The upcoming Broadway production of “Streetcar” has a real heavyweight guiding its colorful players in Emily Mann, Artistic Director of Princeton’s McCarter Theatre, one of the most accomplished, versatile and adventurous individuals currently extant.
Now it’s common lore Mr. Williams wasn’t exactly enamoured the delicate balance he’d envisioned for his play – whose centrifugal focus was supposed to be Blanche – was eternally demolished
due to Mr. Brando’s cataclysmic conception of Stanley
(something that still casts its seminal shadow even to this day), witness the below symposium:
So it’ll be EXTREMELY intriguing seeing how Ms. Mann plans to approach this as an artist
(tho we can’t rightly recall many productions helmed by women so the interviews from a human/racial and gender standpoint involving all the principals are gonna be nothin’ less than fascinating).
A'course, August Wilson would probably be appalled (believing blacks shouldn’t act in plays by Arthur Miller or anyone not steeped in Da Experience), but we're acute with anticipation waiting to see what this brings forth.
On the other hand, Ms. Parker's ecstatic response was hardly false euphoria: “This is a childhood dream come true. Blanche is the role of a lifetime. When I heard, I spun around my kitchen like Diana Ross in ‘The Wiz’!”
This is such a wonderful thread... and guess what: I wouldn´t even know Dorothy Dandridge if she wouldn´t have been mentionend in "To Wong Foo: Thanks for everything, Julie Newmar". What a beautiful woman she was. And what a sad and shameful story for Tinseltown. And so very lovely of gorgeous muscular Noxeema Jackson to remember her.
Did we have Audra McDonald in the thread? Cannot remember seeing her... and what about lovely Dionne Warwick? I know, that´s a bit controversial but she even "acted" in movies ("Rent A Cop" for example.
And I really miss Margaret Avery. She gave this lovely performance in "Colour Purple". And Whoopi Goldberg of course...
She has been featured before... but she so nailed Yzma.
Tho not widely known by the wider populace in its generally-unaware smallness, Paula Kelly a triple-threat performer who dances, acts and sings with such powerful pizzaz it’s impossible to contain any more than it is to ignore her vibrant versatility.
[ Among other accomplishments, in the August 1969 Playboy she was the first (vanilla, chocolate or rainbow) to pose au natural full-frontal (tho tastefully shot in shadowy light).
That same year,
she was front-and-center as one of the trinity enchantresses who gave so much flair
to
In the ensuing decades throughout the 70s up to and including this one, she’s excelled in sci-fi,
colorful action flicks,
genuine guffaw-generating laugh get-togethers,
Now, we can personally proudly attest from first hand (and eye) admiring evidence NOBODY enters a restaurant (in this case, the no-longer extant late and lamented Brown Derby above Sunset Boulevard) with such style and energy, virtually radiating what George Bernard Shaw called “The Life Force” with the kinda kinetic combustion even he never dreamed of.
Insightful, articulate, down-to-earth and sometimes outrageously funny with a sensahuma that’s to die for in order to truly embrace its luster, her contributions since have ranged richly far and wondrously wide from teaching dance
to continually dancing in musicals,
up-to-and-including a touching love partnership opposite incandescent Lonette McKee in “The Ladies of Brewster Place”.
Oh, und as this dynamic creative chameleon might be the first to set you straight about:
[ “There is about Viola's work, and her person, a self-effacing quality that, ironically, has the exact opposite effect of erasing her impact. Weirdly, it amplifies the importance of the women she has chosen to portray, and the woman she is.
It's her seeming reluctance to draw attention to herself that draws us in and pulls us close. It's her interest in the quiet, the patient ones; and it's her respect, the great respect she pays to those who bear unbearable burdens without a sound, that makes us lean in and listen and unable to turn away.
Her modesty is her majesty.
This is not to say that she is incapable of stylish and show-offy and joyously wild stuff — I have seen that from her in the theater.
It's just to say that her heart and skill are married, and I think that she's a pure actor, in the way of Vanessa Redgrave. Both share a magic source, a quality that brings more light around the characters they play than lights - regular human beings, an aura almost ...
It's like they broke into the electrics truck and brought their own key light, only lit from the inside.
What is that? Where does it come from?
Nothing phony, nothing unfelt, unearned.
I know she is a serious actress, she took her training seriously and works hard at her craft.
She is a special woman, too. Her humanity marches out in front of her; her kindness, her fierceness, her unwillingness to compromise, her stubbornness make me love her too. But none of that explains the special empathy she sets up between us and the women she brings us close to, so close we breathe with them.
From an unsent note i wrote on January 2--never thought me and Ms. Streep would ever agree on anything...
