Book Review: The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir; The Way We Lived Then: Recollections of a Famous Name Dropper

(Borrowed from a friend): Griffin Dunne's memoir of his storied family is a fast, fascinating read. Everyone from Sean Connery to Buddy Hackett makes an appearance. Dunne's father Dominick was a TV and movie producer who reveled in friendships with big Hollywood names, throwing parties and dropping names. But it all came crashing down when his alcoholism, drug abuse, and closeted homosexuality caught up with him and destroyed his marriage and his career. The family was further devastated when Griffin's sister Dominique was strangled by her boyfriend. This launched Dominick's second career as a novelist and crime reporter for Vanity Fair. Griffin grew up amid movie stars and studio execs. HIs aunt and uncle were the screenwriting team John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion who also became one of the country's foremost essayists and cultural observers. Griffin recounts his roller-coaster ride as actor and producer with wit and compassionate. The anecdotes of his friendship with Carrie Fisher are riotous and his recount of the ordeal of Dominique's murder are gut-wrenching. I had a hard time reading that section because I knew the unjust outcome.

After reading Griffin's memoir, I dug out Dunne's earlier book The Way We Lived Then. I had bought it several years ago for the pictures of movie stars enjoying themselves at Dunne family gatherings and soirees but never read the text. The son's work is more revealing. Dominick's subtitle Recollections of a Famous Name Dropper is accurate. The emphasis is on Dunne Sr.'s acquittances with the rich and famous and his Hollywood days before he was booted out of the industry. He does not even mention his gay connections. Dominique's death is included in an afterword. Perhaps it was too painful for him to fully recount. The pictures are fun to look at.

B'way Review: Death of a Salesman

Laurie Metcalf and Nathan Lane in
Death of a Salesman.
Credit: Emilio Madrid

The most fascinating element of Joe Mantello’s innovative and powerful production of Death of a Salesman, is the deceptively simple set by Chloe Lamford. When the show was first announced, it seemed the cavernous Winter Garden Theater was all wrong for the intimate drama of Willy Loman’s descent into disillusion yet Bamford’s stark set works perfectly. When the audience first files in, Lamford’s environment appears to be nothing but a bare stage with only a card table and some metal chairs for furnishings. But once Jack Knowles’ evocative lighting illuminates the stage and Nathan Lane drives Willy’s 1940s Studebaker onto the stage, we see that we’re in an abandoned factory or warehouse. The onstage automobile becomes a symbol of Willy’s lost dreams and his impending death. A bare brick wall is interrupted by a sliding garage gate and a metallic door. Piles of dust spread across the floor. Light barely shines through a wall of dirty windows. Huge industrial-looking columns reach to the flies. The set is a metaphor for Miller’s vision of the blighted American Dream. Willy and his family have nothing left after investing their energy and passion in a false promise of prosperity. It’s a perfect visual means of expressing Miller’s critique of rampant, thoughtless capitalism and the essential platform for Mantello’s brilliant staging.

This is the sixth version of Miller’s classic I’ve seen—the previous viewed iterations starred Lee J. Cobb and Dustin Hoffman on TV, Brian Dennehy, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Wendell Pierce on Broadway. There is always something new to be found in this timeless drama of fractured family and crushing economic reality. Mantello’s vision is a bleak one set in this industrial wasteland, but it blazingly highlights the fraught relationships within the Loman family.

B'way Update: Rosamund Pike in Inter Alia

Rosamund Pike in Inter Alia.
Credit: Manuel Harlan

Emmy and Golden Globe winner Rosamund Pike (I Care a Lot, State of the Union) will repeat her Olivier-nominated performance in Suzie Miller's play Inter Alia on Broadway this fall. The one-character play will begin previews at the Music Box Theater on Nov. 10 prior to a Dec. 1 opening. This will be her Broadway debut. Like Miller's previous play Prima Facie, Inter Alia is a solo show abut the British legal system. Pike plays Jessica Parker, a London Crown Court judge determined to reform a system that isn't always just.

