Will
Waspe 1'
My congratulations to Michael Parkinson — clearly a kindred spirit — for signing off his latest TV series with a stinging riposte to a couple of journalists who have written about him with hostile pens. The convention that performers should not reply to their critics — and in kind — has always been a fraudulent one. There is no reason whatever why critics should be immune from criticism, and nothing is livelier in show business than a good old verbal battle of insult. invective and waspishness.
Coy
Frank Dunlop, director of the Young Vic, is being strangely coy about the reason for the postponement of his show, Grandson of Obtomov. He sent out a letter to the press last week to say that his vital rehearsals could not be scheduled because "a film company is claiming the time of a leading member of our company" and could give no guarantee that the player in question would even be there on the first night. Too bad — but didn't Dunlop check on the actor's other commitments before engaging him and, presumably, giving him a contract? And if he did, can he not enforce that contract? And, in any case, why the secrecy about who the actor is? Especially as everyone seems to know it is Bernard Bresslaw.
Snags
Plainly there is more to putting on a show than booking a cast and a theatre. See above. See also the fact that a revival of Death of a Salesman, due at the Arts last week, was also cancelled — this time for the remarkable reason that George C. Scott, who holds the current stage rights, is presenting the play in New York. I hear also that a revival of Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, lately touring prior to London, could not take up its London date because the agency handling those rights had plans — far from definite — for a London revival by another management
Previous page
