Courting Mae West

The play "COURTING MAE WEST: Sex, Censorship & Secrets" is based on true events during the 1920s when actress MAE WEST was arrested and jailed in New York City for trying to stage two gay plays on Broadway. Maybe she broke the law - - but the LAW couldn't break HER!

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Thursday, July 24, 2008

Joe Franklin on Mae West

Joe Franklin has always enjoyed MAE WEST. During 1951 — 1999, when he was the host of television's first talk show "Joe Franklin's Memory Lane," the king of nostalgia invited Mae West to be featured six times on his popular program broadcast from New York City on WABC-TV and on WOR-TV.
• • In 2005, Joe Franklin enjoyed seeing scenes from Courting Mae West — — and this month he had a chance to get acquainted with the current cast when he popped in on a performance at the Kaufman Theatre [123 East 24th Street] on Monday 21 July 2008.
• • Before coming to the play, Joe Franklin plugged the show during the "Potpourri" section of his broadcast on Bloomberg Radio.
• • Here's Joe Franklin during Intermission, enjoying some refreshments. "With her whip cracking dialogue," Joe Franklin told theatre manager Mark Sportiello, "the playwright shows she is as much of a word jockey as Mae West."
• • An expert on vaudeville and a member of a prestigious sheet music society, Joe Franklin is no stranger to the lawless decade — — the Prohibition Era — — when Courting Mae West takes place.
• • According to Joe Franklin, what he enjoys about this serious-minded comedy is the sense that what happens in Act I and Act II is spontaneous and yet inevitable. And he enjoys the characters: the ambitious women and the complex, lovable scoundrels around them.
• • Joe Franklin was completely mesmerized by the star of Courting Mae West — — Yvonne Sayers, who relished the opportunity to play such a unique woman in American history.
• •
"She's a high-wattage actress," said Franklin. "She has the skill to keep her performance as acting and not an impersonation of Mae West."
• • A lifelong theatre buff, Joe Franklin has seen many performers try to portray Mae and fail. "I feel that, ultimately, you have to love the individual you are playing. You have to have a certain feeling. You have to have passion for the person. I can see that Yvonne Sayers is the type who prepared for the part by trying to understand why Mae did what she did, defending it, and getting behind it."
• • According to Joe Franklin, Yvonne Sayers is destined for stardom. "She's got what it takes — — just like Mae."
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• • Photo: Mae West
cast • • Yvonne Sayers [illustration] • •
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • author of "Courting Mae West" with Joe Franklin and Mae • •

Mae West.

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Sunday, June 15, 2008

Mae West: Friday the 13th

Joe Franklin has always enjoyed MAE WEST. During 1951 — 1999, when he was the host of television's first talk show "Joe Franklin's Memory Lane," the king of nostalgia invited Mae West to be featured six times on his popular program broadcast from New York City on WABC-TV and on WOR-TV.
• • In 2005, Joe Franklin enjoyed seeing scenes from Courting Mae West — — and this week he had a chance to get acquainted with the current cast when he popped in on a dress rehearsal in Times Square on Friday the 13th [13 June 2008].
• • Here's Joe Franklin posing with Mae West, Texas Guinan, and the gang.
• • An expert on vaudeville and a member of a prestigious sheet music society, Joe Franklin is no stranger to the lawless decade — — the Prohibition Era — — when Courting Mae West takes place.
• • According to Joe Franklin, what he enjoys about this serious-minded comedy is the sense that what happens in Act I and Act II is spontaneous and yet inevitable. And he enjoys the characters: the ambitious women and the complex, lovable scoundrels around them.
• • Joe Franklin also admires the work of director Louis Lopardi, who chose the play Courting Mae West for its sensual appeal that comes from the quickening warmth of real life events dramatized with stirring artistic form.
• • On Friday the 13th, scenes from this play were filmed for European television.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • "COURTING MAE WEST" opens at 6 o'clock on Saturday night July 19, 2008 at the Algonquin Theatre [East 24th Street and Park Avenue South].
• •
"COURTING MAE WEST" — — showtimes
• • July 19th, 2008 — — 6:00 PM
• • July 20th, 2008 — — 2:00 PM matinee
• • July 21st, 2008 — — 6:00 PM
• • July 22nd, 2008 — — 9:00 PM
• • Tickets to "COURTING MAE WEST" are $18 per adult.
• •
Theatermania.com sells the tickets — — http://www.theatermania.com/content/show.cfm/show/144297
• • Questions? Phone 212-779-3051.
• • The play is 95 minutes.
• • Get ready to come up and see Mae onstage in mid-July 2008.
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• • Photo: Mae West in rehearsal
• • 13 June 2008 • •

Mae West.

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Friday, February 15, 2008

Author! Author!

I wrote the story myself. It's about a girl who lost her reputation and never missed it. — — Mae West
• • Native New Yorker LindaAnn Loschiavo is a journalist and dramatist caught in the spell of a courthouse with Verdi-worthy villains rising up against an actress who climbed the ladder of success wrong by wrong. True events that took place during the Prohibition Era in Jefferson Market's judicial chambers inspired an engaging work, Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets. The storyline uses specifics of Mae West's life to explore issues that still resonate today such as censorship, gay rights, celebrity, and the news media. A regular contributor to several newspapers and magazines, Loschiavo insists that some of her witticisms are not to be lightly tossed aside but rather shaken and stirred. Currently, she's also at work on a museum exhibition: "Mae West's New York, 1899 — 1959."
• • What others are saying:
• • "Loschiavo is a comic Dante, capturing human weakness and balancing tragedy and high hilarity in her dialogue." — — Mario Fratti, "Nine," Tony Award winner
• • "With her whip cracking one-liners, the playwright shows she is as much of a word jockey as Mae West." — — Steve Rossi
• • "In Courting Mae West, we have a sassy, beleaguered Mae West who can keep an audience not just on her side but in her lap." — — Joe Franklin
• • "Fortunately, Mae West was also a flotation device. If no backers materialize, there's always a USO tour!" — — Joe Piscopo

• • Get ready to come up and see Mae onstage during July 2008.
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• • Photo: Courting Mae West
• • Maebill • •

Mae West.

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