From an old BBC show comes a new take on the news in Philly
Using the news, and its headlines, to satirize the government and contemporary trends is a time-honored comedy tradition.
Will Rogers built a legendary vaudeville act around reading and commenting on newspaper articles. Mort Sahl, donned in a casual cardigan, would sit on a high stool and wring laughs by pointing pointed fun at political. Perhaps the most sophisticated of all television attempts at true satire, “The Simpsons and “The Family Guy” notwithstanding, was a ‘60s series called “That Was the Week That Was,” a British import with a very British David Frost as host and a troupe of actors and singers tearing currents events to comic shreds via sketches, set pieces, and songs. Several of those songs were written by Tom Lehrer, the best then and unequalled more than 40 years after he stopped musically plying his wisdom.
“That Was the Week That Was” gave Jennifer Childs, a founder and artistic director of 1812 Productions, an idea.
1812 is devoted to mounting productions that generate laughs, and Childs can compete with the great entertainment writer Chuck Darrow for encyclopedic knowledge of the history of comedy and the people who made it.
Fourteen years ago, Childs was mulling over what 1812 could present for the holidays. She decided on a revue of sketch and stand-up comedy through time. Entertainment was more important than evolution, but the 20th century was rich in styles that led to a show. One of those styles was political satire.
A strong reception to such a segment led to an evening of it. Childs called her “This Is the Week That Is,” and it has become a traditional annual entry in the Philadelphia theater. It’s become such an anticipated staple that, earlier this year, the crafting of “This Is the Week That Is” was the subject of an national Emmynominated documentary called “Creating Satire.”
“This is the Week That Is” covers a lot of territory, but its centerpiece is a mock newscast that lasts about 45 minutes and dominates the second act.
This segment, approached with the watchwords, “Tell the truth and make it funny” takes the form of a standard TV newscast. Sean Close, playing an anchor, but having leeway to ad lib and inject his personality in the show, presents stories and headlines that range from up-tothe-moment news to absurdities of the kind that vie for annual Darwin Awards.
To keep up with the headlines, the news section of “This Is the Week That Is” is updated daily by its writer, Don Montrey, who has been with Childs and the shows from the beginning and, for a few seasons, played the anchor, who fields reactions ranging from guffaws to groans. (In comic tradition, the anchor responds coyly to those groans.)
Montrey says he is a news junkie who keeps constant track of stories, but begins collecting useable material as each “This is the Week That Is’ opening nears. The show is open now and runs through Jan. 5 at the Plays & Players Theatre, 1714 Delancey Street, in Philadelphia.
This year, Montrey says, is particularly fertile because of the upcoming Presidential election, the polarizing Presidency of Donald Trump, and the pack of Democratic contenders debating and campaigning to get Mr. Trump’s job.
The ranking news story was Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) leaving the 2020 Democratic field.
Just as it was the country’s lead, it became Montrey’s. The difference is he has to give the story a twist, a comic edge that fits into “This is the Week’s” format. Endowing the news with humor, the more potent the better, is his preoccupation for all of this season.
While talking about Harris’s departure, Montrey says he’s grateful when major news occurs early in the day.
“‘This is the Week That Is” goes on mostly at night. We make it a point to be on top of any story, but we’ve had things backfire when an event happens just before showtime. We’re right there getting the story to our audience, but they haven’t had time to hear it anywhere else. Because we deal in satire, there’s some wonder about whether we’re making something up, which we never do. When something happens in the late morning or afternoon, the audience has time to learn the news from their usual sources, so the story plays better for us.
“It can be frustrating to be ahead with a story and get a mild response, but if it comes to choosing to use a breaking headline or hold it a night for a better reaction, we’ll present the news.”
Like any TV news writer, Montrey has a news director, in this case producer Childs, and an anchor to please.
“Jennifer has a great ear for making a joke work. She knows where the emphasis should be and how to frame it to get the biggest laugh. Naturally, I’m writing to Sean’s voice, just as I wrote for Tony Braithwaite’s in the earlier years. Of course, it was easiest in the years I was the anchor. I knew all the inflections would be exactly where I intended them to be.”
“Sean is great. He has a wonderful sense of humor, he has a good grasp of the material, and he is wonderful at connecting with the audience.”
