BWW Reviews: 'Don't Sit Under the Chandelier with Anyone Else But Me' - PHANTOM Haunts the Orpheum
When Gaston Leroux published THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA back in 1911, little did he realize the numerous chandeliers that would come crashing down through the decades, and I've witnessed a good number of them. First, in 1925, there was 'the Man of a Thousand Faces,' Lon Chaney, Sr., who frightened poor Mary Philbin (a well-done version, even IF the film was silent); then, for Universal in 1941, Claude Rains (Bette Davis' favorite co-star) was a more subdued vocal coach for soprano Susanna Foster (a wooden Nelson Eddy, alas, is a greater impending horror as 'Raoul'). I could go on - even Herbert Lom, the actor who was the harried police superior to Peter Sellers' 'Inspector Clousseau,' took a swing on the old light fixture. (And let us not forget diminutive Paul Williams in the slightly askew PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE.) All of these pale, of course, in comparison to the legendary interpretation by Michael Crawford in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, which first brought the audience to its feet in 1986.
TV Host and Comic Skip E. Lowe Dies at 85
Skip E. Lowe, the comic, raconteur and perennial TV host whose weekly public access cable program has been airing in Los Angeles, New York and other major markets for more than 35 years--the longest in television history--and is generally credited as the inspiration for the Martin Short character “Jiminy Glick,” died in his home at Kingsley Manor Apartments in Hollywood on Monday, Sept. 22. He was 85 and had been suffering from emphysema and other respiratory ailments, though he never smoked, but blamed years of working as a comic in smoke-infested nightclubs. Lowe had conducted more than 6,000 interviews, often two a week, with guests that included Orson Welles and Bette Davis.
SALA LEOPOLDO LUGONES - MONSTRUOS DE LA UNIVERSAL thru Dec 13
El Complejo Teatral de Buenos Aires y la Fundacion Cinemateca Argentina han organizado un ciclo denominadoMonstruos de la Universal, que se llevara a cabo del martes 26 de noviembre al viernes 13 de diciembre en la Sala Leopoldo Lugones del Teatro San Martin (Avenida Corrientes 1530).
SALA LEOPOLDO LUGONES - MONSTRUOS DE LA UNIVERSAL, Nov 26-Dec 13
El Complejo Teatral de Buenos Aires y la Fundacion Cinemateca Argentina han organizado un ciclo denominadoMonstruos de la Universal, que se llevara a cabo del martes 26 de noviembre al viernes 13 de diciembre en la Sala Leopoldo Lugones del Teatro San Martin (Avenida Corrientes 1530).
Susanna Foster, Singer-Actress, Star of Rains' 'PHANTOM', Passes Away at 84
Susanna Foster, who starred opposite Claude Rains as 'Christine' in the 1943 version of 'Phantom of the Opera,' has passed away. She was 84. Foster died Saturday at the Lillian Booth Actors Home in Englewood, N.J., publicist Dale Olson said. Foster made only a dozen movies but she was extremely popular in the early 1940s. A child prodigy, she got a contract with MGM at age 12 on the strength of her singing, then moved to Paramount, where at the age of 14 she made her movie debut in 1939's 'The Great Victor Herbert.'
She moved to Universal, where she was 19 when she played the leading lady in 'Phantom' but she abruptly quit the film business in 1945 and a few years later married baritone Wilbur Evans. They divorced in 1956.
