parterre box

29 comments

• Graciella Scusi says:

  Routledge also declined and was replaced when the
  show transfered from the outdoor Delacort Theater in Central Park,where it was a summer hit, to the
  Uris (now the Gershwin)on Broadway, a real barn of a theater where whatever faux-naif charm the production had in the park was lost….Estelle
  Parsons was game, but definitely miscast as Ruth..
  Routledge was the class act, but had had bad luck
  on Broadway…both ‘Darling of the Day’ and the
  train wreck that was ’1600 Pennsylvania Avenue’
  were disappointments, to put it kindly…

  on September 19, 2008 at 12:46 PM
• LVPO says:

  Pat Routledge was also an excellent “Old Lady- with only one buttock” in Scottish Opera production of CANDIDE, by Johnathan Miller, which had transfered to the Old Vic Theatre and ran for a seson there. There is an official recording of it as well with Marilyn Hill-Smith as Cunegonde.

  on September 19, 2008 at 1:19 PM
• Hans Lick says:

  In Central Park, Pat Routledge was the funniest Ruth EVER. She did NOT play it as a sword-swallowing bulldyke (as everyone else plays it) but as a sweet Victorian housemaid who has somehow gotten work with a crew of bloodthirsty pirates. It made NO sense at all and was undoubtedly exactly what Gilbert always wanted. She played it to the hilt. Of course, in Act II (from whence this episode) she had switched to the usual Ruthlous swagger. Kevin Kline was the greatest of all Pirate Kings, too, and poor murdered George Rose a charming Major General. Rex at least looked as pretty as one could wish as Frederic, though he didn’t sing well. Linda Ronstadt was the one gaping hole in the production.

  Everyone who has NOT heard Pat R on the Darling of the Day CD RUN RIGHT OUT AND GET IT! “Let’s See What Happens” will make you fall in love with her; “It’s Enough To Make A Lady Fall In Love” will make you fall in love with Yip Harburg and Jule Styne, and “Not On Your Nellie” will explain very precisely why they HAD to give her the Tony, even though the show had long since closed.

  on September 19, 2008 at 2:20 PM
• Hans Lick says:

  Rebecca Luker sang (though she did not look or act) a very convincing imitation of Pat R at the York Theater revival of Darling of the Day, one of those performances where the songs are SO good the whole audience is muttering, Why on earth did this ever flop, even with Vincent Price? Then came the final scene, the endless unconvincing unwinding of the book, and we all understood.

  on September 19, 2008 at 2:23 PM
• LVPO says:

  Kevin Kline was DEFINITELY the best Pirate King ever. He was so hot! Coulda been KING of MY PIRATE any ol’time!

  on September 19, 2008 at 2:26 PM
• hndymn says:

  all this talk of Darling of the Day has made me retrieve an aged cassette dubbing of the Original Cast LP. I’d forgotten Routledge was in it, and that the score was Harburg/Styne.
  On the subject of Noises Off—I saw the Broadway production before working backstage on the show later in the run. Dorothy Loudon was hilarious, and Carole Shelley (her eventual replacement) was equally side-splitting, and rather more authentically British. It’s simply one of the funniest shows EVER—the movie got it tragically wrong, I’m afraid.

  on September 19, 2008 at 3:59 PM
• Graciella Scusi says:

  I know Routledge is also in at least one of
  Alan Bennett’s televised ‘Talking Heads’ monologues,
  which also include the divine Maggie (Smith not
  Price) in ‘Bed Among the Lentils’…wonderful..
  well worth searching for..

  on September 19, 2008 at 4:04 PM
• Willym says:

  I saw Darling of the Day twice during its Toronto try-out. Vincent Price was horribly miscast but terribly game – Patricia Routlidge was great.

  Saw her at the beginning of her career in The Magistrate with Alistair Sim at Chichester back when Jesus was a junior. She had trained with Sim and always said that any comic timing she had was thanks to him.

  The whole Talking Heads series is great theatre – Eileen Aitkins, Thora Hird, Smith, Julie Waters, Stephanie Cole, Penelope Wilton, Routledge and Bennett himself in funny, touching, and at times frightening monologues.

  on September 19, 2008 at 4:22 PM
• PushedUpMezzo says:

  Very gallant of Willym to call Magistrate the beginning of Routledge’s career
  She was in and around the West End from late 50′s including title role of Little Mary Sunshine (the parody of Rose Marie, not Chicago – though she could have done that better than Christine Baranski)
  She has recently been touring UK as old Queen Mary in a play about Edward and Mrs Simpson

  on September 19, 2008 at 5:17 PM
• Sanford says:

  I rather like the movie of Noises Off, but it suffers from the same problem the play has. Act 2 is much funnier than Act 3. John Ritter and Christopher Reeve were both wonderful, and Nicolette Sheridan played completely against type.

  As for British sitcoms in the US, it isn’t just Keeping Up Appearances that’s popular, but also Are You Being Served, Fawlty Towers, and the sublime Judy Dench and Michael WIlliams in A FIne Romance. PBS makes a lot of money every year with clip shows from those series during pledge week.

  on September 19, 2008 at 5:55 PM