Happy Days and Last Request

What a pleasure to see Happy Days at Yale Rep yesterday! Dianne Weist was fabulous as Winnie. And it completely wipes the slate of the abysmal Tony Shaloub/Brook Adams version we suffered through last year. The trap with Happy Days is to make it a cartoon; but where the play really lives is in reality. It could be people sitting at the kitchen table talking, or the wife chattering away while the husband sits with coffee and his newspaper, it just so happens that in the play Winnie is buried up to her waist in Act One and up to her neck in Act Two . . . it's a stunning play visually and a real tour de force for the actress playing Winnie.

I think it is the fourth production of the play that Bette and I have seen; and easily the best. While the Gate Theater's production at Lincoln Center may have been its equal in a lot of ways, it was in a space way too large for it. You need intimacy, and Yale Rep had that. It also had Ms. Weist who was nothing short of stunning. The fellow playing Willie was fine. But he didn't really do so much to make it his own. He did what Willie is supposed to do in the script, but I can't say he brought anything special to the part.

I had never been to Yale Rep before, and enjoyed it thoroughly, and also enjoyed what little we saw of New Haven as well.

In other news I had occasion to dust off Last Request and submit it to someone today. The piece is nearly twenty years old and I had a hard time actually finding an electronic file of it! I was able to, finally though and did some cleaning up of it from a layout perspective. Didn't spend a lot of time with rewriting it, didn't want to go down that rabbit hole just yet. If the people I submitted it to have an interest then I can have a closer look.

Last Request was my first full length play, in about 1998 or so! I saw a posting the other day for two handers, and wrote to see about whether they'd consider a three character piece, since there is a ghost character in act two. They said they would so I sent it. My other two handers either are older characters or aren't a man and a woman.

We'll see. I think it's a good piece and the reading we did of it in '99 was very well received so hope springs eternal!