Opening Night (1977) on Netflix
Myrtle Gordon, a renowned actress, rehearses The Second Woman in New Haven before its Broadway run. She cannot relate to her character, and a fan's death outside the theater unsettles her.
- Netflix3.5/5
- IMDb7.8/1014,308 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes96%
Trailer
Plot summary
Myrtle Gordon is a renowned actress in New Haven, Connecticut, nearing the opening night of The Second Woman, the play she is rehearsing before its Broadway run. Myrtle says she cannot relate to the play or to her character, a woman distraught about aging, and she drinks heavily. Her erratic behavior troubles the people around her, among them the leading man Maurice Aarons, a former lover, the director Manny Victor, the playwright Sarah Goode and the producer David Samuels.
Cast
- John Tuellas Gus Simmons
- Ray Powersas Jimmy
- Louise Lewisas Kelly (as Louise Fitch)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Opening Night (1977)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- John Cassavetes failed to find an American distributor for Opening Night: it opened in Los Angeles on December 25, 1977, played to almost empty houses and never showed commercially elsewhere, and was only picked up by a U.S. distributor in 1991, two years after his death.
- Several bands referenced the film: Motion City Soundtrack's EP Back to the Beat has a song called "Opening Night" about it, The Hold Steady allude to it on 2008's Stay Positive, and Savages' "Shut Up" opens with Rowlands and Blondell dialogue sampled from the film.
- Pedro Almodóvar repeats the film's accident scene in his film All About My Mother, where it becomes the center of the dramatic conflict.
- Though the film is set in New Haven, Connecticut and New York City, Cassavetes shot Opening Night on location in Los Angeles and Pasadena, California, with the play sequences staged at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.
