Cheap Eugene O'Neill's A Moon for the Misbegotten (Broadway Theatre Archive) (DVD) (José Quintero, Gordon Rigsby) Price
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On one level a sequel to Long Day's Journey into Night, Moon continues the former's process of exorcism, but without its turmoil and rage. Instead, the tone--so beautifully calibrated in Quintero's sense of rhythm and musical shaping--is one of elegy, resignation, and compassion. Robards built a career on his uncanny ability to project himself as a soulmate of O'Neill's down-and-out, disillusioned breed of "misbegotten" mortals. He plays alcoholically self-destructive, poetry-quoting older brother Jamie Tyrone (from Journey) with hard-edged honesty. The "giantess" earth-mother Josie is eloquently realized by Colleen Dewhurst in a sturdy and stoical but nuanced portrayal that makes Jamie's confession at the heart of Moon just as much her story and need to experience a "night different from all the rest." Somehow, in the unexpected grace they share, both manage to break free, just for one night, from the patterns they've allowed to predict their behavior. Ed Flanders (who won a Tony with Dewhurst for the revival) brings a magnificent deadpan humor to the Irish tenant farmer father Hogan, concealing his love behind a shared ritual of play-acting with Josie.
The DVD is from a made-for-TV production, with the obvious limitations of camera angles and close-ups; it contains no frills (discounting nearly an hour of excerpts from other Broadway Theatre Archive titles), just the pared-down authenticity of O'Neill's characters brought to life with truth-seeking power. --Thomas May
| CATEGORY: | DVD |
| DIRECTOR: | José Quintero, Gordon Rigsby |
| THEATRICAL RELEASE DATE: | 27 May, 1975 |
| MANUFACTURER: | Image Entertainment |
| MPAA RATING: | NR (Not Rated) |
| FEATURES: | Color |
| TYPE: | Performing Arts - Theater |
| MEDIA: | DVD |
| # OF MEDIA: | 1 |
| UPC: | 014381147629 |
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Customer Reviews of Eugene O'Neill's A Moon for the Misbegotten (Broadway Theatre Archive)
Theatrical Experience of the Decade? This play revival marks the pinnacle of several noteworthy careers. Jose Quintero has made a reputation, in part, as his generation's foremost interpreter of O'Neill. Colleen Dewhurst was one of the great stage actresses of her time. Those aware of the history of the American Stage, know about Jason Robards' credentials when it comes to nailing down an O'Neill character. Throw in Hal Holbrooke for good measure, in ostensibly his finest stage performance apart from Mark Twain Tonight, and you've got a harmonic convergence of the highest order.
For those who were not lucky enough to watch the magic unfold on stage, this video will have to suffice. Though it suffers from the same limitations as other filmed versions of staged performances, it is nevertheless a record to be treasured by lovers of O'Neill, theatre fans, and connisseurs of great acting and directing everywhere and always.
Those of us who had the pleasure to know Jason Robards, know how close the actor's own past paralleled that of the character he portrayed in this play (James Tyrone, Jr.). Like Tyrone, Robards fought with his alcoholic demons. In his last decades, he conquered his disease, with the help of a strong, loving, Irish-American wife. Robards threw himself exhaustingly, night after night into this role, as did Dewhurst. The result was an evening of true catharsis, in the strict Greek sense of the word, for actors and audience. As Dewhurst cradles Robards in her pieta-like embrace and the lights fade out at the end of the play, we know we have all been changed by a profound confluence of talent and tears.
The Moon and the Stars
Written in 1943, it took "A Moon for the Misbegotten" over 30 years to find its place as one of the most important works in the Eugene O'Neill canon. First produced on Broadway in 1958, the play was originally dismissed as second-rate O'Neill. It took the powerhouse 1974 revival directed by Jose Quintero and starring Jason Robards, Colleen Dewhurst and Ed Flanders to finally earn O'Neill's painful reminiscence about his brother Jamie, unforgettably introduced to audiences in "Long Days Journey Into Night," the deserved accolade of "masterpiece."
The story is incidental: dirt farmers Josie and her father attempt to dupe their alcoholic landlord James Tyrone, Jr. into spending the night with Josie in the hopes of initiating a vague stab at retaliation against a scheme that Tyrone has hatched against him. But when the drunken lessor shows up for the assignation, what unfolds is a series of jolting revelations that leaves all of the characters - and the audience - emotionally spent, with only a lingering sense of compassion haunting their well-traveled spirits.
This DVD is the ABC television production of this landmark theatrical event, and admirers of great acting can only be thankful that the production was preserved on video. The performances of Jason Robards, repeating the role he created in the original Broadway production and film of "Long Day's Journey"; Ed Flanders, who received both the Tony Award for the Broadway production and the Emmy for the television presentation; and most especially Colleen Dewhurst, who is magnificent in her Tony Award-winning role as Josie, all offer such brilliantly moving performances that the memory of them will linger long after the final credits unspool.