Latest news with #DesolationRow
Boston Globe
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Pamela Anderson takes on a complicated Tennessee Williams role in ‘Camino Real'
The cast member in question, of course, was The play in question was 'Camino Real,' by Advertisement Dylan's 'Desolation Row' meets Fellini's 'La Strada' in 'Camino Real.' There's not much of a plot; Williams was after the kind of effects that might be lost within a linear storyline. It takes place in what is described as 'a police state in an imagined Latin-Mediterranean-American country.' The often pell-mell action unfolds in a courtyard. On one side is a luxury hotel, presided over by the heartless Gutman (Vin Knight), who periodically emerges onto a balcony to portentously announce the next scene. On the other is Skid Row, where all is struggle. With a large cast directed by Dustin Wills, 'Camino Real' is a visually arresting fantasia populated with original characters and figures from literature whom Williams saw, in their creativity and individuality, as kindred spirits. They include Don Quixote (Frankie J. Alvarez); Sancho Panza (Emma Ramos); Lord Byron (Ato Blankson-Wood); Casanova (Bruce McKenzie); the Hunchback of Notre Dame (Ryan Shinji); and Esmeralda (Whitney Peak), also from the Victor Hugo novel. Advertisement They register less as characters than as apparitions, or as the figures from a dream. Anderson plays Marguerite Gautier, the courtesan from Alexander Dumas's 'The Lady of the Camellias.' (The character is best known today from Greta Garbo's portrayal in the 1936 film 'Camille.') Hearing Anderson was an issue at Sunday's matinee. She failed to project many of her lines. Perhaps it shouldn't be surprising. Though she played Roxie Hart in 'Chicago' on Broadway in 2022, Anderson has spent most of her career on TV or in film, where vocal projection is much less of an issue. Director Wills needs to remind her of the need to, as they say, hit the back wall of the theater. Anderson proved up to the other challenges of a role that requires her to operate at a perpetual fever pitch of hysteria and, in one scene, repeatedly run back and forth across the stage while barefoot. Into this confusing world steps the idealistic Kilroy (Nicholas Alexander Chavez), a wholesome Jack Armstrong-type who's a former prizefighter. His red boxing gloves are slung over his shoulders, and his prowess in the ring is made plain by the 'CHAMP' belt he wears. Later, Kilroy will be forced to don a clown suit and a bulbous red nose. Kilroy is, essentially, a test case, the answer to the question of whether one can hold on to one's finer qualities amid degradation. 'Camino Real' occupies an interesting place in the Williams oeuvre. It was more stylistically daring than the plays that made his reputation. It was a rare flop in the middle of his exceptional hot streak and the commercial success that came with it. It followed 'The Glass Menagerie' (1944), 'A Streetcar Named Desire' (1947) and 'The Rose Tattoo' (1950), and came not long before 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' (1955.) Advertisement When it premiered on Broadway in 1953, directed by frequent Williams collaborator Elia Kazan, 'Camino Real' ran for only 60 performances, A 1970 revival starring a pre-Michael Corleone Al Pacino as Kilroy was likewise short-lived, closing after 13 previews and 52 performances. In 1999, when he was artistic director of Williamstown Theatre Festival, Nicholas Martin directed a production of 'Camino Real' that starred Ethan Hawke as Kilroy. That's part of the value of regional theater: It can prolong the life of a play, no matter how it fared in New York, or rediscover a forgotten play that deserves to be seen. In this case, it also enables theatergoers to get a fuller idea of a major playwright's creative imagination, and ponder what Williams was trying to say, beyond the same handful of classics. Broadly speaking, 'Camino Real' registers as a battle between self-expression and innocence on the one hand and suppression and corruption on the other. The Williamstown production leans into the comedy at the expense of the terror. 'Camino Real' was a deeply personal matter for Williams, and he was saddened by its failure on Broadway. But later, he gained perspective, writing to drama critic Brooks Atkinson, 'The work was done for exactly what it has gained: a communion with people.' CAMINO REAL Play by Tennessee Williams. Directed by Dustin Wills. Presented by Williamstown Theatre Festival. At MainStage Theatre, Williamstown. Through Aug. 3. Tickets $35-$130. At 413-458-3253 or Advertisement Don Aucoin can be reached at
Irish Post
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Post
Ten minutes with Johnny McEvoy
THE singer Johnny McEvoy has just celebrated his 80th birthday. He has marked the milestone with a new album entitled Both Sides — 14 songs and six audio stories recorded and read by the singer. This week he took time our to talk to the Irish Post... Johnny McEvoy has released a new album What are you up to? I'm writing poems, short stories, songs and I'm still touring. Which piece of music always sends a shiver down your spine? There is one piece that does it: Beethoven's Emperor Concerto. It was featured in a 1975 Australian movie called Picnic At Hanging Rock which is actually one of my favourite movies. Which musician or singer has most influenced you? There are two: Hank Williams influenced me a lot in my early years followed by the best of them all in my opinion, Liam Clancy. I believe he was the best singer and storyteller, the while being also very theatrical. What's on your smartphone playlist at the minute? I don't have one. What are your favourite lyrics? Any of Dylan's songs: Desolation Row I believe is his finest. But I could name dozens of other songs from various artists. The Planter's Daughter is an intriguing song that you wrote. What's the story behind it? It's a song I wrote about my wife. It tells the story of how we met, trying to find a decent chat up line, and after many failed attempts she eventually agreed to meet me for a coffee. We were together for 50 years. I'll always love the planter's daughter. What are your Irish roots? My family roots are in Galway, but I was born in Banagher, Co. Offaly. The family left there when I was 6, and have lived in Dublin and surrounding areas since. What is your favourite place in Ireland? A place I would find moving in an historical and atmospheric way would be the Feather Beds in the Dublin mountains. I always find it very calming and it just sits there unchanged in silence looking down over Dublin. What would you say has been your proudest moment on stage over you many decades of singing? Any night can be your proudest night, but the next night can be a disaster. I wouldn't change a thing. McEvoy's new album Both Sides What has been your favourite venue? The Gaiety Theatre in Dublin, when I walk into the Gaiety even now 60 years after I first performed there the smell alone brings back a thousand memories. Have you a book that has been a major influence on you? Sean O'Casey's autobiography. Which living person do you most admire? Any man or woman who deals with addiction and comes out on top. Which trait in others do you most admire? I would admire loyalty most. What would be your motto? Everything begins and ends at exactly the right time and place, would be something I live by. What's the best advice you've ever been given? Do your job and do it to the best of your was from my dad. In terms of inanimate objects, what is your most precious possession? A portrait of Michael Collins that was given to me by my wife the day we got married. What's best thing about where you live? The sea. And the worst? The DART. What do you believe in? I'm growing to believe in myself. What do you consider the greatest work of art? For me Michelangelo's David. Who is the greatest love of your life? Odette, my wife, was the love of my life.
