Saturday, March 10, 2012

Richard Barstow #1 (From Jerry Digney)

BARSTOW1 by bucklesw1
BARSTOW1, a photo by bucklesw1 on Flickr.


To know him was to...??? Richard Barstow, the one and only. Famous for his taunts, insults and tantrums during rehearsals but a pussycat underneath--gone for 30 years! held winter court at that awful roadside hotel in Venice, where he had a "suite."

29 years directed Ringling--did some great shows, the 100th anniversary/1970's show among them. got the boot in 1978 and NY hoofers-turned-choreographers Bill Bradley and Jerry Fries took over for a few years as directors-choreographers.

Barstow1--as seen in a March, 1972 Associated Press feature story. Dressed as always...flamboyantly!

Posted by Buckles at 3/10/2012 06:04:00 AM

4 comments:

Buckles said...

Years ago when were all young and charming , me, John Herriott and our wives went down to Venice during rehearsals.
To avoid being yelled at, we took seats in the uppermost tier.
Alas no!, in short order we were confronted with, "If you people up there can't be quite and respect what we are doing, you can leave right now!
We stayed but my first thought was that he didn't know who we were.
Then a worse thought, he knew who we were!

10 March, 2012 10:08
Chic Silber said...

For all his outrageous behavior

I had the greatest admiration &

respect for him from when I 1st

worked on shows in Summer Stock

that he directed until he died

He & his gold "Hellzapoppin"

whistle could garner both fear

& desperation as well as anger

in the entire company but his

ability to add grandeur to all

the show's production numbers

truly made it "TGSOE"

After his unceremonious departure

I kept in touch by inviting him

& his partner Timothy Gray to

many of the NY shows I worked on

10 March, 2012 10:17
Chic Silber said...

Jerry you forgot to mention

Crandall Diehl who assisted him

& also stayed on for some time

I had the strange occurence to

run into him on a "leakin lena"

decrepit wooden ferryboat on the

Chao Phraya river in Bangkok

some years back

10 March, 2012 11:42
Henry said...

He was great, the only Director who could communicate with people from the whole world with only one languish and his hands and arms.

15 March, 2012 05:29

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