Book Reviews: Obscure Plays from the Lincoln Center Library

I decided to read a bunch of obscure plays from the Lincoln Center Library for Performing Arts. They range from British drawing-room comedies nobody produces anymore by high-toned authors like TS Eliot and Graham Greene to Broadway flops from Paul Zindel and Henry and Phoebe Ephron, the parents of Nora and Delia. It was fun imagining these productions from bygone days of plays that will probably never be done again.

The Secret Affairs of Margaret Wild by Paul Zindel: I was curious about this Broadway flop which starred Maureen Stapleton, Elizabeth Wilson, Florence Stanley and Doris Roberts. Following his Pulitzer Prize for The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds which had a long run Off-Broadway and on the summer stock circuit (I saw Shelley Winters do it in at the Philadelphia Playhouse in the Park), Paul Zindel was a hot item. But his three Broadway shows flopped (And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little, The Secret Affairs of Margaret Wild and Ladies at the Alamo). I can see why Stapleton was attracted to this sitcom-y play about a woman obsessed with movies who wins a contest just as her marriage and candy-store business are falling apart. She indulges in cinema-themed fantasies which would have been elaborate and fun, but the play is shallow, solving her problems too neatly like her Hollywood-inspired daydreams.

The Confidential Clerk by TS Eliot: TS Eliot's articulate, bizarre attempt at a drawing room comedy. Nobody knows who is whose long-lost illegitimate son or daughter or what occupation they should follow.

Lucy in Retirement

When life gets a bit hectic, I watch reruns of The Lucy Show on YouTube. I always wondered what happened to Lucy Carmichael after the series ended and Lucille Ball turned into Lucille Carter on Here's Lucy. Here's a sketch imagining a meeting between Mrs. Carmichael and her daughter Chris:

A retirement home in Danfield, NY. 1980.

Chris Carmichael is sitting in the dayroom. She is a stylish woman in her early 40s, dressed in chic French couture. Her mother, Lucy Carmichael, now in her 80s, in wheeled in by a nurse.

Nurse: Here we are, Mrs. Carmichael. You have a visitor.

Lucy (waking up): What? Who is it?

Chris: Hi mom, it's me, Chris, your daughter. (Nurse leaves)

Lucy: What? Who? I have a daughter?

Chris: Yes, remember I had a brother Jerry and we shared the house with Aunt Viv and her boy Sherman after our dad died.

Lucy: Oh, yes, it's all coming back now. Chris, sweetheart.

Chris: Good. Mom, I know I haven't seen you in many years, but there's something I've been meaning to ask you. Why did you just abandon me and Jerry when you moved to California?

Lucy Carmichael: TV's Worst Mother

The Lucy Show cast. After the third season,
 everyone but Lucy herself disappeared.

Recently I've been watching reruns of The Lucy Show on YouTube. I don't know why, maybe because it's comforting. Lucille Ball was on TV constantly during my childhood. The Lucy Show and I Love Lucy were on during the day while Here's Lucy was on at night. When I stayed home sick from school, the morning was taken up with repeats of Lucy and then game shows in the afternoon. So I guess seeing these shows makes me feel like a little kid wearing pajamas and lying in bed.