The wonderful creative team of Nancy Ford (music) and Gretchen Cryer (book and lyrics) had a field day with the rich and richly looney The Last Sweet Days of Isaac, which settled at the Eastside Playhouse, an off-B’way house, on January 26, 1970. With a cast that included nerdish-looking Austin Pendleton, and luscious Fredericka Weber as the object of his lust, stuck in an elevator – a metaphor for the angst of the 1960s. The show struck a positive chord and as a result enjoyed a comfortable run of 485 performances. Along the way, it also walked away with the Obie, Drama Desk, and Outer Circle Awards .
First LP release: March 23, 1970
THE ELEVATOR Isaac Bernstein is a wildly hyperbolic, romantic, endearing wreck of a comic-tragic hero. With grandiose intensity he imagines himself on the brink of an untimely death and therefore sets about making every moment a perfect work of art. To heighten and record his existence he carries with him a guitar, a trumpet, a dozen little instruments stuffed in his pockets, a tape recorder, a camera and an orchestra in his head. On this fateful day in his 33rd year he finds himself stuck in an elevator with Ingrid, a secretary who has always wished to be a poet. In the hour that they are stuck in the elevator, Isaac tries to teach Ingrid to live life to its fullest.
I WANT TO WALK TO SAN FRANCISCO Isaac is now nineteen and he and blond, beautiful Alice are locked away separately in solitary prison cells. They communicate with each other and the world only through a television camera in each cell and a television screen. They try to make love to each other’s images, but a newscast interrupts their tryst on the tube with an on-the-scene report of Isaac’s death at a demonstration. The newscast ends and Isaac and Alice are left with each other’s images in their once-removed world, unsure if they are alive or dead.
So you see, “Isaac” is a show about life, death, art, truth and this guy trying to make it with this girl – all your larger themes. We hope you like it.
The Elevator
Isaac - Austin Pendleton
Ingrid - Fredricka Weber
I Want To Walk To San Francisco
Isaac - Austin Pendleton
Alice - Fredricka Weber
Policeman - C. David Colson
with John Long, Charles Collins, Louise Heath
Music performed by The Zeitgeist
Clay Fullum – electric piano and harpsichord
George Broderick – piano
Aaron Bell – bass
Art Betker – guitar
Harry Gist – drums
Music: Nancy Ford
Book & Lyrics: Gretchen Cryer
Publisher: Aberbach Group (BMI)
Musical Direction and Arrangements: Clay Fullum
Directed by Word Baker
Recorded February 23, 1970, at RCA Studio C in New York City
Recording Engineer: John Woram
Produced by Steve Schwartz
Original album: LSO-1169, released March, 1970
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