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Fwd: Albee's LOLITA
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----- Forwarded message from darkbloom@bluewin.ch -----
Date: Wed, 27 Oct 2004 21:28:09 +0200
From: Dmitri Nabokov
I note that Sandy Klein has posted a collection of links to reviews etc. of
Albee's theatrical adaptation of LOLITA. For more reasons than I can name here,
but that those reviews abundantly confirm, that adventure was an utter
abomination. Many of us make mistakes thatt we live to regret. Here is
the genesis of that Albee LOLITA travesty. My mother and I were talked
by a persuasive lady friend of mine into entering into a tripartite
agreement with a couple of gentlemen named Jerry Shirlock and Al
Cooperman. The agreement, for a modest advance, provided for 1) a
theatrical adaptation, to be written by Edward Albee; 2) a film remake,
to be based upon that adaptation; and 3) an opera, to be composed by
Leonard Bernstein -- at first blush, a fairly promising mix . However,
our principal attorneys turned out to be as improvident as they were
expensive, and permitted a "Dramatists' Guild merger agreement" to be
slipped into the complex language of the contract, with no safety net.
What that meant, in essence, was that, no matter how bad the play, if it
succeeded in running for fourteen performances, all earnings from ANY
film or theatrical adaptations of LOLITA would be subject to a 50/50
split with Albee via William Morris. Unfortunately neither Mother nor I
was familiar with the intricacies of this concept, and we accepted our
long-time lawyer's word, or rather that of her entertainment associates
from a masthead longer than their letters. From the day we received the
play script with "Enjoy!" scrawled on the cover by Shirlock, my mother
and I were astounded by how grotesquely bad it was. Notwithstanding the
presence of Donald Sutherland, the play was a collossal flop both during
outof-town tryouts and rewritings and a handful of performances in New
York that the producers, more by crook than by hook (freebies etc.),
managed to stretch to the fourteen required for "merger." Bernstein, of
course, gave a wide berth to an opera project with such a libretto, and
no movie developed from the deal either. When a film remake was finally
done -- by the excellent Adrian Lyne -- half of the advance was due to
Albee, who of course had nothing to do with it. When accounting time
came for the play's pitiful proceeds, Shirlock and Cooperman confirmed
their colors by deducting a sum of $10.75 (or something like that)
which, they claimed, MY MOTHER had physically withdrawn at the box
office (while she was bedridden with a serious illness in Montreux,
unable to walk even a few steps). In the years that followed, the play
has been performed under the Nabokov flag here and there (less here than
there, e.g., in remote corners of the former Soviet Union,and I keep
getting buttonholed by peripheral Russians "who have seen my father's
play." Meanwhile, in Milano, Luigi Ronconi presented a truly fine
theatrical adaptation, not of LOLITA the novel but of LOLITA the
screenplay. Let Albee & co. try to sue me, but they're not getting a
cent from that.
I take full responsibility for this mess, and wanted to clarify it in
case someone cared.
Warm greetings,
Dmitri
----- End forwarded message -----