{"id":818,"date":"2016-07-28T14:44:18","date_gmt":"2016-07-28T14:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mgs.performerstuff.com\/?p=818"},"modified":"2018-08-07T02:50:14","modified_gmt":"2018-08-07T02:50:14","slug":"theatre-in-film-series-opening-night-1977","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/theatre-in-film-series-opening-night-1977\/","title":{"rendered":"Theatre in Film Series: Opening Night (1977)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"fusion-one-full fusion-layout-column fusion-column-last fusion-spacing-yes section-header-post\" style=\"margin-top:;margin-bottom:;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper\"><h3>Theatre in Film Series: Opening Night (1977)<\/h3>\n<font size=\"2\" color=\"grey\"><span style=\"border:1px solid ;-webkit-border-radius:50%;-moz-border-radius:50%;border-radius:50%;-moz-box-shadow: 0 0 3px rgba(0,0,0,.3);-webkit-box-shadow: 0 0 3px rgba(0,0,0,.3);box-shadow: 0 0 3px rgba(0,0,0,.3);margin-right:25px;float:left;\" class=\"fusion-imageframe imageframe-glow imageframe-1 hover-type-none author-image\"><a class=\"fusion-no-lightbox\" href=\"http:\/\/performerstuff.com\" target=\"_self\"> <img src=\"http:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/authorimage.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"img-responsive\" style=\"-webkit-border-radius:50%;-moz-border-radius:50%;border-radius:50%;\"\/><\/a><\/span><p>Written by Ashleigh Gardner<\/p>\n<p>July 28th, 2016<\/p>\n<\/font><div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><div class=\"fusion-one-full fusion-layout-column fusion-column-last fusion-spacing-yes section-body-post\" style=\"margin-top:;margin-bottom:;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper\"><p style=\"text-align: left;\">Though theatre was my first love, film has stolen my heart in recent years. In Part II of our ongoing Theatre in Film series, we explore the latter years of Classical Hollywood Cinema when Technicolor was new and movie musicals, filled with rich color and vibrant acting, lifted off the screen. For our fourth\u00a0film in Part II, we celebrate\u00a0the 1977 John Cassavetes film,\u00a0<em>Opening Night<\/em>.<\/p>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>Opening\u00a0Night\u00a0<\/em>(1977)<\/h4>\n<br><div align=\"center\"><div class=\"fusion-video fusion-youtube\" style=\"max-width:600px;max-height:350px;\"><div class=\"video-shortcode\"><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ioy97Sf5N1M?wmode=transparent&autoplay=0\" width=\"600\" height=\"350\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/div><br><p><b>Director: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">John Cassavetes<br \/>\n<\/span><b>Starring:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Gena Rowlands, Ben Gazzara, Joan Blondell, Paul Stewart, Zohra Lampert, and John Cassavetes<\/span><\/p>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: left;\">What happens:<\/h4>\n<br><p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Broadway actress, Myrtle Gordon (Gena Rowlands), is in rehearsals for a play written by her old friend, Sarah Goode (Joan Blondell). Myrtle\u2019s character, an aging unmarried woman, reflects her own life off the stage &#8212; a reality Myrtle refuses to confront, making her connection to the character nearly impossible. After a late rehearsal, Myrtle and other members of the company exit the theatre, and Myrtle is approached by a fan. As the company leaves, the girl runs into the street after them and is hit by a car. Myrtle, distraught by the girl\u2019s death, descends in a downward spiral over the course of the show\u2019s rehearsals: drinking, changing lines in the script, and having visions of the dead girl. It doesn\u2019t help that Myrtle\u2019s co-star, Maurice (John Cassavetes), and director, Manny (Ben Gazzara), continuously diminish her self-confidence, both as an actor and a woman. As the company bands together to support Myrtle on their opening night, their own limits are tested, and the show opens in New York to an expectant crowd&#8230;without a leading actress.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: left;\">Why it matters:<\/h4>\n<br><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Opening Night <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">first premiered, it showed to nearly empty theatres and was hardly reviewed by any newspapers in New York. However, Cassavetes\u2019 film was received well in Europe, and it\u2019s aged well since its initial release. (It currently holds a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes.)\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Without a doubt one of the most serious pieces in our Theatre in Film series, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Opening Night<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> addresses multiple issues that go hand-in-hand with theatre: how aging affects the characters we play, the pressure to play a role we don\u2019t identify with, and the oftentimes inability to distance our onstage life from our offstage ones. