Chamber Music
In a 1938 asylum, eight women who are—or believe they are—famous historical figures organize to represent the women’s ward against an imagined attack from the men’s ward, while one may actually be Amelia Earhart.
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In a 1938 asylum, eight women who are—or believe they are—famous historical figures organize to represent the women’s ward against an imagined attack from the men’s ward, while one may actually be Amelia Earhart.
Glamorous but pretentious Long Island socialite Tracy Samantha Lord is planning a lavish June 1938 wedding to an equally pretentious executive, George Kittredge. Guests include her mother, grumpy little sister Dinah, and absent-minded Uncle Willy, who lives in a house near the Lord estate. Willy is hosting a party for the wedding guests that evening, the night before the wedding. Tracy's unwelcome ex-husband and neighbor, C.K. Dexter Haven, sails up to the estate in his yacht. Dexter informs Tracy and her family that tabloid reporters Mike Connor and Liz Imbrie will be covering the wedding for Spy while pretending to be guests. Dexter invited them to stop Spy from publishing an exposé of Tracy's father Seth, who is estranged from Tracy's mother because he is having an affair with a dancer, Tina Mara. Dexter tries to convince the suspicious Dinah of his good intentions. When Mike and Liz arrive, Tracy and Dinah do not let on that they know of the reporters' charade. Tracy pretends that Uncle Willie is her father, but when her father arrives, she pretends that he is Uncle Willie. Dexter confronts Tracy about their relationship, leaving her confused; suddenly George seems so pompous. She also is finding Mike to be sweet and remembers some good times with Dexter on his yacht. She starts drinking champagne before the party at Uncle Willie's even begins. After the party, Tracy is still drinking champagne, and she misbehaves, dancing with the staff and Mike. George is angry and embarrassed. Dinah hurries to Dexter's house, finding him packing for a trip. She calls him a coward and informs him that Tracy is drinking champagne, which he knows makes her wild. After many farcical comings and goings back at the estate, George reminds Tracy of their wedding the next day, warns her about her behavior and stomps away. Mike tells Tracy that George is not good enough for her. He kisses her, and she tipsily invites him to go skinny dipping in the pool. Dexter and Dinah return to witness other romantic entanglements unfolding between Seth and his wife and Uncle Willy and Liz, who really loves Mike. As soon as Tracy gets in the water, the champagne catches up with her, and Mike puts her innocently in her bed. In the morning, Tracy realizes that she was in the pool with Mike and, her memory hazy, fears that she had sex with him, ruining her wedding and social standing. All works out in the end, however, with Tracy's parents reuniting, the blackmail threat quashed, Mike realizing that he is really in love with Liz, and Tracy reuniting with Dexter. Since the wedding is already scheduled and paid for, Dexter steps up and all ends happily.
Indians is a 1968 play by Arthur Kopit. At its core is Buffalo Bill Cody and his Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. The play examines the contradictions of Cody's life and his work with Native Americans. Alvin Klein, writing in The New York Times, wrote that the play intended "...to open up the real savage story of how the West was won, to demythologize that old game of cowboys and Indians..."
