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PBS broadcast it when it was brand new in 1996, with Miranda Weese stepping in for Kistler at the last minute, and Woetzel as her prince. You might want to watch it at the performing arts library at Lincoln Center and save yourself some money.

Sorry, Patrick, you asked but I read that too quickly. I was referring to the Malkovich/Sinise performance, which had me literally (and I mean literally as in the dictionary definition, and not in its all too frequent latter day mode, as in "she literally exploded with laughter," where who knows what it means) rolling on the floor laughing. Yes that did look like a filmed play, which was my point, but not what you were asking for.

I didn't see the play, but the film of Sam Shepard's "True West" shown on PBS looked like a play to me.

I remember now another beach scene in the film that's not in the play, the one where Charlotte is in the water with Shannon, and Miss Fellowes just about has a breakdown trying to command her out of it. Also, the 1962 New Directions copy of the play includes a sketch of the stage setting. Sketch and setting are both by Oliver Smith.

Great, I look forward to reading your thoughts!

Well, I've gotten ahold of a copy of the play and skimmed it, so a few differences are coming back to me. The film condenses or omits much of what's in the play, dialogue especially, without, at least in my cursory rereading, significantly changing the characters or the relations between them. The film begins with the Reverend Shannon delivering the sermon that got him defrocked. In the play, Shannon only recounts the scene, in Act II. In the film we see the tour group in the bus, with Miss Faulk leading them in singing, then Shannon driving wildly and feverishly as they reach Maxine's Hotel Costa Verde. None of this is dramatized in the play, although Shannon tells Maxine about the singing. The crush that Miss Fellowes has on Charlotte which is hinted at in the play is more brought out in the film. In the play, Charlotte begs to be let into Shannon's room to hide from Miss Fellowes, who is looking for her. Charlotte and Shannon have apparently slept together already, or had some illicit contact, and Fellowes has found out. In the film, as in the play, Shannon only reluctantly lets her in, begging her to leave. But here I think we get the sense there that they have not yet spent the night together, though I could be misremembering. Meanwhile in any case, Miss Fellowes apologizes to Charlotte, or at least asks for her understanding for her anger. They are in their room together that same night -- or rather Miss Fellowes is, before she realizes Charlotte is gone, and gets up out of bed in a rage to look for her, finding her in Shannon's room. In the play she's found in Hannah's cubicle, having heard Miss Fellowes coming. In the film Charlotte eventually turns on Shannon, tells him she hates him, and takes up with Hank the bus driver. Not so in the play. As I said earlier, the rather erotic scene in which Maxine goes "night-swimming" with her two Mexican beach boy helpers is only suggested in the play, when Maxine mentions that her late husband didn't care. I remember a minor scene with the Chinese chef in the film that I don't think is in the play. Does the German family that provides some comic relief in the play appear in the film at all? I don't remember them. Does Shannon talk about "the spook" that bedevils him? Does Hannah describe her two sexual encounters, the first with the guy who tried to molest her, the second in the sampan which Shannon thinks sordid but she calls "a love experience" ("nothing disgusts me unless it's unkind, violent")? Anyhow, for anyone who knows and loves only one, the play or the film, I do recommend the other.

Patrick, if you remember that much thirty-five years ago, you're memory puts mine to shame. I do remember that Nonno's poem is very near the end of the film and, yes, the beach boys are in the play, although the scene in the film where the matron sports with them is not in the text, not in anything like that detail.

The film's great, but it sure differs a lot from the text. I suppose that's not unusual.

I'm reading Phillip Roth's Goodbye Columbus.

Yes, thanks Bart. His is a name I'd only heard in recent years, but I see he's been influential for decades. The History Channel ran a program this past December entitled Democracy is Not a Spectator Sport narrated by Zinn and based on his books. I only heard of it, but there are clips at that link, and You Tube has a video of Bob Dylan, Ry Cooder and Van Dyke Parks performing Woody Guthrie's Do Re Mi from the show. I wonder if Zinn ever met Studs Terkel.

I wonder if he's changed his attitude now that he's choreographed three story ballets and kept them in the repertory. In any case, Maria Kowroski says in the latest danceview that she has been taking acting lessons

I read the Kowroski interview tonight and I love the fact that she makes up -- and even varies -- stories for 2nd movement Symphony in C and the green girl in Dances at a Gathering to help her invest each step with meaning. I'm sorry she thought D.C. audiences this past December weren't much moved by her Concerto Barocco. I caught one of those performances and remember wishing the applause was louder. I've only seen this ballet a few times live, and previous to December I'd never seen a performance I thought did it justice. I've seen one now. She was very beautiful. About Farrell: the page 15, Costas photo, where her head is titled back just so like a certain mentor, is sweet.

Thanks, Bart, that enriches the comedy for me. It is.

Thanks a lot, volcanohunter!

So am I. I do miss the birth scene in the truncated version, but that stately ascent of Mount Olympus and walk towards it just beforehand . . . that's my favorite part of the ballet.

Elizabeth Caballero sang Frasquita. She's Cuban-American.

Ben Huys did it for Farrell too, that same season. Neal, Huys, Boal . . . I wish she was still importing NYCB dancers, past or present.

