Binging on John Ford, Part 6: Gay Rumors and an Alleged Affair w/Hepburn

Maureen O'Hara, John Wayne and 
John Ford during the filming of
The Quiet Man in Ireland

The more I learn about John Ford, the more twisted, fascinating and complex the legendary director becomes. I originally set out to watch all of his movies and read about him because so many film scholars have said he was the greatest director of Hollywood's Golden Era and perhaps even of all movie history. He also reminds me of my late dad who enjoyed his works tremendously and had a similar individualistic streak. But as I read books and articles on Ford, he emerges as a deeply troubled, fickle, jealous man who could be extremely manipulative, abusive and vindictive, if you got on his wrong side, even unintentionally. 

Maureen O'Hara starred in five Ford films--How Green Was My Valley, Rio Grande, The Quiet Man, The Long Grey Line and The Wings of Eagles. In her autobiography, Tis Herself, she reveals an early connection with Ford over their shared Irish heritage. O'Hara was born in Ireland and came to Hollywood to star in The Hunchback of Notre Dame under the tutelage of Charles Laughton who discovered her as a teenager in Great Britain. Ford developed an affection for O'Hara and her family many of whom later emigrated to the US and got into the picture business. 

Book Review: Tis Herself

(Borrowed from the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts) "What a story! It's got everything but the bloodhounds nipping at her rear end." That's how Thelma Ritter's character Birdie described Eve Harrington's history when she first enters Margo Channing's dressing room in All About Eve. She could also be encapsulating Maureen O'Hara's action-packed autobiography. O'Hara went from acting on the Irish stage to Hollywood stardom while still in her teens, survived two horrific marriages and the mysterious, possibly CIA-related death of her third beloved husband, sexual harassment from the top movie execs, bizarre advances and physical abuse from John Ford, and a legal battle with Walt Disney. The prose is vital and full-blooded, though how much can be credited to her co-author John Nicoletti?

I love O'Hara's honesty and settling of old scores. She loves the words "rubbish" and "stinkeroo" when describing some of the papblum she was forced to act in. She doesn't hold back in her assessment of her leading men. Co-starring with Jeff Chandler was like acting opposite a "broomstick." Jimmy Stewart was a nice guy, but not generous with sharing scenes. He insisted on one of their scene being reshot when it was clear O'Hara got the better of it. A great, fast read full of Hollywood backstage stories.

B'way Update: Groff as Bobby Darren in Just in Time

Tony winner Jonathan Groff (Merrily We Roll Along) will return to Broadway playing pop singer Bobby Darin in Just in Time, a new bio-musical employing Darin's songbook. The Circle in the Square Theater will be converted into an intimate nightclub of the 50s and 60s with a big band for a total immersive experience. Previews begin Match 28, 2025 for an April 23 opening. The book is by Tony winner Warren Leight (Side Man, Law and Order: CI) and Isaac Oliver (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel). Tony winner Alex Timbers (Moulin Rouge) directs and developed the show. Groff leads a cast of 16, TBA. In addition to his Tony for Merrily, Groff was nominated for Hamilton and Spring Awakening. His TV and film credits include Mindhunter, The Matrix Resurrections, Frozen, Glee, and Doctor Who.

“Bobby Darin worked across many genres of music, but he was most alive performing in intimate nightclubs,” says director Alex Timbers.  “And so, it was vital to Jonathan and myself that we stage Just In Time at Circle in the Square.  This is where we could build an environmental nightclub setting including a live, onstage big band that will allow the same sort of intimacy and electrifying audience connection that both Bobby and Jonathan are known for.”

Bobby Darin

“Bobby Darin was a supernova. He blazed his way through every corner of the entertainment industry, but his enormous talent, charisma, and pure genius were most on display when he was letting it rip in front of a crowd. This primal passionate love affair he had with the audience was the inspiration for our show's conceit,” says Groff, who is also serving as a producer on the project. “Alex Timber's distinctive ability to make going to the theater an unforgettable event and Bobby's signature musicality and explosive fleeting life make Broadway the perfect place to experience the story and essence of this once in a lifetime talent.”

Darin was an acclaimed singer, songwriter and actor. He performed jazz, pop, rock, folk and country. His hits included "Splish Splash," Dream Lover," "Beyond the Sea" and "Mack the Knife." He was nominated for an Oscar for Captain Newman, MD. Kevin Spacey, using his own singing voice, played him in the 2004 biopic Beyond the Sea.