Guido Contini, a famous Italian film director, has turned forty and faces double crises: he has to shoot a film for which he can't write the script, and his wife of twenty years, film star Luisa del Forno, may leave him if he can't pay more attention to their marriage. Luisa's efforts to talk to him are drowned out by voices in his head: voices of women in his life whom he has loved ("Overture delle Donne"). In an attempt to find some peace and save the marriage, they go to a spa near Venice ("Spa Music"), where they are immediately hunted down by the press with intrusive questions about their marriage and Guido's imminent film project, which he has not told Luisa about ("Not Since Chaplin"). As Guido struggles to find a story for his film, he becomes increasingly preoccupied, his interior world sometimes becoming indistinguishable from reality ("Guido's Song"). His mistress Carla arrives in Venice, calling him from her hotel room ("A Call from the Vatican"). His producer Liliane La Fleur, former vedette of the Folies Bergeres, insists he make a musical, an idea which veers off into a vivid fantasy ("The Script / Folies Bergeres"). All the while, Luisa watches, the resilience of her love being consumed by anxiety for him and a gathering dismay about their life together ("My Husband Makes Movies / Only With You"). In Guido's imagination, he encounters his mother bathing a nine-year-old boy—his own young self ("Nine"). The vision leads him to re-encounter a moment on a beach with Saraghina, a prostitute to whom he went as a curious child, sneaking out of his Catholic boarding school St. Sebastian, to ask her to tell him about love. Her answer, to be yourself ("Ti Voglio Bene / Be Italian"), and the dance she taught him reminds the forty-year-old Guido of the consequences of that night—punishment by the nuns and rejection by his mother ("The Bells of St. Sebastian"). Unable to bear the adults, the little boy runs back to the beach to find no one. Back into the present, Guido is on a beach once more. With him is Claudia Nardi, a film star and his muse, who has flown in from Paris for him; however, she does not want the role. He is enraged by her rejection. Claudia loves him but wants him to love her as a person and not a "spirit", which he cannot do. She calls him "My charming Casanova!", thereby involuntarily giving Guido the inspiration he needs ("A Man Like You"). Claudia lets him go ("Unusual Way"), Guido has an idea for a movie set on the Grand Canal and cast with every woman in his life ("The Grand Canal"). During the filming of the movie, Carla races onto the set to announce her divorce and her delight that they can be married, only to be rejected by Guido in his fixation on the film. Luisa is enraged and saddened by his use of their intimacy and her words as a source for the film. Guido keeps the cameras rolling, capturing the desolation of the women he loves ("Cut, Print!"). The film is dead. Carla leaves with a broken heart ("Simple"). Claudia sends a letter from Paris to say that she has married. Luisa ends their marriage ("Be On Your Own"). Guido is alone and directionless, contemplating suicide ("I Can't Make This Movie"). As the gun is at his head, he is interrupted by his nine-year-old self telling him it is time to grow up and move on, and Guido surrenders the gun ("Getting Tall"). The women return, this time to let him go, with the exception of Luisa ("Reprises"). Guido feels the aching void left by the only woman he will ever love. In the 2003 Broadway production, as the boy leads the women off, Luisa steps into the room on the final note, and Guido turns toward her.
An overbearing mother travels to a Caribbean resort with her son and her deceased husband, preserved in his coffin. Kopit described it as a farce in three scenes.
After a stroke leaves Emily Stilson with a language disorder, she struggles to make sense of the world and rebuild her speech. The play presents her shifting psychological perspective as she works toward recovery.
In a 1938 asylum, eight women who are—or believe they are—famous historical figures organize to represent the women’s ward against an imagined attack from the men’s ward, while one may actually be Amelia Earhart.
Glamorous but pretentious Long Island socialite Tracy Samantha Lord is planning a lavish June 1938 wedding to an equally pretentious executive, George Kittredge. Guests include her mother, grumpy little sister Dinah, and absent-minded Uncle Willy, who lives in a house near the Lord estate. Willy is hosting a party for the wedding guests that evening, the night before the wedding. Tracy's unwelcome ex-husband and neighbor, C.K. Dexter Haven, sails up to the estate in his yacht. Dexter informs Tracy and her family that tabloid reporters Mike Connor and Liz Imbrie will be covering the wedding for Spy while pretending to be guests. Dexter invited them to stop Spy from publishing an exposé of Tracy's father Seth, who is estranged from Tracy's mother because he is having an affair with a dancer, Tina Mara. Dexter tries to convince the suspicious Dinah of his good intentions. When Mike and Liz arrive, Tracy and Dinah do not let on that they know of the reporters' charade. Tracy pretends that Uncle Willie is her father, but when her father arrives, she pretends that he is Uncle Willie. Dexter confronts Tracy about their relationship, leaving her confused; suddenly George seems so pompous. She also is finding Mike to be sweet and remembers some good times with Dexter on his yacht. She starts drinking champagne before the party at Uncle Willie's even begins. After the party, Tracy is still drinking champagne, and she misbehaves, dancing with the staff and Mike. George is angry and embarrassed. Dinah hurries to Dexter's house, finding him packing for a trip. She calls him a coward and informs him that Tracy is drinking champagne, which he knows makes her wild. After many farcical comings and goings back at the estate, George reminds Tracy of their wedding the next day, warns her about her behavior and stomps away. Mike tells Tracy that George is not good enough for her. He kisses her, and she tipsily invites him to go skinny dipping in the pool. Dexter and Dinah return to witness other romantic entanglements unfolding between Seth and his wife and Uncle Willy and Liz, who really loves Mike. As soon as Tracy gets in the water, the champagne catches up with her, and Mike puts her innocently in her bed. In the morning, Tracy realizes that she was in the pool with Mike and, her memory hazy, fears that she had sex with him, ruining her wedding and social standing. All works out in the end, however, with Tracy's parents reuniting, the blackmail threat quashed, Mike realizing that he is really in love with Liz, and Tracy reuniting with Dexter. Since the wedding is already scheduled and paid for, Dexter steps up and all ends happily.
