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A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum (1962 Original Broadway Cast) $5.79 “Tragedy tomorrow, comedy tonight!” With that song, one of the most famous opening numbers ever, the brilliant career of Stephen Sondheim as a Broadway composer and lyricist was born. Sondheim had written lyrics for the classics West Side Story and Gypsy, but he wanted to compose as well, and after 1954’s Saturday Night was derailed, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962) gave him h… |
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A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1996 Broadway Revival Cast) $8.52 A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, the first Broadway show for which Stephen Sondheim wrote both music and lyrics, has proven to be one of the master’s most enduring creations, appearing in community theaters and, in 1996, in this full-scale Broadway revival. In the role of the scheming slave Pseudolous, Tony-winner Nathan Lane isn’t the maelstorm that was Zero Mostel in the 1962 orig… |
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Sondheim – A Celebration at Carnegie Hall (1992 Concert Cast) $12.26 … |
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Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge [Blu-ray] $12.83 Original Yashraj Films Blu-ray Disc… |
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Sid Caesar’s Writers – A Reunion of Writers From Your Show Of Shows and Caesar’s Hour [VHS] $24.95 … |
Richard Pryor
Richard Pryor was born on December first, 1940 in Peoria, Illinois to Leroy Pryor, Jr. and Gertrude Thomas. A tough, street wise kid, Pryor’s father won a Golden Gloves tournament in Chicago at the age of 18. His mother worked as a prostitute and bookkeeper. Both mother and father were violent alcoholics. Born out of wedlock, Richard endured not just the stigma of illegitimacy, but also that of the eras racism. He had quite the challenging life growing up and was subject to a lot of the things we all fear in life. When he was only six years old, Pryor was a victim of sexual molestation. Only four years after he was abandoned by his mother. Then he was expelled from high school at the age of 17 after striking a teacher. He never returned to school. Rather he looked for work in a packing house and then, in 1958, joined the army. He spent his two-year tour in West Germany, yet again clashing with his superiors. Pryor returned home to Peoria in 1960, wedded the very first of his five wives, and fathered his second child, Richard Pryor, Jr. His first child, daughter Renee, was born three years earlier by a woman who had cheated on him with his own father! There seemed to be no sight of a bright future ahead for Pryor, until a door opened for him into the world of stand-up comedy.
The most ground-breaking and audacious comic talent since the heyday of Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor was also the most controversial. Like Dick Gregory before him, Pryor explored problems of racial inequality with great insight and depth, tackling taboo subjects that mainstream white America would have favored swept permanently under the rug. But while Gregory used the standup stage as a forum to preach messages of peace, equality, and social change, Pryor seethed with bitterness and wrath; his was the fed up voice of the rising Black Power movement, uncompromisingly decrying the ongoing oppression of the conservative establishment while reporting on the Black experience with integrity and conviction. It’s safe to say that without Richard Pryor there would be no Chris Rock or Dave Chappelle – comedians who mine a lot of the same territory that Pryor had already covered in the 1970’s. It was his work that paved the way for people like Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, Chris Rock, and numerous others. Richard demonstrated that a black comedian could have a successful career developing content for a black audience. Sadly this never seemed to be understood by individuals producing movies featuring Richard. I was never a huge lover of his mainstream films. They always seemed to keep Pryor’s brand of comedy reigned in. His stand-up comedy was where it was at: pure, undiluted Pryor.
Pryor’s stand-up genius has been captured in four stand-up feature films, Live and Smokin’ , Richard Pryor Live in Concert , Richard Pryor Live on Sunset Strip , and Here and Now. His numerous recordings have earned him two platinum albums, five gold’s, and five Grammy’s. Richard was one of the great legendary and revolutionary comedians of our time. Through the 1970’s and 1980’s Richard was basically America’s top comedian. He was also an actor, and writer, and as said before, his controversial standup albums sold in the millions. Pryor used both personal and social misfortune for his comic material and peppered his shows with vibrant terminology and adult humor. Even at the peak of his popularity, however, he suffered the frightening consequences of drug and alcohol misuse, a heart attack, a suicide attempt, and the oncoming of multiple sclerosis!
Richard had made a considerable effect on the comedy and movie worlds. As a stand-up comic, writer, and actor, he struck a nerve, with the American public, forcing it to look at large social questions of race and the more tragicomic aspects of the human condition. Though uncompromising in his wit, Pryor was a black stand-up comedian who revolutionized the craft of comedy. Renowned for his blunt style, use of profanity, and fearless examination of racism, Pryor was as much a political satirist as a stand-up comedian.
Pryor had seven marriages to five wives, including two to Jennifer Lee (in 1981 and 2001) and two to Flynn Belaine (in 1986 and 1990). He had seven children: Renee, Richard Pryor Jr., Elizabeth Stordeur, Rain Kindlin (herself an actress), Kelsey Pryor, Steven Pryor and Franklin Mason, and three grandchildren. From the early 1990s until his death in 2005, he lived a reclusive life in his Bel Air home, apparently unable to walk and rarely seeing any but a small cadre of friends. In his later years, Richard used a power powered scooter due to multiple sclerosis. He appears on the scooter in his very last film appearance, a small role in David Lynch ’s Lost Highway (1997). Richard had an incredible mind for comedy yet he was also beset by demons, many of his own making. His major topic of his stand up routines was himself, which meant that no one could argue with his credibility. He will be greatly missed by the entire comedic community and his influence will surely be felt for generations to come.
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