Joe Orton's "Up Against It" The Movie The Beatles Never Made
Two men are lounging on a bed they have shared for six years in a dingy London rooming house. The telephone rings. Kenneth Halliwell, a large bald fellow with the frazzled nerves of a jealous Cockney housewife, leaps up to answer the phone before his roommate and lover Joe Orton can move.
Joe Orton's "Up Against It" The Movie The Beatles Never Made
Mark Jenkins
Two men are lounging on a bed they have shared for six years in a dingy London rooming house. The telephone rings. Kenneth Halliwell, a large bald fellow with the frazzled nerves of a jealous Cockney housewife, leaps up to answer the phone before his roommate and lover Joe Orton can move. When he makes out what the crackling voice on the other end of the line is saying, Halliwell’s face crumples into a mask of fleshy confusion. Handing the receiver to Orton, he whispers, “Paul McCartney wants to see you.” Oh yeah, and it’s 1967.
Twenty years later, and the subject of that phone call is again making news. It has taken two decades, but at last the product of that meeting of pop culture’s sharpest minds Is coming to fruition. New York’s theater establishment is buzzing with excitement about Joe Papp’s involvement while the rock ’n’ roll community salivates over Todd Rundgren’s contribution. It seems that anyone with a stake in music or theater is eagerly awaiting the long-overdue materialization of the project. But that’s getting ahead of the story.