Archives for June 2006

It’s Friday, and time once again for my weekly Wall Street Journal drama-column teaser. This time around I comment on three shows, one out of town (Paper Mill Playhouse’s revival of Hello, Dolly!, starring Tovah Feldshuh), one local (Second Stage’s The Water’s Edge), and one
from out of town (Boston’s Actors’ Shakespeare Project production of King Lear, now playing at the Annex at La MaMa). The verdicts? Mixed, mostly unfavorable, and wildly enthusiastic:

If you warm to the notion of a no-nonsense Dolly whose singing is efficient and uningratiating, Mrs. Feldshuh will no doubt delight you, but I found her over-earnest performance to be painfully charmless.

Paper Mill’s production, directed by Mark S. Hoebee, is in most other respects quite agreeable, and Mia Michaels’ choreography is especially pleasing. For me, the real problem is not Ms. Feldshuh but the show itself, which is dated in all the wrong ways….

Is it ever a good idea for contemporary playwrights to emulate the Greeks? I have my doubts after seeing “The Water’s Edge,” in which Theresa Rebeck, the author of “Bad Dates,” takes an up-to-the-minute plot about divorce and its discontents and gives it a tragic (and bloody) second-act twist. Up to that point things hum along pretty nicely, but no sooner does Ms. Rebeck start to confuse herself with Aeschylus than her not-uninteresting play explodes in mid-air, disintegrating into a thick black cloud of inadvertent comedy….

Sometimes lightning does strike twice. Boston’s Actors’ Shakespeare Project has brought its tremendous production of “King Lear,” which I saw last October, to New York, where it looks just as good–better, even….

No link, so please feel free to read the whole thing by purchasing a copy of Friday’s Journal at your local newsstand. Alternatively, you can always go here to subscribe to the Online Journal, which will give you immediate access to the full text of my review, plus other reviews and art-related stories.

“Let me give you one piece of advice: if you want to get on in the world, never tell a story. Nothing is so tiresome as a raconteur, and there’s no such thing as a story one hasn’t heard before.”

Maurice Baring, C

Once again I’m writing to you from Connecticut, the land of stone walls and forgotten cemeteries. Today I picnicked on top of a dam, bought a jar of Marmite at the local health-food store, ate the best hamburger I’ve ever had in my life, put in several hours’ worth of work on Hotter Than That, and checked my phone messages before driving back into the woods for the night.

That’s all I’ve got to tell you. The rest I’ll leave to Our Girl. See you on Friday.

Here’s my list of recommended Broadway and off-Broadway shows, updated weekly. In all cases, I either gave these shows strongly favorable reviews in The Wall Street Journal when they opened or saw and liked them some time in the past year (or both). For more information, click on the title.

Warning: Broadway shows marked with an asterisk were sold out, or nearly so, last week.

BROADWAY:

– Avenue Q* (musical, R, adult subject matter and one show-stopping scene of puppet-on-puppet sex, reviewed here)

– Bridge & Tunnel (solo show, PG-13, some adult subject matter, reviewed here, closes Aug. 6)

– Chicago (musical, R, adult subject matter and sexual content)

– The Drowsy Chaperone* (musical, G/PG-13, mild sexual content and a profusion of double entendres, reviewed here)

– Faith Healer* (drama, R, adult subject matter, reviewed here, closes July 30)

– The Lieutenant of Inishmore (black comedy, R, adult subject matter and extremely graphic violence, reviewed here)

– Sweeney Todd (musical, R, adult subject matter, reviewed here)

– The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee* (musical, PG-13, mostly family-friendly but contains a smattering of strong language and a production number about an unwanted erection, reviewed here)

– The Wedding Singer (musical, PG-13, some sexual content, reviewed here)

OFF BROADWAY:

– Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living In Paris (musical revue, R, adult subject matter and sexual content, reviewed here)

– Slava’s Snowshow (performance art, G, child-friendly, reviewed here)

CLOSING THIS WEEKEND:

– Awake and Sing! (drama, PG-13, adult subject matter, reviewed here, closes Sunday)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK:

– Doubt (drama, PG-13, adult subject matter and implicit sexual content, reviewed here, closes July 2)

– The Light in the Piazza (musical, PG-13, adult subject matter and a brief bedroom scene, reviewed here, closes July 2)

