South Pacific Revisited

Patti Bosworth and I both thought the revival of “South Pacific” was even better than the original in many ways, mostly having to do with the believability of the leading actors, and certainly way better than the movie. We went through a packet of tissue, weeping at each and every song. They were so emotion-laden for us. We both spent hours as teenagers memorizing every word to every song.

Tonight I see “Equus” alone. I think I am getting into the Broadway vibe in a good way. Sunday is “Billy Elliott,” again with Patty, then no more outings during rehearsals. I called Sally Field to get theatre advice from her and she, like Eve Ensler, cautioned me about conserving energy.

I noticed last night during the play that my mind often drifted to my character in “33 Variations,” Dr Katherine Grant. Things the actors did in “South Pacific” inspired ideas that I would think through to myself even while my attention was partly focused on the stage. What this signals to me is that I’m entering that strange space where you start to move from being totally yourself and start to become obsessed by who you’re transforming into. It is a vulnerable, uncertain place. Like having a foot in two worlds and you risk falling through the crack in between. As the days go on, I know I will start finding myself more distracted than usual. Losing things. Walking into walls. Seriously. Since I know what it signals, I don’t get upset like I did in the beginning of my career.

I’ve known Patti Bosworth for so long and it’s wonderful to be reconnecting on a more regular basis. Tomorrow night she is having a dinner party for our mutual friend, Fred Branfman. I got to know Fred at the same time as I started my 17 year marriage to Tom Hayden. Fred was reknowned in the late 1960s and 70’s for singlehandedly exposing the secret war waged by the U.S. Air force in Laos which destroyed the Laotian civilization in the Plain of Jars. He was often called upon to testify in Congress and wrote a book and many articles about what our bombs did in Laos. He worked with Tom and me in our Indochina Peace Campaign (IPC), doing much of the research and producing amazing booklets and leaflets about the Vietnam War. IPC helped rebuild the U.S. anti-war movement in the early 1970s and contributed to ending the war. Fred was with us the whole way. He was married then to a wonderful Vietnamese woman named Thoa and the two of them slept in a small room on the porch of our home in Ocean Park, California. Fred is about 6 foot 5 inches (Thoa about 4 ft 9 inches!) and when I’d come out on the porch in the mornings to bring my children to school, I would usually see Fred’s feet sticking out the door of their little porch room as they slept on the floor.

Fred has remained a dear friend over the years and I have watched with interest his numerous transfigurations as he searches for peace and self-identity. He spends much time these days in Hungary with Zsuzsa, who he describes as his “cosmic Connection” and tomorrow a group of us will welcome them both to New York at Patti’s apartment. Nan and Gay Talese will be there (Nan was my very first book editor in the early 1980’s when she was at Simon & Schuster and I was writing my first Workout book.) Jules Feiffer will be there. I haven’t seen him for ages. He wrote one of the comedy sketches for the anti-war FTA Show that Donald Sutherland and I toured to military bases around the US, Hawaii, Okinawa, and Japan in 1971. My childhood friend, Maria Cooper, daughter of Rocky and Garry Cooper and her husband, the great pianist Byron Janis will also be there. I look forward to talking to Byron about my new play, “33 Variations,” as it concerns what is probably the greatest solo piece for piano ever composed in variation form. I’m sure he has performed it during his illustrious career.

I will try to take pictures that capture the spirit of the evening, though I’ll have to admit that making public my private fun and adventures for this blog is quite foreign to me and a little uncomfortable. Maybe I’ll get used to it. Maybe not.

See you next time.