Very fine on Broadway now

As I didnt really know of her, I've been reading up.

To those in other threads who discuss if she can act: she can ACT! You would be left in do doubt here.

Madge in Inge's Picnic is one of the most complex female roles in modern American theater because the girl has to evolve and yet hold so much back (well, until).

She and Hal in fact hardly ever talk. It's quite a talky play, but I doubt that they exchange 10 sentences throughout. Its all in the eyes and the body language and of course that dance... Slow burn. Then boom.

Image of her and a perfectly matched Hal (Sebastian Stan, also a crossover from TV) here:

http://tinyurl.com/b3f36dw

Picnic is a limited run play by the Roundabout Theater Group in its 42nd Street theater and the audience consist of one tough theater-savvy crowd. As they say, if you make it with the Roundabout in New York you can make it anywhere...

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To those on other threads who find her seriously pretty: hop on a plane and catch her in that strapless gown... There's an image of her in it below although for real, she looked better than that. Like Grace Kelly in To Catch A Thief.

http://tinyurl.com/asjdump

It came as such a shock because she'd been dressed rather nondescriptly up to then. See below.

http://tinyurl.com/agxxlpb

I'd love to see this!

Have you seen the 1955 film by any chance? How does Maggie compare to Kim Novak?

The "Moonglow" dance scene is very famous, as it should be. Wow. Is the dance in the play similar?

Kim Novak & William Holden: http://youtu.be/bNxtxfuZD6M

Hi Mysterious. Great questions. Thanks to you, I now have the movie. :-)

I'll watch it tonight and report. The dance in the play is a real jaw-dropper even for those Broadway-ites who have seen everything. The second in the play, after Madge first emerges in that gown.

It happens "spontaneously" in the yard late in the first act when Madge is again wearing the gown. Making love by other means. The several others who happen to be present onstage smile sweetly at them assuming it is totally innocent. In its own way, it is a pretty funny scene.

It sets the scene for what comes soon after. The feverish embraces at the end of the first act and the start of the second. By then they have established a whole network of emotional connections.

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A quick addition to my second comment above. It is not that Hal and Madge dont much talk. Its that they dont much talk directly. Each of them is talking and listening to the others who happen to be present but for each there is increasingly an audience of one. Hal is of course very, very macho in the early part but that is not what gets to her.

This play sure takes some processing!

Thanks for the response! Dangit, I wish I lived in New York and could see the play. I'm a new fan of Maggie Grace's after recently starting to watch "LOST"; she's also great in the pilot of new show "The Following," which I was lucky to get a chance to see through my work. It premieres on the 21st on FOX, I believe.

And just a warning... I don't think the movie is very good. There's a bit of overacting and 1950's schmaltz. But somehow, I still like it.

Okay. You made me do it. :-)

The movie is a nice enough tribute to the community feel of many 1950s rural towns, and of course the extended picnic itself could come straight out of a musical like "Seven Brides".

The movie town is obviously a big one as we get to look around, and even down on it from one of the grain elevators. The crowds at the picnic and pool are large, and the people are having serious fun. Kim Novak comes across as in her mid 20s (taller than and at least as strong-minded as her mom) and William Holden twice that age; he looks much older than Kim Novak's nice rich boyfriend with whom he went to school. William Holden acts boyish and eager to fit in, and it is hard to see why the mother dislikes him so much.

Kim Novak has been prettier in other roles than here (where she is not a blonde) and there is no drama about the gown - she and her mom are simply seen working on it in one of the earlier scenes, and I dont think she ever wears it out. Many of the scenes involve just 2 or 3 of the core cast, and Hal and Madge are only a few times together on-screen. Its hard to see why either Hal or Madge are so frustrated or drawn to one another, or why each must get away from that nice town.

In the play, the core motivations are more obvious and stark. We only get to see the yard and the porches of two houses, but the town sounds decidedly small. Madge's mom is older and tougher, a kind of self-appointed guardian of the brand of the town, and Madge's feeling of being pushed around looks like it hurts.

In the play, many or most of the cast are onstage at any one time and that both keeps Madge and Hal apart and increasingly watchful of one another and tuned in to who each other is. In a sense each is doing their little one-person play. A mating dance.

Maggie really does come across as in her late teens, and once the gown is on she is extremely beautiful, and until Hal intervenes she really does seem already trapped at 17 or 18 with these looks but not much else.

Hal is without his shirt for a full half an hour, moving junk around the yard. He is no older than his college friend and intense in his frustrated dreams. Although he is broke and by the end on the run, it is no surprise that he taps the longings of Madge in ways that are not only about sex. I know Paul Newman didnt originate that part, but people have said that part was him.

Madge's sudden appearance in the gown is a huge statement at that point, almost like throwing down a glove, and somehow, all of a sudden, there they are doing the dance. Another statement in itself.

And of course there is no picnic, at least not onstage. Everybody heads off, but Hal and Madge hang back, and finally embrace (to put it mildly). Statements three and four.

Press reviews of these classic plays of which we've seen hundreds often tend to say the play was done this way or that, way back, and so the reinterpretation is a miss. That's a fact in several of the reviews here - but my guess is, William Inge would say, in this production with these two leads, they got his themes just right.

Hmmm. There could be a movie in this...