Elaine Stritch - "As the prostitute once said..."- Page 2

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 7/24/14 at 12:52pm

It's important to explicate the word "well" and to look at its multiple meanings and symbolic interactions not only in the joke but also in the mytho-poetic collective unconscious. Elaine Stritch's "WELL!" takes on meanings unattainable by, for example, Jack Benny's "Well!". The way in which Stritch genders "WELL!" is in profound ways unattainable by a penised person such as Benny. A legendarily penised person such as Benny at that, with all the social privilege that implies, which is redoubled exponentially with his Caucasian-ness, his Hetero:sex-uality. This is some ways mitigated by his Jew:Ish-ness, which provides him something of an outsider status, but that is a topic for another paper.

With Stritch, the "WELL!" is both an epiphanic expression of the working class realizing the way in which its fortunes are yoked to the wealthy, the "john" in the example of the sex worker. But a "well" is also a source of water, the basic life force on Earth. Stritch's "WELL!" becomes declaration of woman-hood, an invocation of the womb from which all life emanates. "WELL!", Stritch announces with the authority of the mythical Eve, I am your mother, I am your guide to survival, I will show you how it is done. And how it is done well.

Simultaneous to this interpretive level is the fact that a "well" has, in the history of Western literature, been a symbolic holding place of human emotions. We have heard of "wells of loneliness," of "sad:ness" or, in the worst of all possibilities, of "empty-ness." It is this last notion that Stritch interrogates and undermines throughout "At Liberty" by clearly demonstrating that a post-menopausal woman is as capable of birthing greatness perhaps even more striking than that of women still capable of fecundity.

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 7/24/14 at 12:57pm

No-one can expostulate like Namo can expostulate.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 7/24/14 at 12:59pm

Dying.

[lovebwy]

Posted: 7/24/14 at 1:31pm

All you have to do is watch the version that's on HBO's AT LIBERTY.

She comes out on the stage to an ovation. Rather than soak in in, or show any appreciation, she stands there stone faced till it dies down.

When it does, she says "Yeah. Well..." and says the joke.

It says it all. You know the performer in Stritch was thrilled to be getting such an ovation, but the idea is "You people have no idea what I've had to do to get here. Let me tell you about it". And she launches into There's No Business Like Show Business. That was what she INTENDED.

Now, there may well be a double meaning there that you could also apply to Stritch and her life by changing the spelling of "stairs". It is not invalid for someone to think that. But her intention was the first thing, for sure, very obviously.

I think the question I posted about the lyrics of "Why Do the Wrong People Travel" is more interesting!

At Liberty

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 7/24/14 at 1:45pm

You are not interrogating her text.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 7/24/14 at 7:41pm

For what it's worth, Sir Donald Sinden's son claims to have given her the joke
. . . and he clearly meant "stairs"

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 7/24/14 at 7:53pm

My favorite "Well!" has always been from Samantha Stephens in Bewitched.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 7/24/14 at 7:59pm

Ha!

[nasty_khakis]

Posted: 7/24/14 at 10:56pm

Comedy is always its best and its funniest when it's explained.

[lovebwy]

Posted: 7/25/14 at 12:11am

Aw come on. Clearly Jack Benny did the funniest "Well"

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 7/25/14 at 1:45am

You know, I covered this in my explication one page back.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/25/14 at 7:32am

My favorite part in that lovely remembrance of Stritch by the son of Sir Donald Sinden is had feisty words Sir Donald had for certain posters on an American Internet theater board when he said: "Tell those twits at BroadwayWorld my punchline has absolutely, positively F*CK-ALL to do with staring."

Updated On: 7/25/14 at 07:32 AM

[Patash]

Posted: 7/25/14 at 8:21am

Wow some of you really like the sound of your own voice, don't you? Or should I say the sight of your own long winded posts?

It's a simple joke -- for a prostitute the hard part of the job is climbing stairs. Period.

You can discuss for hours the Freudian implications of stair climbing or delve into the persona of your favorite prostitute, but the more some of you talk the bigger the ass you make of yourselves.

Now let's talk about the psychological implications of a chicken wanting to cross the road. That should be good for a couple hundred words.

[madbrian]

Posted: 7/25/14 at 8:29am

In examining a book such as Peter Rabbit, it is important that
the superficial characteristics of its deceptively simple plot
should not be allowed to blind the reader to the more substantial
fabric of its deeper motivations. In this report I plan to discuss the
sociological implications of family pressures so
great as to drive an otherwise moral rabbit to
perform acts of thievery which he consciously knew were
against the law. I also hope to explore the personality of Mr.
MacGregor in his conflicting roles as farmer and humanitarian.

[Brian07663NJ]

Posted: 7/25/14 at 9:08am

Patash...cheers I agree. Listened to At Liberty this morning and as I remember it never crossed my mind that it meant anything but stairs.

BTW - look at the lyrics of "The Oldest Profession" from the musical The Life.
"I'm getting too old for to climb all those stairs, now A half dozen times every night"
Are we going to split hairs about the following line?
"I'm getting too old for to take em in pairs now..."
Is the meaning going back to the stairs (go up the stairs two at a time) OR does it mean be with two Johns at a time (as in threesome).

* just being sarcastic - I am not looking for an answer. Point is - not necessary to analyze every word! Enjoy the song.

mad...HA love your response. agree too!

[Patash]

Posted: 7/25/14 at 11:13am

Madbrian, great example. There seem to be a number of Linuses on this forum!

[OperaBwayLover]

Posted: 7/25/14 at 12:04pm

Wowzers. And I thought my English classes over-analyzed and dissected everything.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 7/25/14 at 12:09pm

I sincerely hope we were all able to tell which posts were facetious.

[rKrispyt]

Posted: 1/24/16 at 11:33am

The fact that after this line, Stritch goes into talking about costumes, sets, props, makeup, reminiscing about her work behind the scenes and an opening number along the same lines, seems clearly indicative of her intention in stairs v. stares. If it were the latter, there'd be some mention of it in the number and anecdotes it introduces, no? 

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 1/24/16 at 11:40am

Thank you for mysteriously bumping this thread for the sake of my re-reading Namo's explication. 

[devonian.t]

Posted: 1/24/16 at 11:45am

Ha, here's a blast from the past!

Whatever happened to pgenre?  Did work take him away?  I liked him.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 1/24/16 at 11:56am

You might say work took him away, but not very far down the block. He's Pat Cerasaro, now BWW's Editor-in-Chief.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/24/16 at 12:05pm

Still?  It doesn't seem so. Ya gotta keep up.

 

You can discuss for hours the Freudian implications of stair climbing or delve into the persona of your favorite prostitute

 

Singular?  Which mother can pick a favorite child?

Updated On: 1/24/16 at 12:05 PM

[SNAFU]

Posted: 1/24/16 at 12:40pm

Sophie.

 

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 1/24/16 at 12:45pm

Gretchel.