Today at lunch I turned on Law & Order, one of the permutations, not the original. Vincent D'Onoffrio stars, and I can't say he's my favorite actor, especially since I've read about his on-set behavior. But it was just beginning when I turned it on and the guest star was Viola Davis. I like her, but I have only seen her in a few things, and have an image of her as a certain 'type.' I figured she would play a widow, or a witness, and administrator.
She played a tough, dirty, physical cop involved in corruption and murder, and here's the thing--if I didn't see the opening credit, I bet I would have spent the episode thinking, "I KNOW this actress, who the hell IS she?" and would be thinking of her playing similarly-tough parts. We see her in one scene eating in a restaurant, dressed in a suit, looking like an executive; in another scene, we see her in her uniform chasing down a drug dealer; then we see her at home with her two daughters, telling one she can't wear makeup; then we see her in the act of corruption which gets her nabbed. After all this, when confronted with being sent to jail and not seeing her daughters, she breaks, and then reigns in her emotions on a dime.
You may or may not know this but I have a huge, huge problem with Hollywood's 'macha' streak. I know women who served in the military, female cops, and my last karate teacher was a woman--my issue isn't that women can't be tough and physical, my issue is how Hollywood has women who are not physically capable of such acts in real life casually breaking arms and doing cartoonish violence without breaking a sweat. (Of course, we won't get into my problems with how men are portrayed in such situations.) In this case, I believed the character was capable of everything in the show, from tenderness to violence.
My favorite actors have this quality I can only describe as the ability to keep me hooked. Davis has it.
What a delightful post! And I was especially taken by JSWalsh's piece above on Viola Davis and her guest role on "Law & Order: Criminal Intent." (And I too find Vincent D'Onofrio hard to take, and if he's going to be on the show, I usually move on -- he's so manic that it makes the show a cartoon, and, for me, cartoon doesn't work for a homicide detective.) Love all the text and pictures found here! I adored Lena Horne and was overjoyed several years ago when one of my favorite albums of hers, "Feelin' Good," was finally released on CD -- her "And I Love Him" has to be one of the best covers of that song EVER! (They combined "Feelin' Good" with "Lena In Hollywood" for a double yummy CD!) But has Josephine Baker been mentioned? I'll have to go back and see if any references to her slipped past me. My dear friend and neighbor Sloan Robinson has written and stars in a one-woman show as Josephine Baker and has performed it in a number of venues. So let's not forget Josephine!
As for Viola Davis, what can I say? If she's in something, you know she'll take the time to get it right, and she has a wonderful range. I just wish that her role in "The Help" had allowed us to see more of that range, and hope that she'll get her own share of writers writing specifically for her, as they sometimes do for other actors and actresses.
Juanita Moore co-starred with Lana Turner as her friend and housekeeper. Juanita passed away recently at 99. She was only the 5th African American to be nominated for an Oscar. The film was the Douglas Sirk melodrama, Imitation of Life.
My nearest neighbor works at Universal and about a year ago he gave me 3 or 4 DVDs, and one was a fancy looking copy of "Imitation of Life," so I remember Juanita Moore very well. Sorry she died, but 99? I'll be quite happy if I make it to 89!
Re: What a delightful post! And I was especially taken by JSWalsh's piece above on Viola Davis and her guest role on "Law & Order: Criminal Intent." (And I too find Vincent D'Onofrio hard to take, and if he's going to be on the show, I usually move on -- he's so manic that it makes the show a cartoon, and, for me, cartoon doesn't work for a homicide detective.) Love all the text and pictures found here! I adored Lena Horne and was overjoyed several years ago when one of my favorite albums of hers, "Feelin' Good," was finally released on CD -- her "And I Love Him" has to be one of the best covers of that song EVER! (They combined "Feelin' Good" with "Lena In Hollywood" for a double yummy CD!) But has Josephine Baker been mentioned? I'll have to go back and see if any references to her slipped past me. My dear friend and neighbor Sloan Robinson has written and stars in a one-woman show as Josephine Baker and has performed it in a number of venues. So let's not forget Josephine!
As for Viola Davis, what can I say? If she's in something, you know she'll take the time to get it right, and she has a wonderful range. I just wish that her role in "The Help" had allowed us to see more of that range, and hope that she'll get her own share of writers writing specifically for her, as they sometimes do for other actors and actresses.
Love this post and especially the great pictures!
Yup, I posted that some time ago. I mentioned Josephine Baker. My dear friend and neighbor Sloan Robinson has created a wonderful one-woman show as Josephine, as she looks back on her amazing life, and I wish someone would post a few pics here of the great Josephine Baker! Thanks.
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hay, she’s just gettin’ started. 
NICOLE ARI PARKER:
From Claudia McNeil's historic original performance
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