Indians is a 1968 play by Arthur Kopit. At its core is Buffalo Bill Cody and his Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. The play examines the contradictions of Cody's life and his work with Native Americans. Alvin Klein, writing in The New York Times, wrote that the play intended "...to open up the real savage story of how the West was won, to demythologize that old game of cowboys and Indians..."
Guido Contini, a famous Italian film director, has turned forty and faces double crises: he has to shoot a film for which he can't write the script, and his wife of twenty years, film star Luisa del Forno, may leave him if he can't pay more attention to their marriage. Luisa's efforts to talk to him are drowned out by voices in his head: voices of women in his life whom he has loved ("Overture delle Donne"). In an attempt to find some peace and save the marriage, they go to a spa near Venice ("Spa Music"), where they are immediately hunted down by the press with intrusive questions about their marriage and Guido's imminent film project, which he has not told Luisa about ("Not Since Chaplin"). As Guido struggles to find a story for his film, he becomes increasingly preoccupied, his interior world sometimes becoming indistinguishable from reality ("Guido's Song"). His mistress Carla arrives in Venice, calling him from her hotel room ("A Call from the Vatican"). His producer Liliane La Fleur, former vedette of the Folies Bergeres, insists he make a musical, an idea which veers off into a vivid fantasy ("The Script / Folies Bergeres"). All the while, Luisa watches, the resilience of her love being consumed by anxiety for him and a gathering dismay about their life together ("My Husband Makes Movies / Only With You"). In Guido's imagination, he encounters his mother bathing a nine-year-old boy—his own young self ("Nine"). The vision leads him to re-encounter a moment on a beach with Saraghina, a prostitute to whom he went as a curious child, sneaking out of his Catholic boarding school St. Sebastian, to ask her to tell him about love. Her answer, to be yourself ("Ti Voglio Bene / Be Italian"), and the dance she taught him reminds the forty-year-old Guido of the consequences of that night—punishment by the nuns and rejection by his mother ("The Bells of St. Sebastian"). Unable to bear the adults, the little boy runs back to the beach to find no one. Back into the present, Guido is on a beach once more. With him is Claudia Nardi, a film star and his muse, who has flown in from Paris for him; however, she does not want the role. He is enraged by her rejection. Claudia loves him but wants him to love her as a person and not a "spirit", which he cannot do. She calls him "My charming Casanova!", thereby involuntarily giving Guido the inspiration he needs ("A Man Like You"). Claudia lets him go ("Unusual Way"), Guido has an idea for a movie set on the Grand Canal and cast with every woman in his life ("The Grand Canal"). During the filming of the movie, Carla races onto the set to announce her divorce and her delight that they can be married, only to be rejected by Guido in his fixation on the film. Luisa is enraged and saddened by his use of their intimacy and her words as a source for the film. Guido keeps the cameras rolling, capturing the desolation of the women he loves ("Cut, Print!"). The film is dead. Carla leaves with a broken heart ("Simple"). Claudia sends a letter from Paris to say that she has married. Luisa ends their marriage ("Be On Your Own"). Guido is alone and directionless, contemplating suicide ("I Can't Make This Movie"). As the gun is at his head, he is interrupted by his nine-year-old self telling him it is time to grow up and move on, and Guido surrenders the gun ("Getting Tall"). The women return, this time to let him go, with the exception of Luisa ("Reprises"). Guido feels the aching void left by the only woman he will ever love. In the 2003 Broadway production, as the boy leads the women off, Luisa steps into the room on the final note, and Guido turns toward her.
An overbearing mother travels to a Caribbean resort with her son and her deceased husband, preserved in his coffin. Kopit described it as a farce in three scenes.
After a stroke leaves Emily Stilson with a language disorder, she struggles to make sense of the world and rebuild her speech. The play presents her shifting psychological perspective as she works toward recovery.