Playwright Suzie Miller said in a statement, "I am so excited to be returning to Broadway alongside my Prima Facie director, the brilliant Justin Martin, with my new play Inter Alia. This National Theatre production is currently playing on London's West End, featuring Rosamund Pike who is nothing short of magnificent in the lead role. Inter Alia was commissioned, supported and produced at the National Theatre, who alongside our extraordinary producing partners are bringing the show across the pond. We are all thrilled to have this opportunity to engage in a contemporary conversation with NYC audiences."

Ms. Pike added, "What surprises me night after night performing this play is how audience members tell me they recognise themselves on stage. Men find themselves moved and confronted, women declare themselves seen, and parents and children tell me the story has led them to vital conversations. People recount how they laugh and cry with us, and that's all I can hope for. Suzie Miller has an indelible way of putting women's experiences on stage in a way that touches, excites, moves, and blindsides. Justin Martin's direction fuels my imagination constantly. I am thrilled and humbled to make my Broadway Debut with this role, in a theatre that is beyond my wildest dreams"

Ecuadorean Adventure: Part 2

At the hot springs spa in
the Andes Mountain
while NYC is blanketed with snow.

The day after I got back from the Galapagos, I got a bad case of traveller's stomach. Fortunately, I did not allow it to ruin the rest of the trip. Our hosts arranged for a friend of theirs to drive us to a hot-water spa in the Andes Mountains. For $25, you can bathe in many different hot-water spring pools. They had a nice restaurant where I had a ceviche for lunch. A few days later, we spent a day at the Botanical Gardens which were lovely. 

After I returned, we decided to move to a hotel. I was still suffering from bathroom issues and we asked the hotel reception staff if there were a doctor we could contact. They called a Guest Medical service and a doctor, with a nurse, actually came to our hotel and prescribed a shelfful of medications. He also hooked me up to an IV and gave me fluids because he said I was dehydrated. In the US, the hotel probably would have told me to go wait in an emergency room and no one would have even looked at me for hours.

We had several nice meals in excellent restaurants. Our final days we went to shopping at a mall and a market. At the latter while trying on belts, we were standing next to a group of Australian young people who were debating the proper use of the "c**t" word. Over all, I liked Quito more than Mexico City which is too big and crowded. The Ecuadorians were very friendly. One our last morning the news announced Trump was sending the US military to Ecuador to route out drug trafficking. "We're getting out of here just in time," I said.

On the flight back, we had a layover in Bogota, Columbia. The plane from Quito landed so far away from the terminal, we had to take a bus to get there. Then we had go through customs (AGAIN) and race to the gate for our flight to NYC. The Avianca flight was five hours. No movies or entertainment unless you could figure out how to get the Avianca app on your phone (which I could not). One tiny sandwich. If you wanted more, you had to pay for it. 

Saturday Morning Memories: Part 5

After reminiscing about Saturday morning superheroes and the quirky, adult-humor shows of the 1980s an 90s in previous blogs, I started thinking about some of my other favorite childhood cartoons of the late 60s and early 70s  It's so strange to think now that when I was a kid, we'd sit in front of the set for hours. From 7AM-1PM we munched on sugary cereal in our pajamas. 

Underdog (1964-67): a satire of superheroes, Underdog (voiced by Wally Cox) was a canine crusader who only spoke in rhyme. His everyday identity was a humble, lovable shoeshine boy with no pants. When danger arises he slips into a telephone booth and downs an "Underdog super energy pill." (I preferred Super Chicken's Super Sauce which was served in a martini glass.) His Lois Lane was Sweet Polly Purebread, a newscaster and apparently the only other human-like dog in this universe. Underdog was fumbling and would often run out of powers before the end of the episode. His nemesis included evil

scientist Simon Bar Sinister (who sounded like Lionel Barrymore and resembled Rudy Giuliani), lupine gangster Riff Raff, the vampire Batty Man (a parody of Batman), and the powerful Overcat.

