a grown up.

When I grow up...

(Matilda:)

Just because you find that life's not fair, it

Doesn't mean that you just have to grin and bear it.

If you always take it on the chin and wear it, nothing will change.

Just because I find myself in this story,

It doesn't mean that everything is written for me.

If I think the ending is fixed already,

I might as well be saying I think that it's OK,

And that's not right!

— lyrics via themusicallyrics.com

Sing-A-Long with the “School Song”

As her classmates arrive with the usual nervousness of a child going to school for the first time, the older children do nothing to dispel their fears, instead warning them that even putting in effort there, is a waste of energy ("School Song").

Transferring Energy: The Journey of Matilda

The creators of Matilda talk about the show's origins at the Royal Shakespeare Company in London and the transfer of the show across the pond to Broadway — from Playbill, “The Journey of Matilda”

Your Lot in Life

I remember that my sister and I were in Wales when we overheard the news that Richard Burton had died.  Two women were chatting, bubbling out a stream of memories, remembering the great Welsh actor, his tumultuous life-long love affair with Elizabeth Burton, the many roles that he played on screen and in the theatre, and his incredible voice. Their conversation ended with an extended silence and an unintentional punchline.

"Fat lot of good, that'll do him now."

My family had gone to see Richard Burton play the role of King Arthur in Lerner & Loewe's Camelot, one of the Broadway musicals that re-opened the Golden Gate Theatre back in 1979.

Camelot tells the story of the mythic kingdom, a place built and shaken by a love triangle: Arthur of Pendragon, the young man who would be king meets Guinevere, the young woman who will become his queen, and they both befriend the handsome knight, Lancelot. Guinevere and Lancelot transgressions will break Arthur's heart and bring down the kingdom.  Still, the musical ends on an upbeat note and a hopeful promise. As long as the story is told, Camelot would live on. The optimistic ending offered comfort to the musical theatre-going audiences of the 60's, including a President who was to be forever associated with the magical kingdom.

After President John F. Kennedy's death, Mrs. Kennedy was interviewed by journalist Theodore H. White, for the Life essay, "For President Kennedy: An Epilogue." Mrs. Kennedy was the one who first linked the story to her husband, "there's this one thing I wanted to say. I'm so ashamed of myself. Jack . . . everything he ever quoted was Greek or Roman . . . no, don't protect me now . . . one thought kept going though my mind -- the line from a musical comedy. 

"I kept saying to Bobby, I've got to talk to somebody, I've got to see somebody. I want to say this one thing. It's been almost an obsession with me. This line from the musical comedy's been almost an obsession with me.

"At night before going to bed . . . we had an old Victrola. He'd play a couple of records. I'd get out of bed at night and play it for him when it was so cold getting out of bed. It was a song he loved. He loved 'Camelot.' It was the song he loved most at the end . . . 'don't let it be forgot that for one brief shining moment there was Camelot.' "

  

How thrilling to hear Burton's amazing voice in all of its shades.  In this interview with Dick Cavett, Richard Burton delivers the speech where Arthur tells Guinevere about the moment when he became king.  After failing twice, Arthur finally pulls the sword from the stone, and his destiny is set.

He also mentions how he became self-conscious every time he approached a particular scene in the show, after being showered with superlatives for speaking a single word. Even though he doesn't actually speak the word, that's a moment in Camelot that will be forever burned in my brain. The actor stood still on the stage, barely moving, and it was operatic. He lifted his voice out to the audience and raised goosebumps with his delivery of three letters.  

R       U       N

Later, he revealed that he was performing with tremendous pain and could barely lift his arm above his shoulder. Economy of movement was a necessity, but when that moment arrived, it was a master class in how to use the voice as a sword.

Years later, the young actress who played Guinevere, Christine Ebersole won a Tony Award for Leading Actress in a Musical for her “dual role of a lifetime” as Edith Beale and Little Edie Beale, the eccentric aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, in Grey Gardens.

Ebersole also understands how to deliver intensity of feeling to an audience though stillness.

I imagine that she learned a lot from the voice that released the sword from the stone. 

Show after show after show after show...

Ruth Asawa's “San Francisco Yesterday and Today”

After our visit to the Luggage Store Annex & the Tenderloin National Forest, we headed off to celebrate Amy's birthday.  En route we came upon the Parc 55 Hotel and took a detour inside to see Ruth Asawa's magnificent panels, "San Francisco Yesterday and Today." 

