But possibly up yours<\/em>. So let\u2019s discuss. And please remember that,\u00a0unlike many other critics, I keep it real. I\u2019m not telling you to not<\/em> go see it; I\u2019m just giving you my impressions. And those of my friend Marc, who has always loved everything we\u2019ve seen together. Until this one. And in the interest of fairness, I\u2019m including what I observed from our fellow opening night audience members.<\/p>\n Photo by Craig Schwartz, as is the big one at the top of this page.<\/p><\/div>\n I could<\/em> just tell you that I hated this very far-from-aptly-named play, but that would do you, and the production, a disservice. One of the good points about a theatre presenting this old play in 2019 is that there\u2019s so much to say about it. Hence, the excessive length of this review.<\/p>\n All I had ever known of Beckett is his\u00a0Waiting For Godot<\/em>, which I had seen performed by Trinity Square actors at the University of Rhode Island when I was a little girl. And the character Lucky scared the bejeezus out of me. My parents always gave us so many cultural experiences, but at the time, I would have preferred to see only musical comedies and ballet. (Actually, those are\u00a0still<\/em>\u00a0my preferences!)<\/p>\n But as weird and depressing as\u00a0Godot<\/em>\u00a0is, it\u2019s got nothing on\u00a0Happy Days<\/em>. To put it mildly, it was one of my least-liked theatre pieces ever. And the same goes for Marc, who could not stop giving me funny one-sentence reviews to share with you. (But being the genteel woman that I am, I cannot. But trust me, they were hilarious.)<\/p>\n But to be fair, the rest of the opening night audience seemed to enjoy it. (Well, the two-thirds of them who stayed for Act II, anyway.) I think you have to be an intellectual, or at least\u00a0a pseudo one, and\/or a big fan of Oscar-winner Dianne Wiest or Samuel Beckett, to enjoy it. Otherwise, it\u2019s just The Emperor’s New Clothes<\/em>, where people are afraid to say what they really<\/em> think, for fear of not looking smart enough, (a problem I\u2019ve<\/em> never had. The first time I was on The Tonight Show<\/em>, some of my pals from high school asked me why I was doing a \u201cdumb act!\u201d But I was just being myself; I didn\u2019t have to display my high IQ anymore, like I did all through school! So I have no qualms about admitting I did not like, nor understand, this play.)<\/p>\n Right about now I’m glad that my review policy is to rarely tell you what an entertainment is about, so that you can discover it for yourselves, because I have absolutely no idea what was going on in this one!<\/p>\n Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n But there are<\/em> a few positives to this production. When the beautiful scalloped-bottom, crimson curtain is raised, we see a fabulous creative set by Izmir Ickbal. Granted, it\u2019s of a dirt hill, but it evokes images of an old-timey beach visit for me, and I\u2019m sure other equally interesting imagery for others. (Marc was also a fan of that visual.)<\/p>\n But I\u2019m way too claustrophobic\u00a0to even watch<\/em> someone be stuck waist-deep in dirt for the entire first half, and then up to her neck in the second. (I didn\u2019t think I could get any more claustrophobic than I was in Act One. But I was wrong.) If you\u2019re not a fan of intricate blocking, this is the play for you!<\/p>\n The only movement is of the character going through her purse, looking for various items. Marc told me even that<\/em> wasn\u2019t of great interest to him because he sees me<\/em> do it all the time! (I\u2019m getting the thought that maybe I didn\u2019t like Happy Days<\/em> because the woman is me<\/em>! Only if I<\/em> had been the one performing it, with my fast-talking, it would have gone by in\u00a0half<\/em>\u00a0the time!)<\/p>\n Also on the plus<\/em> side, it was enlightened of Beckett to have written a piece that’s basically a\u00a0monologue<\/em>\u00a0for a\u00a0woman<\/em> back in 1961. (There is also a male character, but he is seldom-seen and almost-as-seldom-heard.)<\/p>\n And you get to see a two-time Oscar-winner, Dianne Wiest, do all that work in person!