“She saw that although he lived in the world of art, that is to say, the world of books, literature and poetry, the world of artists was unknown to him. That was a world which she knew all too well. She had lived in it ever since her childhood, and she had known more than enough of it. She had seen a sordid side of Bohemian life, which had kindled in her a violent reaction. Her father and mother were both of them natural Bohemians. Their friends were nearly all of them Bohemians, and, for the most part, unsuccessful artists, forgotten musicians, unpublished poets and unplayed playwrights. They knew, it is true, some successful artists and some well-known authors, but they drew the unsuccessful and the needy toward them like magnets. Uncouth, talkative, shabby, hard-up, easy-going people were constantly in and out of the house, and Beatrice had often said to herself, ‘Philistia, be thou glad of me,’ only the trouble was there was no chance of getting anywhere near Philistia. She knew that C. knew nothing of all her world. She saw plainly that he imagined the world of artists and writers to be an ideal framework for all that was finest in art and literature, and to correspond to that. He imagined it to consist of nothing but completely disinterested, devoted and self-sacrificing Paladins, who were working, all of them under great difficulties and at great personal sacrifice, for the good and glory of mankind, and living masterpieces as well as painting and writing them. He mentioned artists with bated breath, as if they belonged to a higher sphere into which he would never be allowed to set foot. Beatrice, who knew the reality, foresaw that he would scarcely be able to avoid disenchantment and disillusion.”

Maurice Baring, C

I wrote my “Sightings” column with the windows wide open, accompanied by the sound of chirping birds. When I was finished, I drove over to Hosmer Mountain Bottling Company to pick up a case of soda, then returned to my country retreat to eat dinner and watch TV with the friend at whose farmhouse I’m spending the week. Among other things, we watched Grand Illusion and Patton (which make a perfectly complementary pair, unlikely as that may sound).

We also looked at the episode of Legends of Jazz in which Jim Hall and Pat Metheny chat with Ramsey Lewis and play three tunes, one solo apiece and a duet version of “All the Things You Are” accompanied by Christian McBride and Antonio Sanchez. It was my first viewing of PBS’s only regular jazz program, about which a fellow blogger recently expressed mixed feelings. I saw what he meant: the camera work was slickly, obtrusively busy, the interview segments superficial. On the other hand, my friend listened closely and attentively to Hall’s performance of “My Funny Valentine,” at the end of which she said, “Oh, wow! He’s fantastic!” Any show that allows a great jazzman to play long enough to evoke that kind of response from a non-musician must be doing something right.

If you’ve never heard Jim Hall & Pat Metheny, by the way, I suggest you stop reading, click on the link, and order one of the most beautiful jazz guitar recordings ever made. I wrote about it five years ago in a profile of Metheny published in Time:

“Jim Hall & Pat Metheny” (Telarc), released last year, teamed the two friends for a bewitching program of unaccompanied duets. “It encapsulates the love and respect I have for Jim,” Metheny says. Best of all is a magically spare version of “Farmer’s Trust,” a tender waltz originally recorded by the Metheny Group in 1982, which leaves no doubt that despite his love of ear-popping electronic effects, he is above all a wonderfully fluent spinner of simple yet indelible melodies.

On the way to the Hosmer Mountain Bottling Company, I drove past a sign that read as follows: FIRE DEP’T WATER HOLE. My cell phone doesn’t work out here and I’m using a dialup connection to post these words. All this will give you some idea of how far off the beaten path I am.

I plan to spend Wednesday working on Hotter Than That, with time out for an early-afternoon picnic. In case you were wondering, I like it here–a lot.

See you later, maybe.

“They both felt that life was conducted, that people were judged, that things were done, opinions accepted, books read according to certain rigid and inflexible standards and codes. When some one mentioned a certain new musical comedy which had just been produced, and had achieved an instantaneous success, Lady Hengrave said with solemn decision, ‘Edward couldn’t get places, but we will go directly we get to London.’ Wright felt, and C. felt that he was feeling, that to see this particular play was looked upn as a kind of sacred duty, like going to church on Sunday, which it would be a gross breach of decorum not to fulfil.”

Maurice Baring, C

On Monday I filed my Wall Street Journal drama column, filled a suitcase full of books about Louis Armstrong, picked up a Zipcar, and headed for Connecticut, stopping along the way to grab a bite at Super Duper Weenie (which really is as good as its reviews, in case you were wondering). Where I am now is nobody’s business, though I’ll admit to hearing frogs and crickets outside my open window. I plan to spend the next three days working on Hotter Than That: A Life of Louis Armstrong, writing my “Sightings” column for Saturday’s Journal, and taking it easy when not otherwise occupied.

I’ll be back in New York on Friday afternoon. I don’t expect to post much between now and then, save for the daily almanac entry and the usual theater-related postings. Have a nice week!