All posts filed under: THEATRE

The Stratford-upon-Avon Players’ Tour of North America, 1913-1914

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Following the 1913 Summer Festival at Stratford-on-Avon, Frank Benson, the actor-manager of the Benson Shakespeare Company (and Basil Rathbone’s cousin), led a company of 50 members, including Rathbone, on a tour of North America. The tour was organized by the governors of the Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, and Benson’s company traveled under the name “The Stratford-upon-Avon Players.” Fourteen different plays of Shakespeare were taken. Because Rathbone was still honing his skills as an actor, he did not play the leading roles. Also in the company was a young actress named Marion Foreman. Basil had only just met Marion in August, so the tour was an opportunity to get to know her well. They married a year later, on October 3, 1914. The North American tour included the following plays: The Merchant of Venice (Basil played Lorenzo; Marion played Jessica) Romeo and Juliet (Basil played Paris) King Richard II (Basil played Aumerle; Marion played Lady-in-Waiting) As You Like It (Basil played Silvius; Marion played Phoebe) Henry IV, Pt. 2 (Basil played the Earl of Westmoreland) Twelfth …

Basil Rathbone in Summer Stock

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In the 1950s, Basil Rathbone supplemented his income by performing in some summer stock productions. What’s “summer stock” you ask? The name refers to productions staged during the summer months (the off-season for professional theatre). Theatres hosting such “summer stock” productions are often located near resort areas. Productions are often outdoors or under tents set up temporarily for their use. Stars of Broadway, film, and television would regularly spend summers performing in the “Straw-Hat Circuit” (another name for summer stock). Below is a map that appears on the cover of the July 1934 issue of The Stage. Click on the small image below and a larger one will open in a new window. Then you can see the locations of the summer theatres where Basil performed. On the southern tip of Maine you’ll see the town of Ogunquit, home to the Ogunquit Playhouse. Rathbone was there August 27 through September 1, 1951, performing in The Gioconda Smile, by Aldous Huxley. He returned to the Ogunquit Playhouse July 29 through August 3, 1957, playing the role …

The Violent Deaths of Basil Rathbone

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Yes, you read that right — “deaths.” I’m not writing about the actual death of Basil Rathbone, but rather the many deaths of his characters on film and on the stage. On film, Basil met a violent death 23 times! He was run through by a sword in five films and fatally shot by a gun in six films. His deaths in the other twelve films occurred as a result of poison, stabbing, suffocating, falling, and a few other unfortunate incidents. We will take a closer look at these below. Here is the final duel in Captain Blood (1935), in which Errol Flynn skewers Levasseur (Rathbone): Errol Flynn also dispatched Rathbone (as Sir Guy of Gisbourne) in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938): In the 1935 film Romeo and Juliet, Rathbone played Tybalt, one of Juliet’s relatives. After Tybalt killed Mercutio in a duel, Romeo (Leslie Howard) challenged Tybalt to a duel and killed him: And then there is that wonderful duel in The Mark of Zorro (1940), where foppish Don Diego (Tyrone Power) reveals …

A Subsidized Theater

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I found an interesting article in the September 9, 1936 edition of The Era. Written by Margery Rowland, it’s called “The Salvation of the Stage,” and features lengthy quotes from our favorite actor, Basil Rathbone. She writes that Rathbone displays enthusiasm and love for the theater. Here, then, are Rathbone’s comments on the subject of a subsidized theater: There are two ways in which the theatre can be saved. By “saved” I don’t mean financially prosperous. I mean reestablished as a rich and fine art that has almost the prestige and significance of a religion. And one of the ways is the return of the patron. The theatre isn’t a broad popular entertainment on the people’s own level. It shouldn’t be—it won’t be in the future. We’re moving forward to the time when it will take its place side by side with the arts of music and painting at their highest. It is not becoming more popular. It is becoming more select, more exclusive. It won’t be of and among the general public. It will …

Molnar’s play “The Swan”

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In 1923 Basil Rathbone starred with Eva LeGallienne in the hit play The Swan. Basil played Dr. Nicholas Agi and Eva played Princess Alexandra. You can read the entire play if you’d like to; it can be found on archive.org. But I decided to present an abridged version here, in case you want to know what the play is about, but you don’t want to read the entire play. You can download the entire play here: https://archive.org/details/fashionsformena00glazgoog/page/n168/mode/2up (The book on archive.org contains two plays by Molnar. The Swan begins on page 169.) The Swan (Abridged version) A Romantic Comedy in Three Acts by Ferenc Molnar (translated by Melville Baker) Main Characters: Princess Beatrice Symphorosa, her sister Hyacinth, her brother Alexandra, her daughter George, her son Arsene, another son Dr. Nicholas Agi Prince Albert Princess Maria Dominica Count Luetzen Colonel Wunderlich ACT I The story starts on a summer morning in a pavilion in the garden of the Princess Beatrice’s castle. The pavilion serves as a classroom for the young princes. George and Arsene. Dr. Agi …

“Basil Rathbone Eulogizes the American Actress” – 1923

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This article first appeared in THE BILLBOARD, November 1923. Just a few weeks later Rathbone would be taken to a party by Clifton Webb, where he would meet unemployed screenwriter “Ouida Bergere” (as she called herself). Click on pdf button to download a copy of the original article Basil Rathbone Eulogizes the American Actress The Billboard, November 24 1923 When our dramatic critic, in his review of “The Swan” defined Mr Basil Rathbone as “the leading man par excellence with the looks, bearing and acting capacity which should go with the genius” we decided that we had a clue worth following in our search for interesting personalities. But getting a seat for a performance of “The Swan” was like getting poor Humpty up a again. It was only due to the cancellation of a third balcony box reservation that we succeeded in viewing that ideal couple, the fair LeGallienne(sic) and the stalwart Rathbone. We gazed so long from our dizzy heights thru the lenses of an opera glass that we became dizzy and were obliged …

Sherlock on Broadway

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Basilrathbone.net has an interesting new look at Ouida Rathbone’s slightly infamous SHERLOCK HOLMES stage play. That great, gobbling turkey of 1953, that could be said to have wrecked Rathbone’s Broadway career almost as effectively as his decision to flee Hollywood had destroyed his movie career. For me – and I suspect for anyone who’s been following our journey through Rathbone’s life and work – the article highlights some of those enduring puzzles and contradictions that make BR both fascinating and frustrating as a subject. For example, why was the man who allegedly fled Hollywood because he couldn’t stand being Holmes any longer starring in a Holmes play on Broadway just seven years later? And if it’s true that Rathbone was already trying to launch this vehicle as early as 1946, then that question becomes not just relevant but crucial, because it would mean he quit his massively lucrative Sherlock movie and radio contracts, fled Hollywood, alienating friends and colleagues in the process, all because he could not stand another moment of playing Holmes – and …

The Captive (1926) – NYT Review

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The Play by J. Brooks Atkinson The New York Times September 30 1926 Expertly written and admirably played, M. Bourdet’ tragedy, “The Captive,” put on at the Empire last evening, may be set down as a genuine achievement in dramatic producing – a long, engrossing, haunting play. Most of the theatrical news from Eruope for several months has hung about this drama, known in Paris as “La Prisonniere.” Vastly popular, sensational in its theme, and recriminations. But whatever emotions the Parisian performance may be conveying, Mr Hornblow’s adaptation, staged perfectly by Mr Miller, emerges as a hard, brittle chronicle, horrible in its implications, terrible to contemplate at times, but sincere and cleanly finished. Seldom has a play been so intelligently cast; nor do we often see a performance so thoroughly disciplined in every detail. For the American version of “La Prisonniere,” does not truckle no smirk. It tells its unpleasant story in a straightforward manner, without evasion or sordid emphasis. And the splendid spirit of the production may protect it from being misunderstood. Like a …

THE HEIRESS 2012

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The new production of THE HEIRESS opened in NYC yesterday, at the Walter Kerr theatre on West 48th, starring Jessica Chastain, David Strathairn and Dan Stevens. This is the second or maybe third revival since the Baz created the role of Austin Sloper on Broadway almost exactly 65 years ago, in September 1947. Here’s Ben Brantley’s NYT review , which also links to Brooks Atkinson’s review of the original with Rathbone. Brantley doesn’t altogether like the production or Strathairn’s interpretation of Dr Sloper, describing him as “surprisingly low-key and deferential.” Rathbone, by contrast, won a Tony for his performance and was described by Atkinson as playing “perfectly with irony and arrogance.” And yet,interestingly, Brantley doesn’t compare Strathairn with the Baz, even though they both played the part on Broadway. No, indeed, with wonderful irony, Brantley ignores Rathbone completely and instead compares Strathairn with none other than Ralph Richardson who played in the 1949 film, opposite Olivia de Havilland, after Rathbone was inexplicably passed over for the part. Rather a neat little illustration of how fate …

RATHBONE & LE GALLIENNE

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The Q&A with Helen Sheehy about the Baz’s relationship, professional and otherwise, with Eva Le Gallienne continues to get a lot of feedback and there have been several interesting points raised in the comments. Opinion seems scattered over a wide spectrum between those who refuse to believe Rathbone would sleep with a lesbian and those who think he and Eva were lost loves for one another. I’m inclined to agree with Helen that the truth lies somewhere in the murky middle ground between. I think it’s probably pointless to refuse to believe Rathbone had a physical affair with Le Gallienne, when Le Gallienne herself and her friends all said he did. Likewise I think the chance they were ever in serious danger of marrying each other seems remote. Their affair only lasted for something like five or six months. Le Gallienne moved fairly swiftly on to other lovers, and Rathbone was already involved with Ouida Bergere when it began. So it’s important to remember this in order to keep it in proportion alongside other events …