Great Lives

Great Lives[1]

Series
Work In Progress
Original Broadcast Date
1989
Cast
Arthur Miller, Ryan Cutrona, Tim Jerome, Julie Renick, Joe Frank
Format
Improv Actors, Absurd Monologue, Panel Discussion, 1 hour
Preceded by:	Bad
Followed by:	Night (Part 1)

"Well of course, Stalin was a very amusing man."

Great Lives is the name of a program Joe Frank produced as part of the series Work In Progress. It was originally broadcast in 1989.

Synopsis

The jovial side of Stalin. Hitler was a woman. Old man monologue- "I have been;" speaking about astronauts, cashew nuts, engineering. Confusion is created by god - trying to stop a woman from doing something she should not be doing. Einstein the bitter wash up, an obsession with going backwards, dating Marylin Monroe. Old man "I've seen god" in household objects monologue. Freud was in it to meet women. Picasso dates Gertrude Stein. Picasso as the link between modern art and contemporary marketing. Description of the young Marlene Dietrich. Discussion of an affair with the "multi-sexual" Dietrich who falls for a statue, becomes obsessed with going backwards, has an affair with Sammy Davis Junior. Old man: Hitler was a woman. Panel discussion: music as reality, the book "sound and nonsense," measuring beauty as ship-launching potential, traveling and looking for death, the face in the mirror. Drum solo. Panicked man begs "don't make me do it" accompanied by a bizarre moaning soundtrack. Panel discussion: falling asleep while falling asleep. A man moans and strains while a woman giggles, being buried alive. A woman moans. Panel discussion: the nature of time, life as a series of experiments, Spinoza's stones in motion. Old man: being in a cafe full of famous people. Woman singing show tunes, coached by Joe.

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