Book Review: Some Time in the Sun: The Hollywood Years of F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, Nathaniel West, Aldous Huxley, and James Agee

(Bought at a used-book store in upstate NY for 50 cents.) Tom Dardis' scholarly study of five distinguished authors who tried their hand at screenwriting during Hollywood's Golden Age is informative if a trifle dry. There's little juice in his chronicling of the quintet's struggles with studio bosses, directors, and, in some cases, alcoholism and depression. It's a scholarly book and also a study of the conflict between art and commerce. All of the authors, to one degree or another, were dependent on their movie money for survival. It's somewhat astonishing to read that literary giants like Fitzgerald and Faulkner had to scramble for cinema dollars in order to pay their bills because the sales of their books, now regarded as classics, were so meager. Though Dardis offers plentiful details such as salary figures and specific studio assignments, he misses the essence of his subjects. I didn't feel I knew any of them any better once I'd finished the book. 

B'way Update: Sarah Snook as Dorian Gray

Sarah Snook in the Sydney Theatre Company
production of 
The Picture of Dorian Gray,
adapted and directed by Kip Williams.
Credit: Marc Brenner

Emmy and Olivier Award winner Sarah Snook (Succession) will make her Broadway debut playing 26 characters in the dazzling production of The Picture of Dorian Gray. The breathtaking stage adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s only novel is adapted and directed by Kip Williams, the Artistic Director of Sydney Theatre Company, where the production originated. The Picture of Dorian Gray will open at a Shubert theatre in March for a strictly limited engagement. Snook won an Olivier Award for her performance playing 26 characters including the titular Dorian Gray whose portrait ages while he remains eternally young, leading a debauched, immoral existence.

“It was a singular privilege to bring The Picture of Dorian Gray to life in London and I am thrilled we will be able to share this astonishing production with audiences in New York,” Snook said. “From Oscar Wilde’s timeless words to the masterful reinterpretation Kip Williams has created, this tale of virtue, corruption, vanity and repercussion is an electrifying journey for me as much as for the audiences and I am filled with anticipation as we continue on this ambitious creative endeavor.”

B'way Update: Mincemeat Official

From left: Claire-Marie Hall, Natasha Hodgson,
David Cumming, Zoe Roberts, Jak Malone
of 'Operation Mincemeat'
Credit: Matt Crockett

It's official. As reported yesterday, the Olivier Award-winning musical Operation Mincemeat will open on Broadway this spring. Preview performances begin Feb. 15, 2025 at the Golden Theater with an opening scheduled for March 20. Mincemeat, which opened in London's West End in May 0f 2023, is written by four of the original cast members David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson, and Zoe Roberts. The plot is based on the actual Operation Mincemeat, a British intelligence scheme to deceive the Nazis by planting fake documents on a corpse. 

B'way Update: Mincemeat and Midnight

Zoe Roberts, Jake Malone, and 
Natasha Hodgson in
Operation Mincemeat in London.
Credit: Matt Crockett

According to Broadway Journal, the British musical Operation Mincemeat is eying a Broadway transfer to the Golden Theater once the Tony-winning Stereophonic ends its run there on Jan. 12, 2025. Rumors of a transatlantic jump have been whispered since it opened to raves in the West End in May of 2023 and subsequently won the Olivier Award for Best New Musical. 

The show is written by four of the original cast members David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson, and Zoe Roberts. The plot is based on the actual Operation Mincemeat, a British intelligence scheme to deceive the Nazis by planting fake documents on a corpse. 

Tom Hewett and J. Harrison Ghee in
Midnight in the Garden of
Good and Evil in Chicago.
Credit: Liz Lauren

Midnight Sets B'way Opening: The musical version of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil has set a Broadway opening for sometime in 2025, after a critically-acclaimed run at Chicago's Goodman Theater. MacArthur "Genius" Grant recipient Taylor Mac authored the book and the score is by Tony winner Jason Robert Brown (Parade, The Last 5 Years). Tony winner Rob Ashford (Frozen, Thoroughly Modern Millie) directs. Based on the 1994 non-fiction best-seller by John Berendt, Midnight focuses on the eccentric folks of Savannah, Georgia and a real-life murder. Kevin Spacey, Jude Law, and John Cusack starred in the 1997 film version directed by Clint Eastwood. Dates, a theater and casting for the musical will be announced at a later date.