Talk:John Uecker

"Vidal had been given the manuscript in its new, final form for production approval. . Vidal compared the Uecker version in structure and content to Williams' play Camino Real in an interview on C-Span in 2009 [THIS IS NOT TRUE - Vidal mentions no particular version of the play whatsoever in the interview; in fact, he says that the play was "in quite good shape", which may allude to the state the play was in when Williams last worked on it. Whatever the case, this reference in no way supports this claim and is too vague to corroborate anything]. ."

This matter of opinion has been brought over here to the "discussion" section.

I write to clarify. Here is what is true to the naive viewer:

In the C-SPAN statement Mr. Vidal says the play was in "...quite good shape...a bit like Camino Real." The reference which is to the C-SPAN video provides a corroborating, unadulterated video/audio presentation of that statement. The claim emerges from Vidal's statement (the claim being written after Mr. Vidal spoke on C-SPAN, not before.) The only assertion here which is not substantiated is whether Mr. Vidal refers to the Uecker version of the play, and that question is warranted and apparently open to further discussion, evidence and debate.

In earlier statements to the press which evidently require further illumination in this article, and perhaps I'll add a separate section on Masks, Mr. Vidal says that there were only a dozen or so pages of the play in its original form.

So again, the naive viewer can correctly infer that something occurred between the Williams original draft of the work, which was short, and not produceable (for commercial viability, anyway, having read it myself and agreeing with Mr. Vidals' earlier statement) and the draft which Mr. Vidal alludes to, which is a play called "In Masks Outrageous and Austere" allegedly in "quite good shape."

There are other differences. The original play was a farce or comedy with a fat drunk wealthy woman at odds with her obviously gay lover and situation in life. The version to which Mr. Vidal refers later is "a bit like Camino Real" which is obviously not in the same genre, an obviously important point a seasoned reader and expert on Williams' work might illuminate in a casual statement in order to draw analogy and inference to the work. It was a play the University of the South, which is in charge of the Estate, apparently presented to Mr. Vidal. So at some point between the original play, and the play that Mr. Vidal refers to, it may be inferred that a new play was written, unless one is willing to assume that Mr. Vidal is lying about one, the other, or both, which apparently the reader is not willing to assume, it may be assumed that there are two versions of this play in existence and both are proven by statements Mr. Vidal made publicly.

The original version is at Columbia University. The later version comparable to Camino Real is apparently at the University of the South.

—Preceding unsigned comment added by Ian McGrady (talk • contribs) 22:45, 10 October 2009 (UTC) --

here is related text of the article which alludes to the earlier version:

Gore Vidal at one point allegedly had completed work on Masks Outrageous and Austere, an unfinished Tennessee Williams play.

The New York Post said Cybill Shepherd might star in a Broadway production to be directed by Peter Bogdanovich.

Vidal said to the Post, "Tennessee left about ten pages of the play behind when he died. You could tell where he was going with it. I've tried to get the best of him because I think it's a very good play."

Vidal did not tell the plot of Masks Outrageous, but a source told the Post that the work is about a billionairess, the role that will be played by Shepherd, as well as her "gay husband and young male lover."

As reported in this cited article, the play has variously been reported over the years as having the titles Masks Outrageous, and In Masks Outrageous and Austere, and it was apparently written in the late 1970s or early '80s around the time of Williams' final Broadway production, Clothes for a Summer Hotel (1980).

That a major Williams' play has remained unproduced is not unique to this play. Not About Nightingales, an early Williams' work, was revived in London and then moved to Broadway, where it was directed by Trevor Nunn and was Tony Award-nominated for Best New Play in 1999.

Williams, author of A Streetcar Named Desire, The Rose Tattoo, The Glass Menagerie and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, died in 1983.

Vidal's other work for Broadway includes Romulus, Weekend and An Evening with Richard Nixon and. . . The upcoming new musical A Catered Affair is based on the Vidal film "The Catered Affair" (and the original teleplay by Paddy Chayefsky).

(talk • contribs) 15:11, 9 October 2009 (UTC)