NY Post
VOLLEY FOLLY
By CLIVE BARNES
May 7, 2007 -- TWO legendary ac tresses (real) playing two legendary tennis players (fictional) - "Deuce" should have been a grand slam at the Music Box Theatre last night. Instead it was a double-fault.
And the double-fault was certainly not made by the actresses, for even the brilliant stereo sound effect of unseen bouncing tennis balls was far more impressive than the play itself, which our misguided heroines exuberantly bounced across.
Angela Lansbury and Marian Seldes have done the stage some service, and their names are such that theater marquees automatically light up nightly in their honor, and box-office lines form in meek yet justified accordance.
Playwright Terrence McNally is normally no slouch, either. And British director Michael Blakemore - the only person ever to win two Tony Awards in the same season for staging both a play and musical - is also a past master far from past it.
So what happened? Unfortunately, nothing! Nothing happened.
The 81-year-old Lansbury and the 78-year-old Seldes could read the proverbial Forest Hills or even the Flushing Meadows telephone directory and make it sound like . . . well, like something more than just a telephone directory.
But that's no reason why a group of producers - nine by my count, and led by Scott Rudin, himself moderately legendary -should make them do it, or persuade a paying audience to watch them doing it.
Now, according to "Deuce" these tennis divas - improbably, although in fiction I suppose not impossibly - ruled women's doubles until their retirement in 1976.
There isn't much like their careers in real tennis history - perhaps the recent reign of Mike and Bob Bryan in men's doubles offers some kind of precedent - but let's accept that here they are, and they are invited to take one last hurrah at this year's U.S. Open.
They haven't met for about 10 years, and while they watch a women's singles match - that's the to-and-fro sound of the unseen whizzing ball - they gossip companionably about their long past and, less companionably, about their obviously far shorter future.
Meanwhile the playwright has arranged for an Admirer (a suitably abashed Michael Mulherin) and two nattering twits in the Broadcast Box (Brian Haley and Joanna P. Adler) to set the scene and tell the story of their past glories.
McNally, 67, normally one of our best and certainly one of our most reliable playwrights, may have written a worse play, even one with such minimal plotting and languid, desultory writing, but I can't recall it.
It's a short but long haul - no intermission, so no one's inclined to leave - and Lansbury and Seldes go at it with such endearing professionalism and wondrous skill, that their mighty efforts to make a house not just without bricks but even without straw are truly admirable.
A glance here, a special line-reading there - Seldes, brittle, haughty, self-aware, and Lansbury, expansive yet withdrawn, open and yet cagey - the two of them act wonderfully in a phantom play that just isn't there.
For when the pings of a tennis-ball hitting an invisible court (sound design is by Paul Charlier) are the most dramatic things that go bump in the night, then everyone's in trouble.
Trivia Note: Q. Which Broadway season was the one in which the name of former Australian tennis champion Evonne Goolagong was mentioned in two different plays? A. 2006/7. (The other is "Frost/Nixon.")
DEUCE Music Box Theatre. 239 West 45th St.; (212) 239-6200.
Angela Lansbury : Back on Broadway!
The day after the Oscars, Lansbury appeared on a morning talk show. Can't remember if it was The View or one of those, but she seemed in good spirits talking about her upcoming show.
"Because here’s the thing about life: There’s no accounting for what fate will deal you. Some days when you need a hand. There are other days when we’re called to lend a hand." -- President Joe Biden, 01/20/2021
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OscarGuy
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It's good to hear she'll be back on Broadway. I fully expect her to be nominated as part of the Old Guard and probably win because she's never lost.
Too bad she sees film that way. I feel if she could get the right role, she would finally win that elusive Oscar...
Too bad she sees film that way. I feel if she could get the right role, she would finally win that elusive Oscar...
Wesley Lovell
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin
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Big Magilla
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NY Post - Cindy Adams
March 15, 2007 -- ANGELA Lansbury, in rehearsals at the Music Box,
starts previews of Terrence McNally's new play "Deuce" next month.
Directed by Michael Blakemore, this story of former tennis legends
reuniting in a championship match opens May 6 for 18 weeks only. Said Angela:
"I was last on Broadway 23 years ago at the Martin Beck in Jay
Presson Allen's 'A Little Family Business.' Thank God nobody
remembers that one.
"I'd be an idiot if I said I wasn't nervous at coming back.
Everyone's expectations are so enormous, and that's where my
nervousness comes from. And eight performances a week. I hope I can
do it. I haven't memorized anything this much in a long time. I
started memorizing in February."
In my home, delicately nibbling half a deviled egg at tea time,
looking stunning and lean in a brown pantsuit and matching boots, she
said: "I did not wish to go gently into the night. But it's difficult
since I lost my husband. In theater, you can't conduct a real life.
Can't have dinner at 11 then go to sleep. I used to go with Peter
afterward for maybe a little salad . . . but he's not here anymore.
"When nobody's at home, the stage is a lonely place. You can't lead a
big social life. I'm not very social anyway. It's crossword puzzles.
My kids are grown. They have children. They're getting on with their
lives. I don't belong in the Hollywood scene. I lived there when I
worked there, and I have my Irish farmhouse in County Cork, where I
go once a year and where I love keeping house and which will be in
June's Architectural Digest. But I'm happy to be back in an apartment
in New York. I missed the community of theater.
"Here I can continue to do what I do best. What I know is acting.
I'll always have the desire to act. And my biggest outlet is watching
others act. Onstage more than in films. Movies today are like fast
food. Today's names won't become legendary and lead into the next
generation. Jack Nicholson is more part of the old crowd, and he'll
stay. As will Leonardo DiCaprio, who's like a Brando."
Now, about "Deuce."