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Myrtle refuses to see the connection between herself and the woman she\u2019s playing; to do so would be to admit she\u2019s aging and that her \u201ctype\u201d is changing. Actors run into this all the time, and the successful ones know how to market their <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">new <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">type to make sure that they aren\u2019t forgotten about. Myrtle&#8217;s\u00a0fear of aging manifests itself through an intense psychosis in which Myrtle envisions conversing with the dead girl &#8212; a symbol of her dying youth.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Because Myrtle can\u2019t come to terms with her age, she runs into the problem of being unable to connect to her character. She acts out and attempts to change the script to meet her vision of the show by changing blocking, lines, and fight choreography, and it illustrates Myrtle\u2019s inability to compartmentalize her life into separate spheres. She drinks to forget the girl\u2019s death and almost always comes to rehearsal drunk or hungover. She can\u2019t function as a professional, which is all she has left\u00a0after\u00a0Manny and Maurice tell her that she\u2019s \u201cnot a woman\u201d and that she\u2019s simply a &#8220;professional.&#8221; Ironically,\u00a0when she\u2019s playing a role that addresses gender, she\u2019s only a genderless actor to the two most influential men in the company, no doubt causing her to feel powerless in the face of such criticism.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>On the opening night performance, Myrtle is late to call, and the show must be held. When she finally walks in, she&#8217;s drunk, nearly unable to stand, but she works her way through the show until the last scene &#8212; where she forces Maurice to improvise everything.\u00a0Her insistence on playing the character her way appears in full force, and it saves the show and her career, despite her and Maurice&#8217;s performances being far from what Sarah&#8217;s script originally had planned.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Below is a clip from the final moments of the film in which Gena Rowlands and John Cassavetes (playing the film&#8217;s characters\u00a0<em>playing the play&#8217;s characters<\/em>) improvise the last scene of the show.<\/span><\/p>\n<br><div class=\"fusion-video fusion-youtube\" style=\"max-width:600px;max-height:350px;\"><div class=\"video-shortcode\"><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TeW2PTnrGro?wmode=transparent&autoplay=0\" width=\"600\" height=\"350\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><br><br><p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This film is the first featured in Part II of \u201cTheatre in Film\u201d. See below for the others in Part II.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/theatre-in-film-series-the-band-wagon-1953\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em><strong>The Band Wagon<\/strong><\/em><strong> (1953)<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/theatre-in-film-the-good-companions-1957\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong><em>The Good Companions<\/em>\u00a0(1957)<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/theatre-in-film-series-the-producers-1968\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong><em>The Producers<\/em>\u00a0(1967)<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/theatre-in-film-series-the-boy-friend-1971\/\"><em>The Boy Friend<\/em>\u00a0(1971)<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Want to start with Part I? Check out\u00a0<strong><em><a href=\"http:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/?p=133\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">42nd Street\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">(1933)<\/span><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><hr \/>\n<h5 style=\"text-align: left;\"><em><strong>Ashleigh Gardner<\/strong>\u00a0received her AA in Theatre\/Drama\/Dramatic Arts\u00a0from Valencia College and\u00a0her Bachelors Degree in English Literature and\u00a0Masters Degree in Literary, Cultural, and Textual Studies from\u00a0the University of Central Florida. She is a playwright, an actor, and PerformerStuff.com\u2019s Editor.\u00a0<\/em><\/h5>\n<h5 style=\"text-align: left;\">Thumbnail image from\u00a0<em>Opening\u00a0Night.\u00a0<\/em>Copyright \u00a9 1977 Faces Distribution.<\/h5>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [...]","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":883,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[259,265],"tags":[6,106,352,139,319,107,82,368,80,14,105],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}