<\/p>\n Actually, the best thing about Happy Days<\/em> for me is that, to get more familiar with Dianne before my trip to the Taper, I caught-up with all my DVRed episodes of her just-cancelled sitcom,\u00a0Living In Pieces<\/em>, the day before. I had forgotten what a fun series it is!<\/p>\n So the blame for my many problems with\u00a0Happy Days<\/em>\u00a0is not hers. At all. Her unique delivery and timing is actually the best thing about the show. The problem, for me, lies with the writing. So, if you haven\u2019t figured it out by now, I\u2019m not a Samuel Beckett fan. The weirdness of whatever this story\u2019s premise is, coupled with the inane monologue, along with the direction, (which must be what made the speeches sooo slow,) are the culprits. (But from my post-show research, I discovered that the slow pace and stage directions are what Beckett dictated, so go figure.)<\/p>\n People who dislike certain shows as much as I<\/em> do always come up to me on the way out to ask if I\u2019m going to tell the truth in my reviews. Of course<\/em> I am–I’m always honest! (Unless you ask me if you look fat; then I’m all about not hurting feelings. Unless you\u2019ve crossed me in the past. Then watch out!) But, as the title of this e-zine states, it’s not about me, so I always try to give you other opinions when I observe them.<\/p>\n Photo by Craig Schwartz.<\/p><\/div>\n And that’s the case here. I was not a fan of this presentation, but the opening night audience gave it a standing ovation. Which Dianne Wiest deserved. Especially for taking on this crazy role to begin with. You\u2019d have to pay me five million dollars to do even one<\/em> performance of this nonsense!<\/p>\n Why did I see it, you may ask? Well, I don\u2019t read full press releases because I want to experience a production with my own eyes. So, I did not realize it was Beckett or I might possibly have begged off. Absurdist theatre is how it\u2019s characterized, and it is indeed that. I just went off the title, star, and picture on the invitation, which was quite interesting. So I misunderstood. Totally!<\/p>\n Every now and then the audience would laugh, but it seemed to me that it was increasingly more with relief than with amusement.<\/p>\n I was going to heavily suggest researching the story before you go, which I, unfortunately, did not. But I don\u2019t think even that<\/em> will help\u2014I did it when I got home, but I\u2019m still confused.<\/p>\n I\u2019m sure that most people who have ever seen\u00a0Happy Days<\/em>\u00a0will analyze it, but I think only\u00a0Beckett<\/em>\u00a0knew what he truly meant by it all, and even then, I genuinely think he was just messing with us.<\/p>\n I guess that\u00a0I\u00a0<\/em>can analyze it, as well, but that would seem more like writing yet another college paper than a theatre review. I could proffer that perhaps the characters were dead or dying, or it symbolizes the death of a marriage, or whatever other baloney I could come up with to satisfy my professor, (who I was probably dating, anyway.)<\/p>\n All I really<\/em> care about in theatre is if I enjoyed it, an\u00a0any<\/em>\u00a0level. Or if the time spent enriched my life in some way. So, sadly, I must admit that Happy Days<\/em> did not do\u00a0any<\/em>\u00a0of that for me.\u00a0 Except maybe to give Marc and me something to laugh about forever after.<\/p>\n I realized later that the production features a bell ringing from time to time, which I didn\u2019t notice at all in Act I, and only a little in Act II.\u00a0 I\u2019m guessing that perhaps it\u2019s a death knell. As\u00a0seventeenth-century poet John Donne wrote, (centuries<\/em>\u00a0before\u00a0Happy Days\u00a0<\/em>was written,) \u201cAny man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” Perhaps that\u2019s a clue.<\/p>\n To give you the full benefit of my extensive post-show research, this is what Beckett said about his bell:\u00a0\u00a0“Well I thought that the most dreadful thing that could happen to anybody, would be not to be allowed to sleep so that just as you’re dropping off there’d be a ‘Dong’ and you’d have to keep awake; you\u2019re sinking into the ground alive and it’s full of ants; and the sun is shining endlessly day and night and there is not a tree \u2026 there\u2019s no shade, nothing, and that bell wakes you up all the time and all you’ve got is a little parcel of things to see you through life.