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DVD William Saroyan's The Time of Your Life (Broadway Theatre Archive)
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
Review(s): DVD William Saroyan's The Time of Your Life (Broadway Theatre Archive)
What's the dream?
Saroyan's best play, written in a week in 1939, brings both the color and foreboding of that period vividly to life. By turns funny and heartbreaking, the play manages to extract the poignancy of the human experience from the seemingly chaotic comings-and-goings of a shaggy collection of tavern denizens, led by "Joe." If you're not moved or amused by the events that transpire on a late afternoon in Nick's Entertainment Palace, then you really haven't lived enough. Boring this play is not.
Time of your Life...Not while watching this DVD
I am sorry to say that I was very much let down when I first watched this DVD. I think that the story line is just boring. The fact that they filmed it without an audience makes it lose something. The only reason to own this DVD is if you are a huge Patti LuPone fan. But even she is not at her best here. I would pass this one up if I were you.
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