If anyone wants to do "Awake and Sing" and cast me as Moe Axelrod I'll do it. Jus' sayin. I'm a little too old but I'll learn the lines and everything.
Perhaps the only playwright more quotable than Shakespeare is Clifford Odets. Yes I said it! More quotable than Shakespeare! And that'd be one of the reasons I want to play Moe.
"The doctor said it. Cut off a leg to save your life."
"I got enough fever to blow the whole damn town to hell."
"I wrote my name on you - indelible ink!"
"Say the word - I'll tango on a dime. Don't give me ice when your hearts on fire."
All from that famous scene with Moe and Hennie in Awake and Sing.
A few other Odets samplings -
"Go to hell!...but come back tonight."
Moody: "Why do you drink like that?"
Lorna: (pointing to her chest) "Right here - there is a hard lump and I drink to dissolve it."
"We're on the millionaire express tonight!"
"He's the genuine and only modest cock-eyed wonder!"
Anna: "Come back to bed Siggie."
Siggie: "Come to bed. Come to bed. What the hell is so special in bed?"
"The answer is no! - a big electric sign looking down on broadway!"
"You're so wrong I ain't laughing."
"Its skull and bones every incha the road!"
"Get brass toes on your shoes and know where to kick!"
"We'll die for what is right. Put fruit trees where are ashes are."
And a while back after Bill K's post about the type of play(s) he would like to see done, Paradise Lost by Odets was mentioned in the comments section. Here is a very short part of that play, part of a three person scene with Leo Gordon, Gus, and Pike. Late at night, drinking, talking.
Pike: Monkey Dust! Gibberish! What do we do when we hear some old bat outa hell say she is ready to give over every fine boy to be blown to hell in another obscene war?! What do we do!
Leo: Mr. Pike, I think you better not excite yourself.
Pike: Idiots out prowlin' the dynamite dumps by night! One struck match and we all blow to hell.
Gus: Better sit. You're lookin pale around the gills.
Pike: Who are we Mr. Gordon? If we remain silent while they make the next war - who are we then with our silence? ....(Edit)
Leo: We cancel our experience. This is an American Habit.
We cancel our experience. This is an American Habit. Yes, indeed.
My laying out these few quotes like this does not begin to convey the overall greatness of Odet's work, but its a small beginning, a small mention, for a playwright who is one of America's very, very best - but is all too rarely done.
Waiting For Lefty
Till the Day I Die
Awake and Sing
Golden Boy
Paradise Lost
Rocket to the Moon
Night Music
The Country Girl
The Flowering Peach
Big Knife
Take your pick of any of those plays.
Perhaps the only playwright more quotable than Shakespeare is Clifford Odets. Yes I said it! More quotable than Shakespeare! And that'd be one of the reasons I want to play Moe.
"The doctor said it. Cut off a leg to save your life."
"I got enough fever to blow the whole damn town to hell."
"I wrote my name on you - indelible ink!"
"Say the word - I'll tango on a dime. Don't give me ice when your hearts on fire."
All from that famous scene with Moe and Hennie in Awake and Sing.
A few other Odets samplings -
"Go to hell!...but come back tonight."
Moody: "Why do you drink like that?"
Lorna: (pointing to her chest) "Right here - there is a hard lump and I drink to dissolve it."
"We're on the millionaire express tonight!"
"He's the genuine and only modest cock-eyed wonder!"
Anna: "Come back to bed Siggie."
Siggie: "Come to bed. Come to bed. What the hell is so special in bed?"
"The answer is no! - a big electric sign looking down on broadway!"
"You're so wrong I ain't laughing."
"Its skull and bones every incha the road!"
"Get brass toes on your shoes and know where to kick!"
"We'll die for what is right. Put fruit trees where are ashes are."
And a while back after Bill K's post about the type of play(s) he would like to see done, Paradise Lost by Odets was mentioned in the comments section. Here is a very short part of that play, part of a three person scene with Leo Gordon, Gus, and Pike. Late at night, drinking, talking.
Pike: Monkey Dust! Gibberish! What do we do when we hear some old bat outa hell say she is ready to give over every fine boy to be blown to hell in another obscene war?! What do we do!
Leo: Mr. Pike, I think you better not excite yourself.
Pike: Idiots out prowlin' the dynamite dumps by night! One struck match and we all blow to hell.
Gus: Better sit. You're lookin pale around the gills.
Pike: Who are we Mr. Gordon? If we remain silent while they make the next war - who are we then with our silence? ....(Edit)
Leo: We cancel our experience. This is an American Habit.
We cancel our experience. This is an American Habit. Yes, indeed.
My laying out these few quotes like this does not begin to convey the overall greatness of Odet's work, but its a small beginning, a small mention, for a playwright who is one of America's very, very best - but is all too rarely done.
Waiting For Lefty
Till the Day I Die
Awake and Sing
Golden Boy
Paradise Lost
Rocket to the Moon
Night Music
The Country Girl
The Flowering Peach
Big Knife
Take your pick of any of those plays.
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