Mahonri Stewart
Auteur de Saints on Stage: An Anthology of Mormon Drama
A propos de l'auteur
Œuvres de Mahonri Stewart
Saints on Stage: An Anthology of Mormon Drama (2013) — Directeur de publication; Introduction; Contributeur — 2 exemplaires
The Fading Flower 1 exemplaire
Oeuvres associées
Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought - Volume 50, Number 1 (Spring 2017) (2017) — Contributeur — 1 exemplaire
Étiqueté
Partage des connaissances
- Nom légal
- Stewart, Mahonri Mackay
- Prix et distinctions
- Association for Mormon Letters Award (Lifetime Membership Award, 2012)
Membres
Critiques
Prix et récompenses
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Auteurs associés
Statistiques
- Œuvres
- 7
- Aussi par
- 1
- Membres
- 6
- Popularité
- #1,227,255
- Évaluation
- 4.0
- Critiques
- 1
- ISBN
- 6
- Langues
- 1
This play is a brief biography of James Stewart from the premise that his friend Margaret Sullavan is the person that got him involved in movies. It also features his interactions with Cary Grant, Henry Fonda, Ginger Rogers, Katherine Hepburn, and Louis B. Mayer (the boss at MGM). The book also includes two forewords, by Guillermo Reyes and Philip Taylor, and an afterward by the author. It has many photographs throughout of the actors who performed the play at the Covey Center for the Arts in 2014.
The author, Mahonri Stewart, has written plays, screenplays, graphic novels, poetry, and novels, and has degrees from Arizona State University and Utah Valley University. In the afterword, he explains why he wrote the play. He talks about movies like “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” and how they portray “the Honest Man [who] is at first intimidated and awed by the city’s glamour and power, even seduced by its pleasures, but as the story continues, he discovers the compromised underbelly of the machine, the city’s corruption, selfishness, and vice that keeps its elites in their charmed circles, wealth, and seats of power….The City turns on the good man and nearly succeeds in destroying this hayseed threat in it midst. Yet, he has been underestimated, and the Honest Man then rises up after near defeat and takes on the Monolith again, this time in a dearly bought and painful victory” (page 141).
In this play, Jimmy Stewart is the “Honest Man” and the “City” is Hollywood. We see glimpses of his early career, as he is reluctantly cast in his first play, finds he enjoys acting, and then eventually is helped by friends to be reluctantly cast in his first movie and hired by MGM. He ends up standing up to the MGM boss and Hollywood corruption, and successfully going independent while keeping much of his original values.
The author successfully shows that Stewart’s life story has many similarities to several of the movies he’s most famous for. I also found it interesting that he had bigger dreams than to run the family business, as his father wanted, but instead of ending up staying in his hometown, as in “It’s A Wonderful Life,” he followed his dreams and eventually earned his father’s respect for it.
Since it is a biography, the play does deal with the realities of Stewart’s life experiences and those of his associates in Hollywood, but it is kept to a PG-13 level. We learn of his relationships with several actresses, including Margaret Sullivan (who he apparently loved but never had more than a friendship with), Ginger Rogers, and Gloria McLean, who became his wife. He also has to deal with some suspicions that people such as Louis Mayer have based on his living arrangements and association with Henry Fonda and Josh Logan.
This was a quick (it is a play, after all) but very enjoyable read. It made me want to watch more of Stewart’s movies and learn more about his life. I would definitely be interested in seeing this play performed.
[1] See https://www.deseret.com/2003/12/9/19800296/jimmy-stewart-brought-life-to-mr-krue... for a very interesting story of how Jimmy Stewart became involved in “Mr. Krueger’s Christmas.”… (plus d'informations)