Thanks for posting, Patrick. I saw Claire's Knee at the Art Institute of Chicago in the mid-seventies and it was my first "art film."

After two whole viewings , Act I is my favorite act, and I find II overlong dramatically, but not by much. Sandy, I really enjoyed your reading your thoughts. I don't find Ochs loveable, but I did think Sigmundsson made him a little pitiable, and the fact that he was, and that he wasn't a buffoon, or wasn't only a buffoon, made his scenes more of a piece with the scenes concerned with the love affairs, in which the characters were definitely three dimensional. For me, making Ochs less of a one-dimensional parody somewhat bridges the gap between the high seriousness of the affairs of the heart scenes and the suspension of disbelief required for the scenes in which Ochs believes Octavion is Mariendel . . . if that makes any sense. We still get the comedy, but the perspective doesn't jump back and forth quite so much.

But Ballanchine is done regularly at City Center (by ABT, and recently The MT ) which is much closer to Lincoln Center than the Joyce. I was thinking of the Robbins, because I know little of how the Robbins Foundation handles rights. For what it's worth, the program for the Baryshnikov Arts Center's Grand Opening of the Jerome Robbins Theater on 2/16 will include "Sarabande" from A Suite of Dances and "Grand Waltz" from Dances at a Gathering. Of course the foundation may have made an exception because of the theater's name.

Did anyone here catch the Met's HD broadcast of Der Rosenkavalier yesterday? I had hoped Helene would start a thread about it, but it turns out that Helene was attending to the real business of the board, the ballet. Did anyone see the opera earlier in the run, or see Fleming or Graham in it in years past? Relative neophyte to opera that I still am, I don't know that I have any intelligent to say about the performance, but overall I was delighted, not just with the singing, but with the fine acting, especially that of Graham and Fleming. Kristinn Sigmundsson as Baron Ochs auf Lerchernau, and Christine Schafer as Sophie, were wonderful as well. I had only seen this opera – the day before – in the recording with Kiri Te Kanawa, Anne Howells and Barbara Bonney at Covent Garden in 1986, and I loved that, but I preferred Sigmundsson’s portrayal to Aage Haugland’s more buffoonish one. During an intermission interview Sigmundsson said something to the effect that Ochs was a country bumbler and didn’t know how to behave. I wonder if that might be an unorthodox – and highly charitable! – way of describing the character, who is a first class jerk any way you slice it, but it lent his character some depth, as did his more believable, less overtly parodic portrayal. There has been talk here and elsewhere that these broadcasts will lead Peter Gelb to consider looks and acting ability over voices when he makes casting decisions, but with singers like Renee Fleming and Susan Graham, he obviously gets both. If anything, Graham’s comedy, and her imitation of an excited 17-year old -- the difference in ages between the lovers was clearly delineated in how they moved -- may have been a little broad at times for the big screen, but that’s fine, because her primary audience should be the customers in the house. A friend commented yesterday that the opera was "not a movie," and wished for less busy camera work and fewer closeups. Only occasionally did I feel the same. There were actually a couple of moments when I thought the camera didn’t show the stage business as clearly as it could, for example in Act II when Octavion stabs Lerchenau. I knew what was coming, and maybe I just blinked at the wrong time, but the moment didn’t register as large as it might have. The backstage features really up the star power quotient and provide information that enriches the performance. It was wonderful to watch this Octavion and Marschillin together having been reminded that they’re good friends, they both won competitions at the Met, and they came up through the ranks together. Fleming recalled that there was a time when, in reference to their appearances together, they would joke that the only people they kissed were each other. Placido Domingo did most of the interviews, as well as the introduction before the overture, during which Graham and Fleming were visible, and evidently joking with each other on the bed behind him. Fleming later said that she didn’t mind and even liked the two hour break between her first and third act appearances. Asked about the difficulty of blending voices in the final trio, she said that Strauss did the work for the singers, and all they had to do was sing. Graham said that standing at the top of the stairs with the silver rose was a a heartstopping moment, called her silver outfit for that act “the human disco ball,” and pretended jealousy of Fleming backstage “reading emails.” Fleming joked that she and Christine Schafer had to help Octavion-Mariendel-Octavion through an identity crisis backstage. During a visit to the costume shop we saw the bull in next week’s Carmen. I’ll be back at our local theater for that one. Who else saw this one?

Yes indeed, Jack...they are all new ones to me... You're in for a fantastic evening, cubanmiamiboy. I can't wait to read your review!

Indeed! Seattle, as is well known, is a hot bed of hedonism. I'm sure the company is finding it nice to kick back in NYC for a little R&R after the intensity of life in the Pacific Northwest! Smart opinion about dance, and updated parables. I love this place.

I've read the phrase "Prodigal Son Returns" at least once in relation to Peter Boal taking PNB to NYC. It's also a bit of "Prodigal Daughter" too They ran off and wasted their talents and are now returning home broken, begging for forgiveness and menial employment just to survive?

I read Macaulay's comments on Pereira not as harsh but as hopeful, constructive criticism, but opinions on his writing do differ! Some of those opinions can be read on an earlier thread, Time for a progress report on Alistair Macaulay?