Archives for December 2007

Jonathan Carr, The Wagner Clan: The Saga of Germany’s Most Illustrious and Infamous Family (Atlantic Monthly, $27.50). Even if you’re not one of those who think Richard Wagner’s music is better read about than listened to, my guess is that you’ll find this crisply, engagingly written study of the Wagners and what they wrought to be full of interesting things you probably didn’t know. Carr tells the tale fairly, but with just enough acid to keep it tart (TT).

Rock ‘n’ Roll (Bernard B. Jacobs, 242 W. 45). With the end of the stagehands’ strike, Tom Stoppard’s latest play, a study of the last days of Communism in Czechoslovakia and England, has returned to Broadway. Yes, it’s way too long, but that doesn’t make Stoppard’s reflections on philosophical materialism and its emotional discontents any less stimulating or perennially relevant, and Sinead Cusack’s performance in the tricky double role of a mother and her daughter is the stuff Tonys are made of (TT).

Greta Gertler and the Extroverts, Edible Restaurant. Fresh, quirky indie pop by a singer-pianist with the bicontinental sensibility of an Aussie in New York, accompanied by a deliciously rough-hewn backup band whose deep-throated tuba and Salvation Army-style drums add a touch of Kurt Weill to the recipe. Check out “If Bob Was God” for a taste of Gertler’s smart songwriting (TT).