\u201d\u00a0Charming.<\/p>\n Michael Rudko and Dianne Wiest. Photo by Craig Schwartz.<\/p><\/div>\n The weird thing is that I basically do this monologue every day, to Mr. X! Just like the male figure in Happy Days<\/em>, Mr. X rarely answers (because he\u2019s even more rarely\u00a0listening<\/em>,) yet I prattle on and on about what he might consider to be nothing. (But he\u00a0is<\/em>\u00a0always laughing at my bon mots, thank goodness!)\u00a0 In Happy Days<\/em>, the woman, Winnie, (whose name we know because she keeps mentioning it,) constantly tries to get a rise out of her companion, (whomever he might be,) Willie. And in her high-pitched voice, it is the most annoying moniker I\u2019ve ever heard! Marc kept torturing me with it on the way home, and I told him, (jokingly, but really in all seriousness,) that if he ever invoked that name again, I\u2019d have to end his much sought-after status as My New Best Friend!!!<\/p>\n I swear to you\u2014my nutty nightly dreams are more interesting than this play! But even\u00a0then<\/em>, I wouldn\u2019t foist them on any other living soul than Mr. X, (who, as we know from the previous paragraph, is not listening anyway!)<\/p>\n Marc queried that perhaps we would have liked the presentation better if we had been seated closer to the action. (We sat in almost the last row.) I had thought not, but maybe that would have helped. Then again, the Taper is known for having no bad seats, so perhaps not.<\/p>\n What the show looked like to those of who did not sit up close, so you can figure-out for yourselves if it made a difference in our thoughts on the play. Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n I do have to reiterate that many people, from all<\/em> sections, left at intermission the night I saw it. But Act I is half the length of Act II, (thank the Lord,) so if you<\/em> see the show, I really recommend just sticking it out for the duration.<\/p>\n So here are the take-aways from Happy Days<\/em>: Dianne Wiest is an excellent actress on stage (as well as film and TV, the two mediums I already knew going in); Beckett\u2019s works are for *e-word heads only; I never want to hear the name \u201cWillie\u201d ever again in life, (it\u2019s now my \u201cw-word\u201d); and everyone should wear sunscreen every day to be prepared for horrible conditions.\u00a0 So, at last there\u2019s all that. *[You know that I can\u2019t even write that three-letter word. In case you\u2019re new<\/em> to my mishegas, it\u2019s the thing that people make omelets out of.]<\/p>\n But, as always, I am grateful for the opportunity to see live theatre in a beautiful environment, with interesting audience members, and all of that is what the Taper affords us Southern Californians. And, of course, we all have different taste and concerns, so perhaps this show will be\u00a0your<\/em>\u00a0cup of tea, although it is far from mine.<\/p>\n Let me leave you with this:\u00a0Winnie tells us about a character,\u00a0Mrs. Shower, who came by and asked her, “What\u2019s the idea of you, what are you meant to mean?” I think she speaks for all<\/em> of us!<\/p>\n Happy Days<\/em>\u00a0running through June 30, 2019<\/strong> HAPPY DAYS Do not let the title of this presentation at downtown LA\u2019s Mark Taper Forum confuse you\u2014this is\u00a0not\u00a0a stage version of the old nostalgia-based \u201970s TV series, with the Fonz. Nor is it a story taken from the classic song\u00a0Happy Days Are Here Again. It\u2019s\u00a0a fifty-year-old absurdist play by Samuel Beckett. Which means\u2014not fun.<\/p>\n![\"Photo](\"http:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/2_HD187.jpg\")
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\n Mark Taper Forum \u00a0135 N. Grand Ave. \u00a0213-972-4400\u00a0\u00a0www.centertheatregroup.org<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"