9/8/2023 0 Comments Victor victoriaToddy makes the mistake of trying to help a destitute soprano named Victoria who has come to audition and an enraged Labisse fires him and tosses them both out on the street. Business isn’t exactly booming and, when Toddy insults a group of customers, including his old flame, Richard, he is threatened with immediate dismissal by the club’s extremely high-strung owner, Labisse. In Chez Lui, a gay club on the Left Bank of Paris, Carroll Todd is holding court (PARIS BY NIGHT). The production closed on 27 July 1997, running for a total of 734 performances. The original Broadway production opened on 25 October 1995 and was directed by Blake Edwards, with choreogrpahy by Rob Marshall. Music by Henry Mancini (Music for TRUST ME, PARIS MAKES ME HORNY, LOUIS SAYS and LIVING IN THE SHADOWS by Frank Wildhorn Music for WHO CAN I TELL? by LEslie Bricusse). To myself, or anyone.Book by Blake Edwards based on his 1981 film Victor/Victoria. Victor: One that doesn’t have to prove it. I think it’s as simple as you’re one kind of man, I’m another. Marchand, is that you’re preoccupied with stereotypes. There’s even an early scene between Victor and the excessively manly King Marchand (played by the excessively manly James Garner), where Marchand attempts to intimidate Victor into admitting that he is actually a woman in drag. The screenplay was adapted by Julie Andrews’ husband, Blake Edwards, who also directed the film.Ī cynical person might not buy the premise of Julie Andrews, unquestionably feminine as she is, playing a role of an androgynous male drag performer (or “a woman playing a man playing a woman” in the film’s own words), but Andrews’ portrayal of “Victor” is convincing when you take half a step back and look at it from the standpoint that Victor is a man because he says he is. Victor/Victoria was based on the 1933 German film Viktor und Viktoria, which I haven’t seen, so I can’t make any specific comparisons between the two films and whether one is intrinsically better than the other. ![]() And it has one of the best on-screen couples ever, Julie Andrews and Robert Preston, whose chemistry is delightfully cozy as straight woman and gay man teaming up against the heteronormative world of the 1930s. It damn near is better than any other film out there at addressing the fluid dynamics of gender identity, gay, straight, cis, trans, and everyone in between. There are some minor aspects to the film’s plot that, if it were made today, could probably be handled with a little more sensitivity, but otherwise, Victor/Victoria holds up. ![]() I’m relieved to report that pretty much didn’t happen. And considering the plot of Victor/Victoria broaches not only the topics of homosexuality, transgenderism, and feminism, it also is a slapstick-y comedy, there was a part of me that was watching through my mental fingers, waiting for the moment when some awful statement about sexuality or gender identity would explode forth and ruin my childhood memories entirely. It had been probably a good 20 years since I had last seen it, but it had been on heavy rotation throughout my childhood, so while I remembered it fondly, I also remembered how much I’ve remembered loving other films as a kid only to realize how many reprehensible themes they contained as an adult. Will they hold up under the cold, cynical eye of adulthood? What terrible prejudices lurk therein, waiting to be discovered with cringing horror when you what realize racism/sexism/homophobia was flying under the radar 20, 30, 40 years ago? I’m not going to lie, I was more than a little worried when I decided to re-watch Victor/Victoria (1982) for this post. Going back to watch your childhood favorite films is always fraught.
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