Lynn Redgrave (1975)

In 1967 Lynn Redgrave won the Golden Globe for Georgie Girl. In 1975 she appeared at the Elitch Theatre in The Two of Us, and in 1977 she returned in Neil Simon’s California Suite.

From the 1975 Program for The Two of Us:

LYNN REDGRAVE (Wife, Gina, Nibs, Chinamen) youngest of three children of Sir Michael and Lady Redgrave. All members of the family are actors, her mother being better known as Rachel Kempson. Her sister Vanessa is the eldest, while her brother Corin occupies almost the exact middle spot.

Lynn’s first interest was as a horse rider and show jumper, but after graduation from Queensgate School, London, she entered the Central School of Speech and Drama, and got her first professional experience as a summer student during 1961 at the Royal Court Theatre, London. She was the assistant stage manager, and Glenda Jackson and Rita Tushingham were walk-ons for her first production which was “The Kitchen.” At the end of that beginning season, she made her acting debut playing Helena in a fairly awful production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” directed by Tony Richardson (later to become her brother-in-law), with an experimentally young and inexperienced cast among whom were David Warner, Nicol Williamson, Alfred Lynch, Samantha Eggar, Ronnie Barker, Rita Tushingham, Colin Blakely, Robert Lang, and brother Corin.

Soon, Lynn was to become one of the founding members of The National Theatre Company of Britain, and in their inaugural production of “Hamlet” in October 1963 she played a Court Lady and had to curtsy before the King Claudius of her father Sir Michael. Good parts soon followed, and she was perhaps first noticed for her Jackie Coryton in the Revival of Noel Coward’s “Hay Fever” (directed by the Master himself) and Miss Pru in “Love For Love.” Her long engagement with The National culminated with the memorable visit of the company to Moscow and Berlin in the Fall of 1965. But then, the manager of the National, Sir Laurence Olivier, felt that there was nothing more of interest for her to do, and so Lynn found herself in the uncertain world of the freelance theatre.

By now she was not entirely unknown in films having played a small part in “Tom Jones” and a strong co-starring role in “The Girl With the Green Eyes” with Rita Tushingham. Sidney Lumet offered her a cameo in “The Deadly Affair” and now her big chance came along with a film that in preparation showed very little promise. In fact sister Vanessa had just turned down the part of Georgy and when Lynn was approached as a possibility to take over, Vanessa strongly advised her to do otherwise. However, Lynn liked the part, and took it anyway, putting on a great deal of weight in order to help make her character completely convincing. “Georgy Girl” won for Lynn the Golden Globe Award of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, The New York Film Critics Award and an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. Another contender that year was her sister Vanessa for “Morgan,” the first time that two sisters were up for an award at the same time since Olivia De Havilland and Joan Fontaine. (However, on this occasion, both were beaten out by Elizabeth Taylor’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf”).

Around that time she made her American debut on stage in “Black Comedy” and during that eventful year met her future husband John Clark. They were married in an unusual ceremony conducted by a Minister of the Church of Ethical Culture before the mantel piece of Sidney Lumet’s living room. Now they have two children, a boy Benjamin (born in 1968) and a daughter Kelly (born 1970). They make their home together in a cliff house just outside Dublin, Ireland, although their “working home” is New York City. Lynn has been back on Broadway in “My Fat Friend,” all about a fat girl with an unconscious urge to get even fatter. It was all she could do to finish reading the play, but discovered with a sigh of relief that the girl does finally make it with the slim trim crowd, and so she was able to accept the part, having vowed never to allow herself to add extra pounds to play a part again.

Lynn’s films have included “Smashing Time,” a song and dance comedy again with Rita Tushingham; “The Virgin Soldiers;” “Last of the Mobile Hotshots” (based on Tennessee Williams’ “Seven Descents of Myrtle’); “Every Little Crook and Nanny” with Victor Mature; “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex” ((Woody Allen); “The National Health” with Jim Dale, soon to be released in North America, and “Don’t Turn the Other Cheek,” a Western with Eli Wallach, which will shortly appear. Among her stage roles since “Black Comedy” in 1967 have been “The Two of Us” at the Garrick Theater in London’s West End; “Slag” – marking her return engagement at the Royal Court; “Born Yesterday” (just about her favorite part) in London in 1973, and “A Better Place” which she did with her husband directing at Dublin’s Gate Theatre.

