To the previous post, I would like to append the thought that maybe it is time to get rid of employer-paid health plans. They burden business and they also make it difficult for people to change jobs. I just think we shouldn't get rid of them by making them more expensive to the insured…and of course, there has to be a way that people can get health insurance and still be able to eat.
Last night, I went to see a production of the musical Seesaw. It was out in Glendale, staged by the Musical Theater Guild, a fine organization of talented folks. They put on these shows, reviving old musicals for only a couple of nights, and they did a great job with this one. My buddy Eydie Alison was electric in the starring role of Gittel, originated on Broadway by Michele Lee.
In introductory remarks, the head of the MTG said that the book for Seesaw (based on the play by William Gibson and credited to choreographer-director Michael Bennett) was largely ghost-rewritten by Neil Simon. This is apparently widely-known, and much of it certainly sounds like Mr. Simon…or someone who's very, very funny in the same way. However, in his autobiography, while Simon does acknowledge a ghost "punch-up" job for Bennett's A Chorus Line, he says not one word about Seesaw. Which makes me wonder how much, if any, he wrote or why he doesn't claim credit now. Steven Suskin's book Second Act Trouble, which is all about plays that underwent drastic rewrites before Broadway, quotes composer Cy Coleman as saying that Simon made lots of suggestions but didn't rewrite one line of dialogue. This is hard to believe. Does anyone know for sure what he did? And why he's silent on the topic when he seems a little bitter that his contributions to Chorus Line are so unknown?
I just looked at the time in the system tray and I have to get to bed. Good night, Internet. See you right back here on my computer in the morning.