Tony winner George S. Irving was the narrator. Each story was in four parts. Sometimes they'd show two segments of Underdog and fill the middle with others cartoons such as Major McBragg, a British blowhard constantly boring his fellow club members with fanciful tales, and Klondike Kat, a goofball feline mountie. Tennessee Tuxedo, who had his own TV series, was also used as a supporting feature. This was a sweet and goofy cartoon I enjoyed when I was little.

Jonny Quest (1964-65): This was actually a prime-time series, running on Friday nights on ABC, so it felt special and more mature than your usual Saturday morning fare. Reruns were broadcast on both CBS and NBC. There were certain episodes not reshown. I'm supposing because of excessive violence where bad guys were actually killed on screen. Jonny, his friend Hadji, his dad Dr. Benton Quest and the bodyguard Race Bannon were always on a mission in an exotic locale. We all wished we were like Jonny--never having to go to school, constantly on some adventure, a cool dad and surrogate dad.

Dr. Benton Quest, Bandit, Jonny, Hadji,
and Race Bannon

Mexodus and Prince Faggot Top Lortel List

Nygel D. Robinson and Brian Quijada  in Mexodus. 

Credit: Curtis Brown

Theater award season has officially begun with the announcement of the 41st annual Lucille Lortel Awards for excellence in Off and Off-Off-Broadway theater on April 1. Amber Gray and Harvey Guillén currently starring in The Rocky Horror Show made the announcement from Sardi's. The awards will be presented on May 3 at NYU Skirball. The musical Mexodus, which opened at the Minetta Lane earlier this season and is now playing a second engagement at the Daryl Roth Theater, lead the nominations with nine including for Outstanding Musical. Prince Faggot by Jordan Tannahill, which opened at Playwrights Horizons and later played the Seaview Studio, received the most nominations for a play with six. The Lortel  nominating committee saw 98 Off-Broadway shows in the 2025–2026 season, with 41 receiving nominations. The Outer Critics, Drama League, Drama Desk and Tonys nominations will soon follow.

A complete list of Lortel nominees follows:

Outstanding Play

Cold War Choir Practice, by Ro Reddick
Kyoto, by Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson
THE MONSTERS, by Ngozi Anyanwu
Mother Russia,by Lauren Yee
Prince Faggot, by Jordan Tannahill

Outstanding Musical
BIGFOOT!, book by Amber Ruffin and Kevin Sciretta, lyrics by Amber Ruffin, music by David Schmoll and Amber Ruffin
Mexodus, by Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson
My Joy Is Heavy, by The Bengsons
Night Side Songs, words and music by The Lazours
Saturday Church, book and additional Lyrics by Damon Cardasis and James Ijames, music by Sia, additional music by Honey Dijon

Book Review: Severance

(Bought at Barnes and Noble full price): Ling Ma must be psychic or something. Her novel Severance was published in 2018, two years before the COVID pandemic and three years before the Apple TV series (unrelated) of the same name aired. Yet, she accurately predicted a worldwide wave of disease would originate in China and spread and disrupt life as we know it. The consequences of Ma's fictional plague are much worse than the actual COVID disaster. As in many previous post-apocalyptic novels, only a few survive and band together. But what differentiates Severance from most other end-of-the-world works is it compares the pre and post catastrophe worlds. The main character is Candace Chen, a Chinese-American office worker drifting through her life. Chapters on her world before and after the pandemic alternate. But in both she has to deal with office-like hierarchies. In her job as a publishing production manager in charge of bibles, she comes up against patriarchal bosses and soul-crushing routines. In the after times, she submits to an oppressive male leader who guides their group of survivors through a dangerous nightmarescape full of zombie-like victims of the fever. Well, they're not brain-eaters like in the Walking Dead.

Anyway, Ma masterfully depicts Candace's two realities and her struggles to realize her full potential. The scenes describing New York as the fever takes over were strikingly real, reminding me of what Gotham was like during COVID--an empty Times Square, shuttered Broadway theaters, deserted office buildings. There are also insights into the immigrant experience and searching for your vocation. Candace emerges as a confused heroine always unsure of her next step, until she is forced to make a choice. As in The Secret History which I finished just before this one, I could not put the book down because I had to find out what happens next.