Chapter 285： Legend of Movie History

Joseph’s "excitement" was naturally blocked from coming back. It was three quarters of an hour before the start of "Major Issue", and the previous performance was still in progress. The ticket inspector at the "door" naturally couldn't let Joseph in. He could only touch his nose to dust. After sitting outside and waiting for a long time, the previous performance was over, and the cleaning staff also signaled that the venue was cleaned up, and then Joseph and Hugo couldn't wait to walk in.

The two people walked up the stairs to the second floor and found their place in the VIP box. At this time, the entire theater was empty. There was no one except the staff who were pulling up the stage curtain. The huge center of the theater was huge. The chandelier pushes the'milk' yellow' light to the entire theater space, and the surrounding small light bulbs cast a lazy halo to dissipate the darkness in the corner.

Hugo sat in his seat and looked at every corner of the theater carefully. It is hard to imagine that there was still noisy and prosperous fifteen minutes ago, and the heat left in the air gradually settled down after the show, and fell into an ethereal silence. . As the performance time approached, people began to walk in one after another. Since Hugo and the others bought VIP seats on the second floor, they could watch the noise below from a high level.

I don't know if it's because the "major issue" is not a world-famous show, so not many tourists come to watch the scene, but more are local audiences in costumes. Although after entering the 21st century, Broadway has gradually declined in the face of various forms of entertainment offensives such as cinemas and the Internet, but the 1990s is still the golden age of Broadway, and the upper-class aristocrats in New York all appreciate a brilliant show I am proud of his theatrical performances, and I am very happy to join in on Broadway Avenue. Even opera and drama are juxtaposed as the most solemnly invited representatives on a date. Therefore, even if there are no tourists, it is not surprising to see local audiences coming to watch the drama.

However, the attendance rate on the scene is really disappointing. The theater is not big, with a maximum capacity of about 300 people, but at this time it is not even half full, and at this time there are only five left before the official start of the repertoire. Minutes away. No wonder Hugo and Joseph were able to buy ‘door’ tickets just now.

"Why are there so few people?" Joseph frowned and asked in a low voice. He obviously couldn't understand the withering scene before him.

If you ask Hugo this question before the Golden Globes, he would probably be puzzled, but now Hugo understands one thing. There is no immortal popularity, even if he is a famous artist. , That's just a title in the history book, and it doesn't have any appeal to the younger generation. Katherine Hepburn is obviously like that.

In 1982, the 75-year-old Catherine won the Oscar for the fourth time for her performance in "Golden Color Pond". After that, although Catherine still has film works, she has gradually faded out of the big screen. She only appeared in two TV movies after 1985. On the one hand, she was facing very serious health problems because of the increase in her age, and on the other hand, because she put all her own'essence' on the stage. On the play.

Stage play is where Catherine started, and now it will also be the end of her career as an actress.

"Because no one knows that Catherine will appear in this performance." Hugo said with a little regret and disappointed. He just learned that Catherine was due to health problems for a month or two during a chat with the ticket inspector of the theater. Only a few times in May will appear on the stage in the "Major Issue" play, and every Broadway play has at least three casts to maintain normal performances, so it is difficult to know when she will appear.

"Yes, but she is Catherine Hepburn! Why no reporter knows!" Joseph still felt very indignant. It can be seen that his liking for Catherine is the kind of worship from the heart. Although Joseph did not say, Hugo speculated that perhaps Joseph became an agent because of Catherine's influence.

"Because this is the entertainment industry, the entertainment industry that loves the new and dislikes the old." Hugo sighed for a long time. When an artist lacks sufficient exposure, it is easy to disappear from people's sight and even be forgotten by people. , Even a generation of superstars like Catherine are like this, not to mention those mediocre "flower" bottles. "Actually, even if you know that Catherine will appear, there are not too many people willing to come. This is a'major problem', not a'cat'."

Joseph fell into silence when he heard Hugo's last words. He was like this just now. The first reaction was to watch "cats" instead of "major issues", and other audiences must be the same. Moreover, Catherine has spent the most glorious 50 years of her career as an actress, and the sharp decline in attention has really made her lose her previous appeal.

