Presented by Bill Kenright Ltd. – The Old Vic, London – September 1985
Character: Carlton Fitzgerald
The action of the play is set in the living room of Irene Livingstone’s suite in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Act I:
- 5.30pm
Act II:
- 11.45pm that evening
Act III:
- 3.30am
Light Up The Sky had all but disappeared from most theatrical memories by the time this production was staged, which was all the more strange when you consider who it was vaguely about: in there were characters owing more than a little to Billy Rose, Gertrude Lawrence and Nöel Coward, and though as a ‘greasepaint comedy’ it lacked the brilliant energy inventiveness of ‘The Man Who Came To Dinner, which had been written by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman a decade earlier, it was based on a much greater reality about the great bloody awfulness of being in Boston with a tricky play and an even trickier leading lady.
For the staging of this staging, Bill Kenwright and his director, Keith Hack, assembled a magnificent cast, Peter Wyngarde, who was positively oozing with over-the-top theatricality as the director, Carlton Fitzgerald, who always cries at his own rehearsals and with reason; Hannah Gordon as the icy star, Irene Livingstone; Maxine Audley as Stella Livingstone – her dragon of a mother (“I saw the show last night and cut down my Christmas list!”); Gary Waldhorn as Owen Turner – the cynical, Cowardly older playwright, and Robert Morse as the ice show promoter – desperate to stick a Roman candle in the tired face of showbiz.
There were some wonderful Broadway exchanges: “I wouldn’t let him put on a girdle for me, much less a play!”, and plenty of backstage wisdom: “You want to get even with a producer? You get him to do Ibsen!”
But the real fascination with ‘Light Up The Sky’ was that it came from the author’s heart… and then perhaps through his clenched teeth. Perhaps, in the end, this play was about morality in the theatre, just as The Front Page was about the morality of journalism. And though Kaufman might have doctored the final act and thereby given the theatre a classic farce, what Hart had given the audience was a lot more about his attitude to the American theatre where he lived.
Kate O’Mara also appeared in the play as Frances Black.
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