Broadway to Hollywood - Showtime in America

Thank Heavens For Revivals

Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing? Where have all the writers gone, long time ago? When old becomes new and new is a rehash of old, is it any wonder the list of Broadway revivals and Hollywood makeovers is the NeverEnding Story?

Actor Ewan McGregor makes me weak in the knees, but is there a reason why Tom Stoppard's 1982 marital drama The Real Thing (with McGregor) is returning to Broadway in October 2014 for the third time? After 20 years, Glenn Close is back on Broadway in A Delicate Balance which debuted in 1967. Bradley Cooper is reviving the 1977 drama, The Elephant Man. The hilarious You Can't Take it With You debuted in December 1936! Re-Opening this month at the Longacre Theatre, it's huge cast equals more jobs. Broadway's longest running show, The Phantom of The Opera opened in 1988; you can still see it at the Majestic Theatre. Both Fiddler On The Roof and The King and I are slated for 2015. Can The Music Man be far behind? Thank heavens for the writing talent of the 20th century. Recalling the song I HOPE I GET IT from A Chorus Line, "I need this job. I really need this job."

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

In the present economy, if a rising tide lifts all boats, what does the opposite do? Does Hollywood have the right stuff for another installment of Star Wars (Episode 7), Indiana Jones(5)?Is a potential Oscar winner sitting in a dreary room eating take-out while writing his or her groundbreaking screenplay for Avatar(2)? As Netflix rakes it in with oldies, Hollywood's best are tailored to teenage boys, and comic book special effects devoid of anything fresh in human drama or comedy. So, what's an actor to do? Jobs are scarce in the entertainment business. When eating out in New York City chances are your waiter or waitress is a Julie Andrews wannabe, or Hugh Jackman hopeful-hopeful they won't have to return to Boise, heartbroken. Ergo, when veterans like James Earl Jones and Elizabeth Ashley can't find work, what's an actor to do? They can take it with them-all the way to the Longacre on BROADWAY!

Some Boomer Demographics

By 2015, those aged 50 and older will represent 45% of the U.S. population (American Association of Retired Persons). By 2030, the 65-plus population will double to about 71.5 million, and by 2050 will grow to 86.7 million people (U.S. Census). Adults 50 and older now own 65% of the aggregate net worth of all U.S. households (U.S. Consumer Expenditure Survey). Entertainment cannot be exclusively geared to one genre-The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, or the highly successful PBS television series Downton Abbey. But there's a vast audience to be counted among the living; and large number of unemployed talent. Do we need another Irving Berlin to tell us "there's no business like show business?"

According to a Government Accountability Office study released last year, workers 55 and older experience consistently longer periods of unemployment than younger workers. Without cosmetic reconstruction, it's especially difficult for older female performers, or network news anchors. If Barbara Walters looked like Sixty Minutes warhorse Morley Safer, would the octogenarian just retired broadcast journalist have withstood the rigors of her male-dominated profession? Former ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer was 'the last woman standing.'

The Man From Malpaso

Riding into the sunset of history, 84-year-old Clint Eastwood is the atypical Hollywood mogul. With few duds in his resume, can he be "Forgiven" for, according to critics, his latest Jersey Boys? Spaghetti westerns and Dirty Harry made it possible for the multi-talented actor-director to make some of the most original films for adults in the history of cinema: the mystical Pale Rider, the inventive Letters From Iwo Jima, which isn't even in English.

White Hunter Black Heart, the story of the making of The African Queen, is an underrated masterpiece, with the real life s.o.b. director Eastwood playing the role of the former larger than life s.o.b. director John Huston. From the romantic Bridges of Madison County to the racist curmudgeon in Gran Torino, Clint Eastwood is the epitome off "fresh." The late Roger Ebert said it best. "The idiosyncratic director, the jazz-loving filmmaker and composer, the master of cinema and winner of two best picture Oscars. What is the thread that draws him through his life? I think there are two threads: Intelligence, and an instinct for the cinema that has compelled him toward ever more ambitious projects. He just gets better."

Where Fresh is Absent, It Just Gets Worse - A Wasteland Called Television

Notwithstanding Public Broadcasting, for a substantial monthly bill bundled with internet access, I'm rewarded with programming I never watch, including network news which, after the headlines, delivers fifty shades of gossip peppered with commercials. HBO and other paid programming attempt to be different from and better than conventional television. At the very least they provide more jobs. But think what a positive impact conventional television could have on the education of America's children (and adults). The possibilities are limitless and our lowly paid teachers would benefit. Factoring in varied localities in the United States, the average salary of a high school teacher is $57,770. Average entry-level for a hedge fund manager: $335,000.

A colossal waste of a medium that came of age after radio, television never mined the infinite depths of the imagination like its older relative. By mid-twentieth century, television had moved away from reporting and analysis of the news (Murrow, Sevareid, Cronkite) to reading from a teleprompter, show-biz, sponsors and riches. Away from writers like Paddy Chayefsky and Larry David, David Chase, James L. Brooks, Vince Gilligan. Where are the offspring of those imaginative, wacky Saturday Night Live writers who didn't need to be sardonic to make us laugh? Are we the reflection of our times, or are the times the mirror of our consciousness?

"We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures." ---Thornton Wilder

The past is history... the future never happened. See my website http://www.susanscharfman.com "Written On The Winds" - An eclectic collection of articles on living your authentic self 100% in the present.

My novel, The Sword & the Chrysanthemum, Journey of the Heart is an historical allegory of a spiritual journey and forbidden love in 17th century Japan. Now available on KINDLE.
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