The Broadway show won four Tony awards out of 11 nominations, including best musical, best direction of a musical, best choreography and best leading actress in a musical. It was Lauren Bacall's first of two Tony awards as best actress on Broadway. Although all of the cast are good, Bacall is the main reason to see this show, if one can find it. The copy quality is very poor and the character images are not clear and crisp.
While Bacall and others of the cast can carry a tune, they are not professional singers. Ergo, this play and film don't have the punch and power of the great musicals that have featured professional singers or their voices. The music and dance numbers are good, and the choreography is very good. But, again, this film has the feel of a stage production and the star quality of performers doesn't match that of the great musicals that were made into movies. F Gwynplaine MacIntyre 6 November In one of the most ironic casting choices in history, Bacall was replaced in the Broadway cast by Anne Baxter.
In the cast of 'Applause', Baxter finally got that chance. I was peripherally involved in the London production of 'Applause', as a minor staffer in the producer's office. In , I hadn't yet seen the film 'All About Eve', and I couldn't understand why there was so much fuss over this movie.
One of the songs in 'Applause' is called 'Fasten Your Seat Belts It's going to be a bumpy night ', but the song is performed at a party and has nothing to do with air travel. I didn't understand at the time that this song was inspired by a famous line in the original film.
This was at the time a fictional award named for a real stage actress; following the film's success, there is now a genuine Sarah Siddons Award. In the opening scene of the stage musical, there was an awkward tech cue as we hear the thoughts of famed actress Margo Channing Bacall in pre-recorded voice-over.
This was done much more easily in the TV version. Bacall waves a Tony Award overhead, wearing a sleeveless gown that gives us a full view of her shaved armpits. The camera shifts into slo-mo, to make sure we don't miss those armpits. She then goes to a party where the guests engage in peculiar scat-singing. Comden and Green usually wrote the lyrics for their scripts; for 'Applause', they were brought into the project after Adams and Strouse had written a score.
What is it about gay men and aging actresses? For reasons that elude me, the movie 'All About Eve' is some sort of gay rite of passage. The musicals of Comden and Green contain large amounts of material that's gay-friendly, but not explicitly so.
With its background of Broadway musicals, the gay aspects of the New York theatre get far more than a look-in here. In the original film, Margo Channing's dresser was an older woman; in 'Applause', this character is a handsome young man named Duane Fox. She invites him to escort her to an after-theatre party. When Duane demurs that he's got a date, Bacall theatrically tosses her long tawny hair and says 'Bring him along! The most bizarre scene in this TV special occurs when gayboy Duane brings Margo to his favourite bar in Greenwich Village, where lots of good-looking young men want to meet this aging actress.
Not another woman is in sight; I guess none of these guys can get a girlfriend. Bacall performs a musical number in front of a wall of multi-coloured neon lights, each light forming a letter of the alphabet. These letters appear to be randomly scattered across the wall, but if you follow them in a knight's tour they spell out "GAY POWER", with one extra letter as a decoy. As Margo leaves, a young man named Danny shouts: 'I love her! In the s, this was a real restaurant in the Broadway theatre district, noted for its distinctive red and white tablecloths.
For Bacall's pleasure, all the boys and girls at Joe Allen's perform an elaborate dance number referencing other Broadway musicals, ranging from 'Oklahoma!
There's some contrived dialogue here that wasn't in the movie. When Karen Richards feels guilt for draining the gas tank of Margo's car, she imagines she hears comments about this. All the guests wear signs on their backs, with each sign bearing the name of a famous person. Since no guest can read his own sign, they must respond to clues from other guests to learn who they are. The best elements here are direct references to Broadway's theatre community that weren't in the film, such as the gypsy-robe scene and the gay subculture.
But 'Applause' can never be revived except as a period piece, since it makes absolutely no mention of Aids. I'll rate this enjoyable TV version 6 points out of 10, and I wish someone would explain to me why gay men are so fascinated by aging actresses.
Isaac 16 April The story definitely lacks the bite of the original, obviously because it's a musical, but it's still the same story of Broadway star Margo Channing Bacall taking a star-struck fan Penny Fuller under her wing who pays her back by trying to take over her life. This production seems to have been thrown together in sort of a hap-hazard fashion and Bacall and company deserve better.
A curio to be sure, but worth a look if you can find it. This may not be really good, but it is fascinating to see if only for a 'legendary' performance, that being of Lauren Bacall as Margo Channing. I never found Bacall the least bit sexy in film, and although she came along some in the late s and s, I always thought she was a near-A star with a B- talent.
I recall the discerning but often nasty critic John Simon once stating that there were certain stars, Bacall being one of them, who were simply naturally 'big' personalities and were able to demonstrate that much better on the stage than on the screen. It didn't win all the awards, though. Only the men did; the women were snubbed.
Ironic for a movie about the challenges women face in the entertainment industry, eh? The movie may not have swept the Oscars, but it swept silver screens. Everyone wanted to see Bette Davis smoldering and dishing on screen in a movie considered to be her big comeback source.
Davis didn't have to carry All About Eve alone. Oh, and there was also a little-known actress in a bit part—an actress who went by the name Marilyn Monroe. Heard of her? Almost a decade before people realized that some like it hot , they got to know something about Marilyn in All About Eve.
But what was the big deal? Well, if the E! All About Eve tells a timeless tale: the insatiable hunger for fame. Andy Warhol didn't know how right he was. Today, people can be celebrities, or try to be, without leaving their house. Apps like Vine, YouTube, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, and any of the dozens of new ones that have been invented in the last twenty-four hours feed into our mania for celebrity. Everybody gets their 15 minutes of fame. Maybe even a half-hour. Celebrity obsession has risen to new heights.
YouTube stars are now the most popular celebs , even more than TV or movie stars. Eve doesn't simply grab a webcam; she treks from Wisconsin to New York City, creates a new identity for herself, and works tirelessly for her goal of being a Broadway star. We almost want to root for her, but Eve is totally crazy-go-nuts, not caring who she steps on or how many lies she has to tell to become a famous actress.
She almost succeeds in destroying the life of her Broadway idol, Margo Channing, just to hear those magical waves of applause. The film pokes at our obsession with fame. Is it worth what you have to do to get it? Don't get us started on plastic surgery and starvation diets. Is it compensation for something missing in our lives? What happens when the public's attention moves on to the next best thing because you're too old or made some bad movies, and you fade into obscurity?
Marilyn Monroe allegedly said, "Fame doesn't fulfill you. It warms you a bit, but that warmth is temporary" source. Hey, we liked that concluding sentence. Excuse us while we log on to our Twitter account.
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