Archives for July 2009

Paul Moravec on the set of The Letter:

(For more details, follow my “livetweeting” of today’s stage rehearsal by going to my Twitter page.)

In today’s Wall Street Journal drama column I report on my recent visit to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and most of my review is devoted to Bill Rauch’s revival of The Music Man. Here’s an excerpt.
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Robert Preston was the best thing–and the worst–that ever happened to “The Music Man.” His 1957 Broadway performance as Harold Hill, the smooth-talking con man who breezes into a hick town to defraud its residents and ends up losing his heart to the local librarian, was so exuberantly charismatic that it made him a star overnight. Five years later, Preston appeared in the film version of “The Music Man,” one of a handful of Hollywood musicals to clearly suggest the theatrical impact of the stage show on which it was based. Since then, every director who takes on “The Music Man” has labored in the long shadow of the 1962 film version. Not even Susan Stroman, who staged the 2000 Broadway revival, managed to break free from its now-stifling example, while Craig Bierko, who played Harold Hill for Stroman, did little more than mimic Preston’s indelible performance.
All this points to the reason why the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s production of “The Music Man” is making so positive an impression on its audiences. Bill Rauch, the company’s artistic director, has done what I thought impossible: He’s turned his back on tradition and given us a high-concept “Music Man” in which every detail has been rethought and refurbished. Yet Mr. Rauch’s innovations never obstruct our front-row view of Meredith Willson’s sweet salute to turn-of-the-century American life. It’s as though a faded painting had been scrupulously restored and hung in a brand-new gallery. Yes, it’s still the same old show, but you’ll see things in it that you didn’t know were there.
The surprises start when a lone musician strolls onto Rachel Hauck’s penny-plain clapboard unit set, pulls a harmonica out of his pocket and plays a medley of tunes from the show instead of the usual slam-bang knock-’em-dead overture. The stage fills with actors dressed in black, white and gray. This is River City, a town full of upright folk who lead ultra-proper lives (We’re so by-God stubborn we can stand touchin’ noses/For a week at a time and never see eye to eye). Then a too-friendly gent in a gaudy red waistcoat dances into town and tells everyone he meets that what they need is a brass band. One by one, the locals succumb to the in-your-face charm of the unscrupulous “Professor” Hill (Michael Elich) and sign on the dotted line–and as they do so, they start to sport flashy-looking socks, handkerchiefs and other accessories. By intermission, the stage is as colorful as a double rainbow….
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Read the whole thing here.

“Whatever is in any way beautiful has its source of beauty in itself, and is complete in itself; praise forms no part of it. So it is none the worse nor the better for being praised.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

I wrote a piece for Sunday’s Los Angeles Times on what it feels like for a drama critic to put himself on the line by writing a stage work:

I didn’t agree to write an opera libretto in order to become a better critic, much less to impress the artists whose work I review. But I’ve found in recent months that a good many theater professionals appear to be pleasantly surprised that I’m putting my money where my mouth is. Together with Paul Moravec and the other wonderfully gifted men and women with whom I am collaborating on the premiere of The Letter, I’m submitting myself for approval–not just from my fellow critics but from the people who read my reviews each week….

My piece has just been posted on the paper’s Web site, and you can read it by going here.

I saw the sets for The Letter for the first time at Wednesday’s stage rehearsal, and I also heard the Santa Fe Opera pit orchestra play the first four scenes. Both experiences were knock-me-down exciting. Fortunately, I was able to connect with Twitter via wi-fi from my seat in the theater, so I “livetweeted” the entire rehearsal in considerable detail.
To find out how it all went, go to my Twitter page and start scrolling. (The tweets are in reverse chronological order.)

Here’s my list of recommended Broadway, off-Broadway, and out-of-town shows, updated weekly. In all cases, I gave these shows favorable reviews (if sometimes qualifiedly so) 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:

• Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps (comedy, G, suitable for bright children, reviewed here)

• Avenue Q * (musical, R, adult subject matter and one show-stopping scene of puppet-on-puppet sex, closes Sept. 13, reviewed here)

• The Little Mermaid * (musical, G, entirely suitable for children, closes Aug. 30, reviewed here)

• Mary Stuart (drama, G, far too long and complicated for children, closes Aug. 16, reviewed here)

• South Pacific * (musical, G/PG-13, some sexual content, brilliantly staged but unsuitable for viewers acutely allergic to preachiness, reviewed here)

OFF BROADWAY:

• The Fantasticks (musical, G, suitable for children capable of enjoying a love story, reviewed here)

• Our Town (drama, G, suitable for mature children, reviewed here)

• Ruined (drama, PG-13/R, sexual content and suggestions of extreme violence, closes Sept. 6, reviewed here)

IN CHICAGO:

• The History Boys (drama, PG-13/R, adult subject matter, too intellectually complex for most adolescents, extended through Sept. 27, reviewed here)

• A Minister’s Wife (musical, PG-13, closes Aug. 2, reviewed here)

IN GARRISON, N.Y.:

• Pericles and Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare, PG-13, playing in repertory through Sept. 6, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON ON BROADWAY:

• The Norman Conquests (three related comedies, PG-13, comprehensively unsuitable for children, playing in repertory through July 26, reviewed here)

CLOSING SUNDAY ON BROADWAY:

• God of Carnage * (serious comedy, PG-13, adult subject matter, reopens Sept. 8 and runs through Nov. 15, reviewed here)

CLOSING SUNDAY OFF BROADWAY:

• The Rivalry (historical drama, G, too complicated for children, reviewed here)

CLOSING SUNDAY IN LA JOLLA:

• Restoration (serious comedy, PG-13, reviewed here)

“You know who the critics are? The men who have failed in literature and art.”
Benjamin Disraeli, Lothair

Direct from the stage of the Santa Fe Opera: