STAGE: OKLAHOMA
Through the years, I’ve seen several productions of the American musical, Oklahoma. This new production directed by Daniel Fish, is a dark one. The staging is amazing—open and creative. It’s theater in the round, really more of a horseshoe, with theatergoers seated on one side of some of the tables used by the actors. At intermission, the red pots on the tables reveal chili, and cups of chili and cornbread are served to anyone who wants to line up.
The cast is stripped down, the music is backed by a small combo, not an orchestra, and Curly strums his guitar for the opening, “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’.” All the songs are here, but overall the play is edgy. The taunting conversation between Curly and Jud about Jud becoming more loved in death is played out in a darkened theater using video projections on a far wall. Go expecting the unexpected along with a revised ending. This is an Oklahoma for our time.
SCREEN: Official Secrets
I would wager that most Americans have never heard of Katharine Gun, but she was a courageous, albeit naïve, whistleblower, working in British intelligence in 2003. When Katharine reads a secret memo that the United States is pressuring allies, including Britain, to support a war against Iraq, she is disturbed enough to want to share it. How her actions play out, what impact they have on her Kurdish Turkish husband, and what the British government does to make an example of her make for a fascinating film for political junkies.
It is not fast paced, nor full of tension, but it does shine a light on how and when governments deceive the people they represent. There’s an all star cast with Keira Knightley as Gun and recognizable favorites from Downton Abbey and The Crown such as Matthew Goode and Matt Smith along with Ralph Fiennes as a shrewd defense lawyer. The Chief Penguin especially loved it! (~JWFarrington)
PAGE: STYLE ICON
Bunny Mellon: The Life of an American Style Legend by Meryl Gordon
Bunny Melon was a product of wealth who married wealth and lived a life of style and glamour. Shy by nature, she mostly avoided the spotlight, but sought and gained recognition for her gardens and her personal taste in décor and decoration. She married one wealthy man, Stacy Lloyd, then divorced him after WWII to marry the even richer Paul Mellon.
A man of his time and class, Mellon had affairs and mistresses, something Bunny knew and was unhappy about, but became resigned to. When he wanted a divorce, she refused, preferring to remain Mrs. Paul Mellon despite everything. She, in turn, had warm friendships with a number of dashing younger men, florists, hair stylists, and others, mostly gay. As a close personal friend of Jackie Kennedy, she had a front row seat at some of the most dramatic and tragic moments in the 20th century.
Gordon’s biography is engaging, breezy, accessible, and, at times, a catalog of celebrities, events and stuff: glittering galas, stunning jewelry, haute couture, and houses upon houses from Manhattan to Virginia horse country to Antigua and Paris. Bunny Melon was the designer of the White House Rose Garden and of a second garden there named for Jackie Kennedy. She could be warm and whimsical or brusque and fickle; but, throughout her long life (103 years), she always had Style! (~JWFarrington)
Note: All photos by JWFarrington. Header photo is the Oklahoma set at Circle in the Square Theatre.
