As all my dear friends know, I cast a rather wide net as I fish for notices about Tom Stoppard. I have discovered productions of Jumpers in far away provinces of Canada etc. Today the net dragged in a clipping from The London Evening Standard, not exactly in the first tier of the London press, but nevertheless, it's published in London so it published a notice about one Miss Lucy Prebble (excellent name!) who has written a musical about ... the decline and fall of Enron. I kid you not. Not only that, but it has sold out out its run in the Royal Court Theatre and it moving over to the West End's Noel Coward theatre and ... I'm breathless .... it will be opening on Broadway and is going to be made into a movie.
Bethatasitmay, our favorite, Mr. Tom Stoppard must have had a fine seat in the orchestra for one of the performances. (Perhaps he had forgotten to update his Netflicks wishlist.) Anyway, the story goes that Ms. Lucy Prebble received a note from Mr. Stoppard. Here's the relevant portion:
When I'm introduced, people say,' – adopts bored tone – “Oh, hi” and then when they know what I wrote, they turn round and say,' – adopts voice of gushing excitement – “Oh, hi!”' The other day, she received a card of congratulation from Tom Stoppard. I jumped up and down when I got it. He didn't need to do that. It was classy behaviour.'
Now, let's snick a peek at Ms. Prebbles:
Okay. It may have been "classy behaviour" on the part of Mr. Stoppard, but somehow, especially after seeing the snapshot long and tall drink of water, I'm not entirely convinced our Mr. Stoppard was solely impressed by her writing skills.
