My Favorite Year
Picture Page 5
Alan charms everyone, telling them stories of Hollywood and asking them questions about their lives. After dinner, while Benjy cleans up, Belle and Alan sit on the couch and have a serious talk. "What about you, what about your family?" asks Belle, and she discovers that Alan has a daughter whom he hasn't seen in three years. "Shame on you, Swannie" she admonishes him. "Yes, Belle, shame on me indeed."
Benjy takes Alan's revelation personally. He can't help but compare his abandonment by his father to Alan's abandonment of his daughter Tess. He wants to understand why Alan has chosen to not see his child. "There are practical considerations, logistical hurdles" explains Alan, but those are only excuses.
Alan sings If the World Were Like the Movies which discloses his real reasons for staying away from his child:
...And the child would have a father who was always there,
playing games and flying homemade kites,
cheering at her high school plays,
tucking her in bed on stormy nights.
Never absent, never cruel,
not a drunk, not a fool!
A father who could give his daughter
blue lights, pink lights, just like the movies...
If the world were like the movies,
I'd know how to play the part.
I'd be there when I was needed
and I'd nver break her heart.
She would never see me stumble,
and I'd never let her down.
I'd be sober wise and humble,
the Defender of the Crown!
Well, thank God, she has my movies to see.
She is better off with movies
than me.
When Belle brings out her surprise, which is after dinner champagne, Alan helps himself to it with a vengeance. Benjy has a difficult and sleepless night trying to get Alan back to his hotel room so he can sober up before the show the next day.
K.C. comes over to watch Alan while Benjy runs an errand. Because Benjy is too tired to be "on," K.C. relates to him for the first time, and, caught up in the moment, they dance in Waldorf suite.
At work later that day, Benjy and K.C. realize the magic they found at the Waldorf hasn't disappeared, and they agree to meet after the show.
Alice and King do a final runthrough of their comedy routine before the show.
Professional Showbusiness Comedy
Is harder than may seem
especially for King, who unknowingly is about to get squirted with seltzer water and hit with a pie in the face.
This is a scene which changed drastically between the time I saw it and by the time they recorded the cast album.
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