William Saroyan's The Time of Your Life (Broadway Theatre Archive)
by Kirk Browning
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Brooks Baldwin, Gerald Gutierrez, Glynis Bell, James Harper, Robert BacigalupiDirector: Kirk Browning
Writer: William Saroyan
Producer: Jac Venza
Producer: Lindsay Law
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0
Format: Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 70 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-01-15
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Image Entertainment
Movie Reviews of William Saroyan's The Time of Your Life (Broadway Theatre Archive)
Movie Review: Not an Inspired or Coherent Production
Summary: 2 Stars
This review is of this production, not this play--the play is great; this production, if it were music, would be frequently flat and off key. Some actors seem fine in their roles, and others are jarringly in-apt, if not inept. I want to like this performance, but I keep being distracted by the clunky manners of some these players. Also, the timing and verbal phrasing is often odd, even among the better actors, as if they were speaking lines from Ionesco, or another translated "absurdist" work. Saroyan is closer to lyric poetry than to absurdism. There are casting problems with the James Cagney version that he stars in, too, but he and his sister nail the poetic qualities of their lines--check out that film version from 1948, available for a pittance.
Summary of William Saroyan's The Time of Your Life (Broadway Theatre Archive)
William Saroyan's Pulitzer Prize-winning play revolves around the denizens of a San Francisco bar in 1939. Lonely, lovelorn, weary or cynical, the characters drift in and out of the bar and each other's lives, giving voice to Saroyan's philosophies as they randomly comment about the impending world war, the beauty of art, and traditional notions of good and evil. At least one of the relationships stands a chance of enduring: a brawny innocent named Tom is falling in love with a vulnerable young prostitute named Kitty. Saroyan himself is heard reciting the play's prologue.Presented by John Houseman's Acting Company and originally broadcast on PBS, this 1976 production of William Saroyan's The Time of Your Life was endorsed by the playwright, who provided its voice-over prologue. That's enough to recommend this production, but Saroyan's approval is only one measure of the production's success. Written in 1935 and winner of the Pulitzer Prize (which Saroyan refused to accept), the play captures the mixture of melancholy and hope that emerged between the Great Depression and World War II. Among the denizens of Nick's Bar in San Francisco, Joe (played with rich subtlety by Nicholas Surovy) best embodies the tenacious optimism that Nick's regulars adopt as a defense against a cold, cruel world. They're self-deluding but likable survivors, and Patti LuPone is at her heartbreaking best as two-dollar whore Kitty Duvall. That's 29-year-old Kevin Kline doing fine work in a brief appearance, joining these downtrodden dreamers who, in Saroyan's world, become heroes of the heart. --Jeff Shannon
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