Mae West: Weird Trappings

A cunning cartoon showed MAE WEST yanking G.B. Shaw's beard. If only the two controversial writers could chat during Shaw Fest, which had been presenting “Sex” in Canada until Sunday, 13 October 2019.
• • Buffalo Rising sent Grant Golden to review it. This is Part 3 of 7 segments.
• • SEX is a sensational drama by Mae West • •
• • Symbolism? • •
• • Grant Golden wrote: THE PLAY, THE PLAYERS AND THE PRODUCTION:  Walking into the Jackie Maxwell Theatre, and seeing their small rectangular stage filled by towering piles of old (period) suitcases, my immediate impression was “what the …?” These suitcases return, in differing numbers and configurations, throughout the course of the evening.  My one overwhelming memory now is that of actors carting suitcases on and off stage.
• • Grant Golden wrote: I’ve now had sufficient time to mull it over, and I’ve got to say that I still don’t get it. 
• • Grant Golden wrote: Yes, there are characters in SEX, including the protagonist Margy, who travel from place to place.  But this is hardly the point of the show!  Symbolism?  Maybe, but to my mind, it’s just one of a number of weird trappings that the creative staff have larded onto what is, in fact, a pretty conventional melodrama.
• • The production has a loose, murky quality • • …
• • This stage review by Grant Golden will be continued on the next post.
• • Source: Buffalo Rising; published on Tuesday, 6 August 2019. 
• • On Friday, 30 October 1925 • •
• • Vaudeville News wrote:  Mae West is to be seen in a new act by Ted McLean, entitled "Salomy on Broadway," under the booking direction of Alf T. Wilton. A special set is to be carried with the supporting company consisting of eight people. The act opened at Red Bank, New Jersey this week.
• • Source: Vaudeville News; published on Friday, 30 October 1925.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • The Mae West characterizations that Ruth Lockwood, of Leavitt and Lockwood, unreels as part of the Mutts — — with some new tricks — — score heavily.
• • In Her Own Words • •

• • Mae West said: "A book author had more freedom of expression than the stage permitted at that time."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article on drag artists mentioned Mae West.
• • John Przybys wrote: “I think ‘drag’ is the species and there are all of these subgroups underneath it,” Frank DeCaro says. “Drag is everything from Milton Berle dressed as Cleopatra to Alaska 5000 dressing as Mae West on ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race.’ ”  . . .
• • Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal; published on Tuesday, 8 October 2019
• • The evolution of 2 Mae West plays that keep her memory alive • • 
• • A discussion with Mae West playwright LindaAnn LoSchiavo — — 
• • http://lideamagazine.com/renaissance-woman-new-york-city-interview-lindaann-loschiavo/

• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 15th anniversary • •  

• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past fifteen years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 4,300 blog posts. Wow!  

• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started fifteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 4,334th blog post. Unlike many blogs, which draw upon reprinted content from a newspaper or a magazine and/ or summaries, links, or photos, the mainstay of this blog is its fresh material focused on the life and career of Mae West, herself an American original.

• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • on a train with Boris Petroff and Jim Timony in 1935 • •
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