Liars and Saints

  Part of marriage is being indulgent. For example, there is a certain kind of humor my husband likes, and I'm not always sure how to respond, but I've learned to say, "That's nice, dear!" Marc found videos on Facebook. A man goes into grocery stores with a concealed fart machine, then he films the faces of bystanders as he loudly "farts" in the cereal aisle. Sometimes, he has drizzled chocolate sauce on the back of his pants, so it looks like he has pooped before the fart. Another recent item that Marc found hilarious...He attended "Broadway Backwards," and in one skit, a woman approached a doctor and complained that she had just turned (permanently) invisible. And the doctor said, "Sorry, I can't see you right now."   My own idea of humor is a Sherie Rene Scott clip. She performs "(Christmas) Baby, Please Come Home," and she looks like she has just escaped from a psych ward. She has mascara running down her face. I...

  Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd" ranks among the all-time great adaptations; it's a case of a writer taking another person's work and infusing it with new life. People speak about Howard Ashman's "Little Shop" in a similar way. Ashman's show has become so influential, it has mostly eclipsed the memory of the film from 1960. There is an obvious "dialogue" between Sweeney and Little Shop, though I'm not sure Ashman acknowledged this in print. Sweeney tells himself that he is avenging the "death" of his beloved wife, but soon, he just becomes a mass murderer (and in fact *kills* the same person he claims to worship-above-all-others). Along the same lines, Howard Ashman's Seymour tells us that his greed is in service of his love: There's Audrey-- Lovely Audrey. If life were tawdry... And impoverished as before... She might not like me. She might not want me. Without my plant-- She might not love me anymore. Seymour is wrong...