Montrey says his approach to his script is the same now as it was 14 seasons ago.
“Pretty much, the context is provided by the government. Through the years, the actions of politicians have been my starting point.
“The hardest part of being a news junkie is so much of the news is depressing and awful. Still, I can’t help keeping track of current events the way I always have. Also, I have to know what is happening, and how, when it’s warranted, to make it funny.
“While growing up, I was drawn to television programs that made fun of the news, particularly ‘Saturday Night Live’s’ ‘Weekend Update’ and ‘The Daily Show.’ They gave me a kind of satirical fix. I saw the potency of comedy. Being able to laugh at the people with whom I disagreed made me think I wasn’t totally powerless. Humor was a tool that eased your mind while saying something salient about the person who was irking you. That appealed to me. It gave me confidence.”
One element that has changed in 14 years is Montrey’s age. He says his point of view has deepened as he’s become more mature and experienced.
“I’ve become more aware of the world and living it in. Becoming a father really widened my perspective. I think not only of what I may have to deal with in my time but what my children may face in theirs.”
For his daily updates, Montrey says he looks for the story that he thinks will be most on people’s minds. I’m not looking to educate but to understand and know what people find interesting and how to make it comic.
Staples of this year’s show are the Congressional impeachment hearings, the Democratic primary debates, and that endless source of material, President Trump.
Montrey says while each performance of “This Is the Week That Is” has new material, some stories, or sections of stories, are evergreen and appear, as originally written in each show.
When I quip, “You mean you don’t write 45 fresh minutes every day, Montrey responds, “Are you trying to kill me?
“That’s about what at
tempting to write a new script per show would do.
“I do go over the news, as I have since the fall, and look for what will be do. I look for what can be satirized, I take different approaches, and I try to make myself laugh.
“That’s when I know I have a winner.
“Although sometimes, you just think of something and from an objective, almost passionless way, you say, ‘That’s right,’ and it usually is.”
Besides, Montrey says, he has three sharp editors in Childs, stage manager Tom Shotkin, and Close.
“Among us, we’ll make it all work.”
Streaming returns
The recent returns of Prime’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and Netflix’s “The Crown,” with Olivia Colman, following beautifully after Clare Foy from the first moment of the first scene — Queen Elizabeth II looking in a mirror and noticing a line or two leading her to middle age — have done a lot to slake a long, dry period in television that wasn’t even helped by the introduction of two streaming networks, Disney+ and Apple+.
Netflix bringing Martin Scorsese’s Oscar contender for Best Picture and acting awards, “The Irishman,” to television, is also a plus.
Scorsese, being ranked as a Pantheon artist, got away with extending or including scenes another director, would have to cut, but at three-and-a-half hours, “The Irishman” remains a treat.
In talking on Friday to Dom Giordano on his 9 a.m.-noon weekday show on WPHT (1210 AM), I couldn’t help one quip. Dom asked me what I thought to of the computer technique to de-age senior actors Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino. I said all was fine with the facial work, but it didn’t matter much when they still walked like 70-years-olds. (I know. I shouldn’t joke about age.)
On Friday, two shows of interest debut, “6 Underground,” which features Ryan Reynolds in a series about an international group of vigilantes that happen to be billionaires, and “Mel Brooks Unwrapped,” a documentary about the nonagenarian comic genius, at 9 p.m. on HBO.
Also, the Kennedy Center Honors, going this year to Linda Ronstadt, Sally Field, Michael TilsonThomas, “Sesame Street,” and Earth, Wind, & Fire are presented 8 p.m. Sunday on CBS (Channel 3).
Watch PHL17 for theater report
Early risers today can catch my first theater report for Channel 17’s “PHL17 Morning News,” which airs from 5 to 9 a.m.
The segment, and the relationship with Channel 17, continues a role of arts commentator on television that goes back to 1977, when I appeared on the old Channel 48. (My first radio engagement was in 1974!) My times on TV and radio now number at about 1,000.
The piece was done on location at the Walnut Street Theatre, where from the set of the current mainstage offering, “Shrek,” I give an overview of holiday fare, including 10 “Christmas Carols”, Hedgerow’s and Delaware Theatre Company’s among them, as a way of presenting how much theater Philadelphia has to offer.