Literary: George Jean Nathan

Idea Prompt for 10/13/2009

SOURCE: The witty New York theatre critic, George Jean Nathan, who offered it to a moribund Broadway that kept trying to resuscitate vaudeville in the early 1940s.

Nathan was reviewing a lame piece of nouveau vaudeville called New Priorities of 1943. Tired of tiresome skits and schtick, Nathan – in his patented droll way – suggested a half-dozen sketches that would be a welcome addition to any of the numerous failed attempts at bludgeoning a dead horse.

O'Neill

WHAT WAS I THINKING… The only intriguing entry in Nathan’s facetious suggestion was the first one: “A sixteen-minute sketch, one long, uninterrupted howl, consisting of that portion of the dialogue and business which Eugene O’Neill cut out (on the ground that it held up the play’s movement) of the dinner-table scene in his Ah, Wilderness! It is as funny as all get-out and should be sure-fire.”

IMAGINE… a farcical slapstick scene dropped right in the middle of a morbidly serious play.

…THE POSSIBILITIES:

Burl Ives as Big Daddy

Take Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. On his deathbed, Big Daddy (played by Burl Ives in the original movie) could be reminiscing about the

Victor Buono as Puff Daddy

good ol’ days of minstrel shows, recounting his favorite blackface blackout, even acting it out in a mincing, Victor Buono-like way.

Or take a darker play, one of Ibsen’s… Mrs Alving and her son Osvald could have a running conversation about their dysfunctional household that would do Neil Simon proud.

You could even throw a stand-up routine into Brecht or Beckett and you wouldn’t miss a beat.

THE EXERCISE: Nathan had a pretty good idea. Let’s use it to lighten up the morose plays of the 20^th Century. I’m sure Albee won’t mind.

NOTE: If you’d like to develop these Ideas further, just leave a Comment and share your work.