Equus (Broadhurst, 235 W. 44, closes Feb. 8). A masterpiece it’s not, but Peter Shaffer’s 1973 play about a mentally disturbed stableboy and the psychatrist who has second thoughts about curing him is a spectacular piece of theater-for-its-own-sake, impressive enough that it’s easy to overlook the creakiness of the play’s intellectual underpinnings. This is the first Broadway revival of Equus, for which Daniel Radcliffe presumably deserves credit. Not surprisingly, the presence of Harry Potter in the cast has captured the imagination of the mass media–especially since he strips to the buff and runs around the stage in the next-to-last scene–but Radcliffe turns out to be a damned fine actor, while Richard Griffiths, lately of The History Boys, is as good as it gets (TT).
Archives for September 30, 2008
CD
The Soprano Summit in 1975 and More (Arbors). No, not that kind of soprano. This two-CD set contains fifteen previously unissued concert recordings by Soprano Summit, the celebrated jazz combo that featured Kenny Davern and Bob Wilber on soprano saxophone and clarinet. Soprano Summit was one of the finest traditional jazz groups of the Seventies–maybe ever–and these piping-hot performances show why it made so lasting an impression. (Marty Grosz’s wonderfully old-fashioned rhythm guitar is especially prominent in the mix.) If this CD doesn’t make you smile, get your face fixed. Also included are nine additional live tracks separately featuring Davern and Wilber in the company of Dick Wellstood and Ruby Braff (TT).
TT: Almanac
“Stuff a cold and starve a cold are but two ways. They are the two practices, both always in full blast. Yet you must take the advice of the one school as if there was no other.”
Henry David Thoreau, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers