Read Online I Hated to Do It: Stories of a Life by Donald C. Farber - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Donald C. Farber
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after the Broadway plays closed by her following, which was comprised of the New York cognoscenti, including Judy Holliday, Lauren Bacall, Richard Burton, Comden and Green, Noel Coward, and Marlon Brando, who had an affair with her that was at times indescribable in its intensity and fervor. But they remained friends forever, even after the lovemaking cooled. It was very dark in the Baq Room, but on any given night you could still make out the famous faces: Tennessee Williams, Judy Holliday, who brought Adolph Green and Betty Comden, Christopher Plummer, Lauren Bacall with Jason Robards, Maximilian Schell with his sister Maria, Anna Magnani, who was, Janice was later to say, the best audience she ever had, Curt Jurgens, and one time even Thornton Wilder.
We could write books about Janice and the night we were at her house and she threatened her husband with a carving knife. He escaped with his bodily parts intact. But since this is about
The Fantasticks
, what is important is that she got ahold of the music and was singing it nightly at the Baq Room to all these famous people. It helped the play.
The Fantasticks
meant more to me than just a diversion, it meant a whole new career. After the play opened, there was an influx of small Off-Broadway musicals, and I was asked to represent a number of them. Also straight plays were represented by me, including a play
The Sudden End of Anne Cinquefoil
, written by Dickie Hepburn, Katharine’s brother. We were attending opening nights two or three times each month.
That was when Annie was buying me a Gucci tie for every opening and fifteen dollars was a lot of money for her to be spending on a tie. Off-Broadway opening night parties in those days were not easy to imagine. They usually took place either in someone’s living room, someone’s playroom in the basement, on a crowded stage, or in someone’s dressing room. There were rarely enough seats, if any, so it meant balancing a plastic cup of wine in one hand and a paper plate full of pasta in the other hand. During the evening I splashed food or drink on my new Gucci. It happened so many times it was not fun. I came up with the obvious answer.
For openings after that, Annie started buying me Guccis, and later other label, bow ties. Then when I would slop on a piece of clothing, I was slopping on the washable shirt and not the uncleanable expensive Gucci tie. You may have noticed that if I am wearing a tie, which is almost always when I go out, it is a bow tie. So now you know why I wear bow ties. There is a reason for most things, and sometimes the reason may even make sense.
Bohickee Creek
When we moved to the city our lives changed. All of those famous people one reads about in the newspaper were ending up at parties at our house, and in many instances we didn’t know how famous they were. Some became famous later, very famous.
During this time I represented a play called
Bohickee Creek
written by Robert Unger, which opened in 1965 at Theatre 73 on East 73rd Street in the city. There were so many fascinating things that happened with this play. It was directed by a client, Donald Moreland, who was one of the producers. The music was written by not yet famous Richie Havens, and during rehearsal they spent a lot of time trying to find him, as he wanted to be left alone and would retire to a rooftop in the neighborhood. The plays starred not yet famous, but soon to become very famous, James Earl Jones, Moses Gunn, Billie Allen, and Georgia Burke.
Bohickee Creek
was a very sensitive play about the plight of the blacks, and it was written by a white guy.
In the order of the happenings: (1) opening night at intermission, the author’s wife had a drink, and at the beginning of the second act, a row in front of us, she managed to vomit mostly on a very famous critic. That did not make a hit with the critic, and (2) the cast party was at our house. Heaven forbid, at two forty-five in the morning we were sitting around in the
We could write books about Janice and the night we were at her house and she threatened her husband with a carving knife. He escaped with his bodily parts intact. But since this is about
The Fantasticks
, what is important is that she got ahold of the music and was singing it nightly at the Baq Room to all these famous people. It helped the play.
The Fantasticks
meant more to me than just a diversion, it meant a whole new career. After the play opened, there was an influx of small Off-Broadway musicals, and I was asked to represent a number of them. Also straight plays were represented by me, including a play
The Sudden End of Anne Cinquefoil
, written by Dickie Hepburn, Katharine’s brother. We were attending opening nights two or three times each month.
That was when Annie was buying me a Gucci tie for every opening and fifteen dollars was a lot of money for her to be spending on a tie. Off-Broadway opening night parties in those days were not easy to imagine. They usually took place either in someone’s living room, someone’s playroom in the basement, on a crowded stage, or in someone’s dressing room. There were rarely enough seats, if any, so it meant balancing a plastic cup of wine in one hand and a paper plate full of pasta in the other hand. During the evening I splashed food or drink on my new Gucci. It happened so many times it was not fun. I came up with the obvious answer.
For openings after that, Annie started buying me Guccis, and later other label, bow ties. Then when I would slop on a piece of clothing, I was slopping on the washable shirt and not the uncleanable expensive Gucci tie. You may have noticed that if I am wearing a tie, which is almost always when I go out, it is a bow tie. So now you know why I wear bow ties. There is a reason for most things, and sometimes the reason may even make sense.
Bohickee Creek
When we moved to the city our lives changed. All of those famous people one reads about in the newspaper were ending up at parties at our house, and in many instances we didn’t know how famous they were. Some became famous later, very famous.
During this time I represented a play called
Bohickee Creek
written by Robert Unger, which opened in 1965 at Theatre 73 on East 73rd Street in the city. There were so many fascinating things that happened with this play. It was directed by a client, Donald Moreland, who was one of the producers. The music was written by not yet famous Richie Havens, and during rehearsal they spent a lot of time trying to find him, as he wanted to be left alone and would retire to a rooftop in the neighborhood. The plays starred not yet famous, but soon to become very famous, James Earl Jones, Moses Gunn, Billie Allen, and Georgia Burke.
Bohickee Creek
was a very sensitive play about the plight of the blacks, and it was written by a white guy.
In the order of the happenings: (1) opening night at intermission, the author’s wife had a drink, and at the beginning of the second act, a row in front of us, she managed to vomit mostly on a very famous critic. That did not make a hit with the critic, and (2) the cast party was at our house. Heaven forbid, at two forty-five in the morning we were sitting around in the
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