Thursday, September 2, 2021

"Call Me a Taxi," Scenes D and E

Act Two opens at the "Danceland Ballroom - Night."  They left this out:

SHIRLEY ENTERS.  GETS CAUGHT IN BEADS AT DOOR.  LAVERNE ENTERS WITH NO PROBLEM.

SHIRLEY
How did you do that?

LAVERNE
What?

SHIRLEY
Come right in...

They left out Charmayne saying, "Some of these men got a grabbing problem, if you know what I mean."

They also omitted Shirley punching Laverne in the ribs after Laverne says sure to the "big guy," and then Laverne saying to Charmayne, "Oh, I mean, it's all right with you, Charmayne."  So then Charmayne "waves them off with an okay."

The stage directions go into things like "cam. l." and "upstage."  The Little Guy is called "Peter" because of the casting by then of Peter Elbling, while the Big Guy is "Larry" for Larry Hankin.  

FINAL TABLEAU - CENTER STAGE - LAVERNE ON LARRY'S BACK, SHIRLEY ON PETER'S KNEE.

THE DANCE ENDS.

Scene E is set in the same place, "a few minutes later," so we'll continue.  The first part of the dialogue was dropped:

SHIRLEY
(PROUD) Well, the word's out about us.

LAVERNE
Yeah - this job's gonna be a snap.

SHIRLEY
We really let them know what kind of girls we are.  Maybe we'll even bring a little dignity to this place.  Look at them.  They'll telling all the other guys.

LAVERNE
They know we're no pushovers.

THE MEN APPROACH OTHER GIRLS ON THE LINE.  NOBODY APPROACHES LAVERNE AND SHIRLEY.

SHIRLEY
They'll leave us alone alright.

MORE MEN CROSS AND ASK OTHER GIRLS TO DANCE.

LAVERNE
Yeah, they sure are leaving us alone.

SHIRLEY
(PROUDLY) Yeah.

Laverne singing "Ten Cents a Dance" was added.  Shirley on her return is described as "obviously bustier."

My main thoughts are that there are no real losses in the dialogue of these two scenes, I like the little additions, and the stage directions were definitely fulfilled.

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