Seven bas-relief panels, sculpted from baker's dough by many hands, were installed in the porte-cochère of the Parc 55 Hotel in 1984 — The work celebrates it's 30th birthday this year. http://www.ruthasawa.com/art/pub6.html

Francisco Yesterday and Today" by Ruth Asawa. 

Assisted by Addie Lanier, Paul Lanier, Mae Lee, Robert Radziejewski, Peter Morenstein, Sara Morgan, Naoe Fukuyama, Mary Lee, Erwin Lerias, Aiko Cunieo, Tamie Passalalpi. 

Dedicated October 4, 1984.

Cast by Lafayette Mfg. Inc., 1984. 

The panels illustrate a variety of modes of transportation used by San Franciscans. If you look closely, you can see evidence of the Asawa family's longstanding support of arts education for San Francisco school communities.

School of the Arts at the McAteer Campus

Alvarado School sits below Sutro Tower

Rooftop's school mascot King Kong on top of the Transamerica Pyramid

*******

To wrap up our art day, we celebrated Amy's Birthday at Puccini & Panetti's.

Here’s the fun Tenderloin trivia that bought us lunch with a gift certificate from SHN.

Name the Broadway stars who were drawn by the Line King, Al Hirschfeld in the poster commemorating the 1979 "Best of Broadway" reopening of the Golden Gate Theatre.

(Answer: Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady, Richard Burton in Camelot, Dick van Dyke in The Music Man, with a special toast to Alexis Smith who starred as Miss Mona in the National touring production of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas!)

Here's a perfect lyric by composer/lyricist Carol Hall to accompany our day:

It's just a little bitty pissant country place

Ain't nothin' much to see

No drinking allowed, we get a nice quiet crowd, plain as it can be

It's just a piddly squatin' old time country place

Ain't nothing to hide at all

Just lots of good will and maybe one small thrill

But there's nothing dirty going on

Nothing dirty going on

Source: San Francisco History Center, S.F. Public Library

For a great website on the history of the Tenderloin, visit Up From The Deep.

Open a New Window

Open a new window,

Open a new door,

Travel a new highway,

That's never been tried before;

Before you 

Find you're a dull fellow,

Punching the same clock,

Walking the same tight rope

As everyone on the block.

The fellow you ought to be is three dimensional,

Soaking up life down to your toes,

Whenever they say you're slightly unconventional,

Just put your thumb up to your nose.

And show 'em how to 

Dance to a new rhythm,

Whistle a new song,

Toast with a new vintage,

The fizz doesn't fizz too long.

There's only one way to make the bubbles stay,

Simply travel a new high way,

Dance to a new rhythm,

Whistle a new love song,

Toast with a new vintage,

Open a new window ev'ry day!

Angela Lansbury sings “Open a New Window,” from Jerry Herman’s 1966 musical Mame.  Rather than following instructions to enroll her nephew Patrick in an exclusive, restricted, and extremely safe, boarding school environment, Auntie Mame decides to introduce the boy to a life of adventure out in the big wide chaotic world.

Composer Jerry Herman was one of the few people who actually saw one of the nine performances of the infamous Sondheim flop, Anyone Can Whistle. “It was just a number of wonderful circumstances... Nobody had ever seen Angela Lansbury on stage, singing, dancing, playing a leading role and they didn't know whether I could do it.” Luckily for Angela Lansbury (and Broadway audiences), Herman recognized a great leading lady, and he cast Lansbury in the role of Auntie Mame.  Herman's show about a rich socialite going bust during the Great Depression was a hit, running for 1,508 performances earning Lansbury her first of five Tony awards. Now 87, with a theatrical career spanning over 70 years, Ms. Lansbury plans to return once again to Broadway this fall in Enid Bagnold's play The Chalk Garden.

Alas, we hear that the automated dialing system called to say that teachers should report for work on August 12th. Can it really be that school starts in less than a month?

News like that calls out for a witty response, a wry bon mot — 

something more Cole Porter-ish than Jerry Herman.

“Another opening, another show... Cross your fingers and hold your heart!”

“Do, do, do,what you done, done, done, once more.”

“Experiment, make it your motto day and night.”
“Miss Otis regrets she's unable to lunch today.”

Oh well, how about we just open a new window and enjoy the overture? 
We still have a bit of time before the curtain goes up!