"We may have to tweak it during previews because we're breaking it in
right on Broadway. Nobody can afford to try it out of state anymore.
It's too expensive. It would add another million onto the cost. It's
a one-set play, 90 minutes, no intermission. We'll try to trim it a
bit, but the problem is how to go to the loo since I'm onstage the
whole time. Fortunately, I'm like a camel.
"I'm sort of putting myself in training. I take care of my body.
Careful about what I eat. Don't smoke. No booze except maybe a glass
of wine. Sleep is important. Y'know, we who've been around know what
to do. For instance, it's baby oil to remove makeup and Kiehl's
moisturizer. And I prefer to do my own makeup.
"The story is Marian Seldes and I are the top doubles tennis players
about 40 years ago. Before Billie Jean King. We come back for this
one match. And nobody recognizes us. It's sort of a metaphor for
women who were once great and subsequently nobody cares about them.
Once women pass a certain age, you're invisible. Nobody looks at you anymore."
I was looking at Angela Lansbury. That famous face that has been
before the world for 60 years, got three Oscar nominations, starred
in such movies as "Gaslight," "The Manchurian Candidate," "The
Picture of Dorian Gray," won four Tonys for "Mame," "Gypsy," "Sweeney
Todd," "Dear World," and won 18 Emmy nominations - she looked great.
She moved great.
"With this play, I'll miss the overture. In a musical, the overture
sort of bears you along. But 'Deuce' has another added attraction.
There's an umpire calling the game, and we're playing our roles while
the ball is bouncing back and forth. It's tricky timing."
And when the curtain rings down, one thing Angela Lansbury won't do
is watch her old TV series. "My daughter used to sit and watch
'Murder She Wrote.' I tried to watch with her, but I fell asleep."
And when the curtain is up, one thing Angela Lansbury will try not to
do is what she did in "Sweeney Todd": "I kicked my leg and my slipper
flew off into the audience. It nearly hit Laurence Olivier."
March 15, 2007 -- ANGELA Lansbury, in rehearsals at the Music Box,
starts previews of Terrence McNally's new play "Deuce" next month.
Directed by Michael Blakemore, this story of former tennis legends
reuniting in a championship match opens May 6 for 18 weeks only. Said Angela:
"I was last on Broadway 23 years ago at the Martin Beck in Jay
Presson Allen's 'A Little Family Business.' Thank God nobody
remembers that one.
"I'd be an idiot if I said I wasn't nervous at coming back.
Everyone's expectations are so enormous, and that's where my
nervousness comes from. And eight performances a week. I hope I can
do it. I haven't memorized anything this much in a long time. I
started memorizing in February."
In my home, delicately nibbling half a deviled egg at tea time,
looking stunning and lean in a brown pantsuit and matching boots, she
said: "I did not wish to go gently into the night. But it's difficult
since I lost my husband. In theater, you can't conduct a real life.
Can't have dinner at 11 then go to sleep. I used to go with Peter
afterward for maybe a little salad . . . but he's not here anymore.
"When nobody's at home, the stage is a lonely place. You can't lead a
big social life. I'm not very social anyway. It's crossword puzzles.
My kids are grown. They have children. They're getting on with their
lives. I don't belong in the Hollywood scene. I lived there when I
worked there, and I have my Irish farmhouse in County Cork, where I
go once a year and where I love keeping house and which will be in
June's Architectural Digest. But I'm happy to be back in an apartment
in New York. I missed the community of theater.
"Here I can continue to do what I do best. What I know is acting.
I'll always have the desire to act. And my biggest outlet is watching
others act. Onstage more than in films. Movies today are like fast
food. Today's names won't become legendary and lead into the next
generation. Jack Nicholson is more part of the old crowd, and he'll
stay. As will Leonardo DiCaprio, who's like a Brando."
Now, about "Deuce."
"We may have to tweak it during previews because we're breaking it in
right on Broadway. Nobody can afford to try it out of state anymore.
It's too expensive. It would add another million onto the cost. It's
a one-set play, 90 minutes, no intermission. We'll try to trim it a
bit, but the problem is how to go to the loo since I'm onstage the
whole time. Fortunately, I'm like a camel.
"I'm sort of putting myself in training. I take care of my body.
Careful about what I eat. Don't smoke. No booze except maybe a glass
of wine. Sleep is important. Y'know, we who've been around know what
to do. For instance, it's baby oil to remove makeup and Kiehl's
moisturizer. And I prefer to do my own makeup.
"The story is Marian Seldes and I are the top doubles tennis players
about 40 years ago. Before Billie Jean King. We come back for this
one match. And nobody recognizes us. It's sort of a metaphor for
women who were once great and subsequently nobody cares about them.
Once women pass a certain age, you're invisible. Nobody looks at you anymore."
I was looking at Angela Lansbury. That famous face that has been
before the world for 60 years, got three Oscar nominations, starred
in such movies as "Gaslight," "The Manchurian Candidate," "The
Picture of Dorian Gray," won four Tonys for "Mame," "Gypsy," "Sweeney
Todd," "Dear World," and won 18 Emmy nominations - she looked great.
She moved great.
"With this play, I'll miss the overture. In a musical, the overture
sort of bears you along. But 'Deuce' has another added attraction.
There's an umpire calling the game, and we're playing our roles while
the ball is bouncing back and forth. It's tricky timing."
And when the curtain rings down, one thing Angela Lansbury won't do
is watch her old TV series. "My daughter used to sit and watch
'Murder She Wrote.' I tried to watch with her, but I fell asleep."
And when the curtain is up, one thing Angela Lansbury will try not to
do is what she did in "Sweeney Todd": "I kicked my leg and my slipper
flew off into the audience. It nearly hit Laurence Olivier."