ATW - Downstage Center
ATW - Downstage Center
American Theatre Wing
Jules Feiffer (#288) - October, 2010
1 hour 5 minutes Posted Oct 6, 2010 at 6:52 am.
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Show notes
Playwright Jules Feiffer, perhaps best known as a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, explains why he sees little difference between his comic work, screen work and stage work, as well as why he has no issue with his 42-year-legacy of provocative work in the "Village Voice" being called, simply, a comic strip. He also talks about his early involvement in moving from the comics to the stage, including Paul Sills' adaptation called "The Explainers" and his own "The World of Jules Feiffer", which featured the first "Passionella" musical, with a score by Stephen Sondheim; how he feels about the "Passionella" segment in "The Apple Tree" and whether he prefers the original production or the recent revival; the journey of "Little Murders" from Broadway flop to London award-winner to Off-Broadway success -- all in a two-year span; how "The White House Murder Case" started off a hit and why the audiences suddenly stopped laughing; how he came to contribute to the infamous revue "Oh! Calcutta"; what shifted his play "Carnal Knowledge" from the stage to the screen before it was ever produced, and what prompted him years later to resurrect the stage script; how his troubled personal life yielded the comedy "Knock Knock"; why "Elliot Loves" drove him from the theatre for over a decade, and why he came back with perhaps his most personal play, "A Bad Friend"; and what's happening with his long-aborning collaboration with Andrew Lippa on a stage musical of his children's book, "The Man in the Ceiling". Original air date - October 6, 2010.