In fact, the drama "Major Issues" was first staged on Broadway in 1976, and was suspended after a year. Now 15 years later, some smaller theaters on Broadway will have experimental ‘sex’ performances, and a month’s schedule is only three shows. These news were all inquired by Hugo when he was chatting with the ticket inspectors, so Hugo was mentally prepared for the bleak attendance rate before him.

But even so, Hugo sighed when he really saw it. Not only was Joseph aggrieved, he was even more so, because Hugo seemed to see that this was his future, but at the same time he was very curious, since he knew that there would be such a treatment, why was Catherine unwilling to give up? Vaguely, Hugo felt that he knew the answer, but he couldn't sort out a thought.

The performance is about to begin. The lights of the chandeliers have been turned off, but the seats in the venue are still 1/3 empty. It seems that filling all the seats is an impossible task.

Hugo patted Joseph on the shoulder, "The performance is about to begin."

Joseph took a deep breath, condensed all his mixed thoughts, and focused all his attention on the performance that was about to begin.

Soon, the heavy red "color" curtain was opened, and Catherine, dressed in a white "color" long gown, black "color" gold silk coat and long gown, walked onto the stage with a cane, which immediately made the audience sound. Warm applause. This legend in American film history is still active on stage at the age of eighty-five years old. This incident is a miracle in itself, although Catherine's slow and slightly staggered steps can tell that she is bad. In her physical condition, the audience still expressed their support for her with applause.

This is a very simple story about Mrs. Bazel living in her own single-room mansion in Oxford, but her peaceful life is broken by her grandson Nick and his four companions, as well as a new kitchen. The butler discovered an unexplainable mysterious event in this house. The appearance of these miracles made Mrs. Bazel into a bewilderment. She began to question her lifelong belief: Does God really exist?

Naturally, Catherine played Mrs. Bazell, and to Hugo’s surprise, it was Christopher Reeve who played the grandson Nick, a handsome actor who is famous all over the world for his role as "superman." After he became famous, he responded to Catherine's call and appeared on the small stage of Broadway, which was indeed a huge surprise.

In Catherine’s career as an actress, her bizarre and crazy comedy qualities, extraordinary wit, and humor have always been talked about. Now standing on the Broadway stage, she has carried forward this relaxed comedy performance and made the audience laugh. The sound keeps on.

About one third of the time when the performance started, a group of people sat down in the VIP seat on Hugo's left. In the darkness, Hugo could not see the other side clearly. He only knew that it was a large group of people. Five or six people. There was a small noise when they were seated. One of them took the top hat off his head and bowed slightly to apologize to Hugo. Hugo just nodded slightly to show that he didn't mind, and then turned his attention. Received it back.

Sitting in a Broadway theater to watch a performance is a very magical thing. The small theater is designed with echo structure, so that the voice of the actors can be surrounded by their ears, although due to the distance of the stage, Hugo must be equipped with VIP seats. Only the telescopes of Japan can clearly see the performance on the stage, but this kind of rushing performance form is really shocking.

Especially watching Catherine performing at the scene so close, this experience is even more special. Hugo can clearly feel that Catherine relies more on changes in body language to convey emotions-this is also caused by the speciality of the Broadway stage. , And through the binoculars to observe the changes in Catherine’s expression at close range Hugo only knows what it means to be natural. Every smile, every move is like this. The charm formed by gestures is in the line of sight. It keeps zooming in, so that the beating of the heart unknowingly changes with the dramatic changes on the stage.

This is a completely different feeling from watching a movie. The lifelike sense of reality gives everything a magical power, which makes Hugo happily laugh and applaud, although the audience on the scene is not There are many, but they are obviously professional audiences who really understand the drama. Everyone’s reactions are highly consistent, as if there are more than two hundred friends who have "made" friends to watch together. The common preferences make the scene "flowers" clustered. , It's so lively.

So when the first half of the performance was over and entering the intermission, Hugo did not react at all, and wondered, "Why did it suddenly close? Isn't the performance not over yet?" He was obviously enjoying it, completely unaware of it. The passage of time.

Joseph also sighed fascinatedly at this time, "It's so'exquisite'! It's so'exquisite'!" So he didn't hear Hugo's question at all, but just looked at the stage reluctantly. The closed red'color' curtain.

As a result, a voice came from Hugo’s left hand side and explained, “This is only the first half. The actors need to make adjustments before starting the second half of the show.”