Newspaper Article

THEATER; A place at the table with some '30s luminaries; Mark Saltzman tries to imagine what was said at a tense Hollywood luncheon for George Bernard Shaw

Boehm, Mike

2003

Overview

In one scene, [Mark Saltzman] imagined [George Bernard Shaw] tweaking [Louis B. Mayer] with the suggestion that MGM film \"Saint Joan\" with Shirley Temple as Joan of Arc. Then Nicolas Coster, who plays Shaw, brought in a book of interviews by his journalist father, Ian Coster. There was Shaw wisecracking in real life about Temple being ripe to play the Egyptian queen in his \"Caesar and Cleopatra.\" Saltzman's account of Shaw's visit to MGM provides a jumping-off point for much satire about the movie business, all of it as germane to 2003 as to 1933. Shaw -- dryly -- and [John Barrymore] -- drunkenly -- expatiate on how Hollywood lucre corrupts artistry. Jokes about the lowly lot of the screenwriter abound. But Saltzman, whose own screenwriting credits include the animal story \"The Adventures of Milo and Otis\" (1986) and \"Mrs. Santa Claus,\" a 1996 TV musical starring Angela Lansbury, keeps the commentary light and resists any temptation to portray media potentates Mayer and [William Randolph Hearst] as heavies. \"I have no ax to grind,\" he says. \"I just kept my head down and wrote what I found.\" Saltzman must proceed without Arnold Glassman, his domestic partner of 23 years, who died of cancer on Feb. 19. Glassman, 56, was a documentary filmmaker whose credits include co-directing \"Visions of Light,\" a lauded 1992 account of the development of cinematography. Saltzman says Glassman was an astute guide while he was researching \"Mr. Shaw Goes to Hollywood,\" his first nonmusical play. \"I knew he was going to love this play, and I made it a gift to him.\"

• Publisher: Los Angeles Times Communications LLC
• Subject: Henning, Daniel / Mr. Shaw Goes to Hollywood / Saltzman, Mark / Shaw, George Bernard (1856-1950) / Theater