Archives for May 2007

I depart this morning for Chicago, where I’ll be hanging out with Our Girl, eating at Hot Doug’s, the world’s greatest hot dog emporium, visiting Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House for the very first time, spending a night in yet another Frank Lloyd Wright house, and seeing three plays (see next Friday’s Wall Street Journal for details).
It’s a busier-than-usual schedule, and I don’t know whether it’ll leave any room for blogging, but if it does, you’ll hear from me–or her. Either way, I’ll be back in New York early next week and back at my desk shortly thereafter.

Here’s my list of recommended Broadway and off-Broadway shows, updated weekly. In all cases, I gave these shows favorable reviews in The Wall Street Journal when they opened. 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)
• A Chorus Line (musical, PG-13/R, adult subject matter, reviewed here)
• Company (musical, PG-13/R, adult subject matter and situations, reviewed here)
• The Drowsy Chaperone (musical, G/PG-13, mild sexual content and a profusion of double entendres, reviewed here)
• Frost/Nixon (drama, PG-13, some strong language, reviewed here, closes Aug. 19)
• LoveMusik (musical, PG-13, adult themes, reviewed here)
• A Moon for the Misbegotten* (drama, PG-13, adult situations, reviewed here, closes June 10)
• Talk Radio (drama, PG-13, 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)

OFF BROADWAY:
• The Fantasticks (musical, G, suitable for children old enough to enjoy a love story, reviewed here)
• Biography (drama, PG-13, adult subject matter, reviewed here, closes May 20)

CLOSING THIS WEEKEND:
• Salvage (The Coast of Utopia, part 3)* (drama, PG-13, nudity and adult subject matter, reviewed here, closes Sunday)
• Shipwreck (The Coast of Utopia, part 2)* (drama, PG-13, nudity and adult subject matter, reviewed here, closes Saturday)
• Voyage (The Coast of Utopia, part 1)* (drama, G, too complicated for children, reviewed here, closes Saturday)

“No good opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible.”
W.H. Auden (quoted in Time, Dec. 29, 1961)

I’m writing an opera.
To be exact, Santa Fe Opera, one of America’s most admired opera companies, has commissioned me to write the libretto for a musical version of Somerset Maugham’s “The Letter,” a 1924 short story that Maugham turned into a play three years later. The score will be by my friend and neighbor Paul Moravec, who won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 2004 and was recently appointed artist-in-residence at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study. The commission was announced at a press conference held in Santa Fe earlier this hour.
“The Letter” has been filmed twice, the second time by William Wyler in 1940. If you don’t know the plot in any of its various manifestations, take it from me, it’s the stuff operas are made of. Lust, betrayal, murder, blackmail…what’s not to like? I feel like singing already. Paul and I are shaping it into a very tight structure (ninety minutes, no intermission) that we hope will have the feel of a film noir and the punch of a verismo opera. Think Tosca or Carmen directed by Jacques Tourneur and you’ll get the idea.
As for Paul’s music, allow me to quote from my liner notes for the Trio Solisti’s recording of two of his best pieces, Mood Swings and the Pulitzer-winning Tempest Fantasy:

Despite the considerable, at times formidable complexity of these tough-minded works, which are anything but “easy” in the way they translate experience and emotion into the realm of sound, their complexities are never gratuitous. To put it another way, they make sense. Their harmonies are lucid and logical, their melodies indelibly noble. They are, literally, eloquent, the painstakingly wrought, powerfully moving utterances of an artist who believes with all his heart in the possibility of beauty. I know no other music written today that moves me more.

The premiere of The Letter is set for the summer of 2009, but the production is already starting to take shape. Am I excited? You’d better believe it. Nervous, too, since this is the first time I’ve ever written anything for the stage (I tried to write a play a few years ago, but it wasn’t any good). Fortunately, Paul is such a splendid composer and Maugham so solid a theatrical craftsman that I think The Letter has an excellent chance of hitting the bull’s-eye. At any rate, it’ll be interesting to see what it feels like to take a curtain call!
Much, much more to come….
UPDATE: From the Santa Fe Opera press release:

Paul Moravec, the Pulitzer-Prize winning composer, has been commissioned to write an opera for The Santa Fe Opera to be premiered in the 2009 season. Announcement of the commission was made today in Santa Fe by General Director Richard Gaddes. The commission is the first of two planned by the company.
Mr. Moravec has chosen the play entitled The Letter written in 1927 by W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965). Considered a Maugham masterpiece, The Letter is set in the Far East, and tells the story of an adulterous affair that leads to murder, blackmail, and revenge. It was made into a film in 1940 starring Bette Davis which has become a classic. Terry Teachout, the eminent critic and writer, is the librettist.
In making the announcement Gaddes commented: “When I first heard music by Paul Moravec I was immediately captivated. The great thing about him is that he’s found a musical language all on his own that is both pleasing to the ear and at the same time very contemporary. It is ground breaking and we are excited that this important American composer has agreed to write for The Santa Fe Opera. While Paul has written for voice, this is his first opera.”

Henceforth I shall be known as His Eminence! (You need not kiss the ring, though.)

Remember to come back at 1:30 this afternoon for a big fat honking announcement.
(Did I mention that it’s big?)

Yesterday’s new piece of music was Miklós Rózsa’s Piano Sonata in A Minor, Op. 20, composed in 1948 and recorded for Capitol by Leonard Pennario (remember him?) in 1956.

“I love Italian opera–it’s so reckless. Damn Wagner, and his bellowings at Fate and death. Damn Debussy, and his averted face. I like the Italians who run all on impulse, and don’t care about their immortal souls, and don’t worry about the ultimate.”
D.H. Lawrence, letter, April 1, 1911

Those of you who visited the New York Drama Critics’ Circle’s new Web site to read about this year’s awards may have noticed that its members are all connected in some way or other with the print media. This fact has not gone unnoticed in our shop. It’s been discussed, and will continue to be discussed. I can’t tell you anything more specific than that, but I can say that there is a sharp division of opinion among our membership about whether or not we ought to admit exclusively Web-based writers to our ranks.
Regardless of what we decide, it strikes me that somebody out there in the ‘sphere ought to consider starting a similar group of Web-based drama critics and commentators that would give its own theater awards each year, just like the NYDCC and the Outer Critics Circle.
The number of serious and committed stagebloggers reached a critical mass (so to speak) this season, and I now spend at least as much time keeping up with what they write as I do reading the reviews of my print-media brethren. I have no organizational skills, but as one of the few drama critics in New York with a foot firmly planted in both camps, I’d be glad to do what I could to help get such an organization started.
How about it, stagebloggers? Is anyone interested?
UPDATE: Mr. Superfluities is game.
So is Mr. Parabasis.