Belltown Messenger - Gillian G. Gaar's Mondo Culture-O

Greetings! My copy of Vanishing Seattle (Arcadia Publishing) by our esteemed Messenger editor finally arrived, after being on back order for some weeks. As a struggling author myself, I bought Clark's book instead of asking for a review copy. It's a terrific collection of photos of all kinds of venues and signs from back in the day; if you're a longtime Seattle resident, you're sure to feel nostalgic.

Got a nice email from Larry Reid thanking me for my plugs of the Fantagraphics Bookstore in Georgetown. Well, thanks. Certainly it's an establishment working checking out, particularly when they have an opening. Most recently, I attended the "Filthy Beasts" opening, a book release/exhibition of Jim Blanchard's Beasts and Priests, and CD release of the DT's album Filthy Habits. The DT's lead singer, Diana, is Blanchard's wife, by the way, and boy can she belt it out! There was free beer too, so much fun was had by all. Then caught two shows by Rain, Beatles impersonators extraordinaire, who took over the Paramount for four nights. Great fun, as the band covers the entire span of the band's career, and works in a few anti-war references as well. After one show was lucky enough to join the group at their hotel bar where they were chatting with yet another group of Beatles impersonators, The Fab Four, who'd flown in for a charity event.

And now, a chat with Michael York, who's currently in our fair city, starring as King Arthur in Camelot at the 5th Avenue Theatre (running through 4/8). It's a touring production, which will have York traveling until July. "That was one of the attractions of doing this," he explains. "It was a chance to get to see America. But it's tiring! Eight shows a week, plus flying, often on what's laughingly called the 'day off.'"

It's also the first musical where York gets to sing, as in Cabaret and Lost Horizon. he didn't. "I was the great non-singing star of musicals," he jokes. But as he points out, the original Arthur on Broadway, Richard Burton, was also primarily an actor. "It's a great actor's role," York explains. "And the songs that Arthur has fit very comfortably in the actor's range. It's like My Fair Lady; if Henry Higgins was sounding like Pavarotti, it would sound terrible. But that wonderful sort of irritated sing-speaking that he does through it is great. And it's the same way with Arthur."

York's first major film performance was with Burton in The Taming of the Shrew, which also starred Elizabeth Taylor, putting York in close contact with the high-voltage celebrity couple of the day. "It was fairly amazing, I can tell you that!" he says. "Because they were, we forget, theatrical gods that destroyed the world! Their quarters-you can't even dignify them with the word 'dressing room'-was this suite of rooms carpeted in dazzling white carpet, with butlers and maids on hand. But they were very kind to me. At the end of filming, they sent a photograph to me in a silver frame, engraved, 'Dear Michael, you will tread greater boards than this. If not, we want to know the reason why.'"

Cabaret was the most heralded of the musicals York's appeared in (of the campy Lost Horizon he says, "The film is worshipped in Brazil, I'm told. Now, go figure!"). "The first time I watched Cabaret, I thought, 'My God, this is the best edited movie I've ever seen,'" he recalls. And was director Bob Fosse as intense as he seemed? "Yes, he was. That's what made him so interesting. There was never a wasted moment. And it was quite clear he had a vision. It was only after the film came out that the whole Fosse legend came into focus. At the time, he was under the gun, because his earlier film [Sweet Charity] had not worked particularly well. And yet he stuck to his vision. I think all the actors loved him for this, though he must've driven the producers mad."

Camelot's Seattle run has York in town for three weeks, and he plans check out the city's other cultural offerings ("I try to go to at least one museum a week"). Purists should note the show is a revised version, with lyricist Alan Jay Lerner's daughter and son involved, "So it had the stamp of authenticity about it," says York. "Obviously, the show works; you can't take liberties with it. But it was revised to make a version that was particularly relevant for our times.

"The message of Camelot is one worth hearing, right now. These are pretty gray, leaderless times. And it posits this wonderful idealistic form of government; it was a brief shining moment, but it was shining, nonetheless. And I just thought it was a great message to have at this time, with Arthur's saying lines like violence is not strength and compassion is not weakness, for example."

And who can argue with that?