Just before her play “My Fat Friend” finished its Broadway run, Lynn found herself cast in the controversial film “The Happy Hooker” playing the central role of Xaviera Hollander. While most of her friends had advised her against accepting this offer, Lynn found this chance to “stretch” herself entirely irresistible, and happily her choice has proved to be completely vindicated. “The Happy Hooker” is on its way to becoming one of the most successful box-office hits of the year. Lynn does not confine her activities to acting, or “pretending to be other people,” for she has been seen on nearly all of the country’s popular gameshows, and is now developing her abilities in radio and television as an interviewer. For hobbies, Lynn enjoys her children, cooking, and gardening. Lynn and husband John try to make her projects and the successful completion of them, their common objective, in all the many aspects that are involved, and is a lifestyle that works well for them. For their newest project, Lynn and John have prepared to make “The Two of Us” available to the American public for the first time.
[1975 Program for The Two of Us at Historic Elitch Theatre]

Review of The Two of Us from the Rocky Mountain News:

Let me state, straight out and with no reservation at all, that my favorite Redgrave is named Lynn. She is now starring in a rather quaint quartet of plays called “The Two of Us,” being presented by the Elitch Theater Company, and she will be appearing through Saturday, August 30th.

If you are a man or a woman, or anything resembling a human type, and are vulnerable to skill and talent and humor and our ridiculous human condition, then I definitely recommend that you get on out to West 38th Avenue and enjoy one hell of a romp that is, this time around, ready for its audience and, as was audibly evident on opening night, with an audience that came and saw and was conquered.

Lynn Redgrave is that rarest of birds, British or otherwise, a comedienne who is felicitously feminine, incisive, funny, and uniquely herself. Hers is no jokey, unprobing manner of playing.

SHE IS ENORMOUSLY versatile, working at once with heart and stiletto, playing as many as three totally different characters within a short play, with each of them an absolute jewel. She is, in each of the four short pieces that comprise “The Two of Us,” as fine and winning an actress as I have seen in recent years.

“The Two of Us” has been written by Michael Frayn, and it provides Ms. Redgrave and her fellow actors with some funny, often outrageous situations and characters, dealing with such problems as vacationing with a newborn child, (“Black and Silver”), the hazards of the cocktail party pick-up (“The New Quixote”), dinner parties (“Chinamen”), and the erosion of love and dignity within an extended marriage (“Mr. Foot”).

These short plays were performed a few years back by Lynn Redgrave, in England. The present company, very well paced and directed by John Clark, has been on tour for several weeks in the United States, and the quality of the production shows it. They work together deliciously, giving us an ensemble lot of playing that is all that one might desire, and then some.

LYNN REDGRAVE is supported by David Leary, Roy London, and John Tillinger, and they are all absolutely first-rate actors. Their timing is superb, they are personable and, praise is not enough, one can hear and understand every word that comes ringing out into the house.

Of the four playlets, I particularly enjoyed the opening madness “Black and Silver,” and “Chinamen.” Granted, they are the broadest and funniest, but they are performed with such dash and aplomb that I would enjoy seeing them again and again. This is farce performing that you will seldom, if ever, see surpassed.

The other two plays are absolutely acceptable, working on very different levels, providing an evening that zips right along and is consistently entertaining.

THE ELITCH TROOPS have come up with four bright and effective unit sets that could not be better, more evocative, or more functional. They deserve, for this production and for the season, our bravos. Boyd Dumrose is credited, this time around, for sets and lighting.

“The Two of Us” is a perfect evening of entertaining fluff, with some fine shafts of insight into human foibles. More importantly, in my opinion, it provides us with the opportunity of watching Lynn Redgrave at work. She is a special lady, a true star, and one of the finest of living actresses and comediennes. I strongly recommend that you make your reservations now to see this wonderful performer and her splendid fellow actors.

The phone number at Elitch’s should be ringing constantly, for this final and, perhaps, best of their offerings in 1975.
[Frayn, Michael. “Lynn Redgrave Stars at Elitch’s”, Rocky Mountain News, August 20, 1975, p. 43.]