| re: Broadway Theatres to Dim Lights in Memory of Gavin Creel | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 08:09 am EDT 10/10/24 | |
| In reply to: re: Broadway Theatres to Dim Lights in Memory of Gavin Creel - portenopete 11:21 pm EDT 10/04/24 | |
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| I went to the dimmings for John McMartin, Marian Seldes, Barbara Cook and Chita Rivera. Maybe one or two others I've forgotten. There were a few others I intended to be there for but didn’t make it. I've usually gone to 45th Street. It has never seemed to me that very many people show up specifically for the dimmings. Of course, it's hard to be sure exactly how many show up, and I’ve always been in just one general area (it doesn’t last long enough to move from one street to another while it’s still going on), although I tend to move around a bit if I'm trying to get photos of the marquees. But there will be applause when the person's name and photo appear, or at least there is when I'm there because I will start it if someone else hasn't started it already. Anyway, in my experience I think maybe 20-30 people have shown up on 45th Street for those people, and maybe it's really been more like 10-20 people. So there is certainly no need to pay for extra security. You can kind of tell who has shown up for it. They are the ones looking at the marquees. sometimes applauding, and who don't seem to be on their way to a theatre. Maybe more people have shown up when it's someone super-famous, but I'm doubtful it's that many more. And Cook and Rivera were pretty famous. I really expected more people would have shown up for Rivera. Maybe some people go to a specific theatre where the deceased appeared in particularly famous shows in roles for which the person was especially known. Re Grimes, Bedford and Weaver: Yes, it's true that all of them did less in their later years. Grimes's last Broadway show was in 1989, and the last production I know of her appearing in anywhere was A Little Night Music at Williamstown in 1994. She developed severe memorization problems that curtailed her later career. Bedford appeared on Broadway as late as 2011, while Weaver last appeared on Broadway in 1999, but with a couple of later Off-Broadway appearances, but even the last of those seems to have been in 2006. It's just so wrong that they dimmed the lights for Joan Rivers in 2014 and they dimmed the lights for Debbie Reynolds and Carrie later in 2016, but they couldn't be bothered to dim them for three actors with such long and distinguished New York stage careers. And all three won Tonys (and Grimes won two), which sometimes has seemed to figure into the decision. At this point, I can't care too much. The Broadway League will do what it wants to do, and they have shown often enough what they value and what they don't. |
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