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(More customer reviews)I haven't worked out yet exactly how old Theodore Mann must be, but he must be one of the oldest people I have ever read an autobiography by.
Nearly everyone he knows from the glory days of the Circle in the Square is dead, so he must feel pretty much free to give his own version of the events that changed American theater and the reputation of Eugene O'Neill. Teddy Mann (or as George C Scott habitually called him, "Teedy,") was there and laid the groundwork, right at a time when O'Neill was a drug on the market and his last Broadway play, THE ICEMAN COMETH, had been a notable flop. Mann and his friend Jose Quintero stepped up, met Carlotta Monterey, fielded all the flak from naysayers, and put on triumphant productions of ICEMAN (with Jason Robards) and other O'Neill plays. Eventually they talked Carlotta (the widow O'Neill) into giving them the rights to stage US premieres for several of O'Neill's then unpublished plays, including LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT, HUGHIE, and MORE STATELY MANSIONS.
Theodore Mann saved the day when Florence Eldridge, creating the important role of Mary Tyrone, fell sick on the eve of the opening. He enlisted the famous Dr. Feelgood, Max Jacobson, to step in with an enormous suitcase filled with syringes and soon brought her up to fighting speed. He's filled with great stories like that about half-forgotten people. Why, there was even another Paul Rudd, not the actor of today, but another one back in the 1970s, whom Mann discovered. What's up with that? The two Paul Rudds look crazy different from another, and I have to say, the present day one is far better looking. He also describes the love affair between Amy Irving and Rex Harrison in piquant terms, I'd like to see a whole docudrama about the interaction between ingenue and old man.
Despite continual rumors, Teedy and Quintero were never lovers, just friends from Woodstock. Indeed Theodore Mann's theater is pretty much a straight theater, with plenty of couples and lots of children. He discovered both Rip Torn and Geraldine Page and gave early work to trailblazers like Dustin Hoffman and Vanessa Redgrave. The Circle in the Square had a long history of reviving forgotten plays and renewing interest in dormant careers, like George C. Scott's 1983 production of Noel Coward's PRESENT LAUGHTER, which showed the world that the man who played General Patton could also play Garry Essendine.
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This is Theodore Mann's account of his own and the Circle's remarkable history. At times it's difficult to tell where the two diverge, so integral to the company has he been. From Thornton Wilder to Al Pacino, it seems as if every great actor and playwright of the past fifty years has had his or her best work at Circle. As befits a story about theatre, it is at times comic and at times tragic. If you ever wondered how Off-Broadway ever came to be (and how it ever managed to survive), this is the tale to read. DVD BONUS: As a special bonus, An American Theatre Revolution includes a DVD of the 1977 CBS-TV Camera Three program "Twenty Five Years of Circle in the Square." It features Dustin Hoffman, George C. Scott, Vanessa Redgrave, Colleen Dewhurst, James Earl Jones, and Mann himself talking about their experiences at the theatre and includes excerpts of such noted Circle in the Square productions as Death of a Salesman, Mourning Becomes Electra, and The Lady from the Sea.
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