Archives for September 10, 2009

Vanity Fair is going to be posting a pair of “audio excerpts” from Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong on its Web site later this fall, so I spent the morning taping them. In one of the two passages, Armstrong repeatedly uses a twelve-letter word that has never appeared on this blog but is part of the working vocabulary of many jazz musicians. I read it into the microphone five times in a row without blinking an eye, and as I did so, it occurred to me that my own mother, who has never heard me use such language, might not approve.
Fortunately, my mother doesn’t have a computer, so I think I’m in the clear. Nevertheless, I hope nobody tips her off that her son is going to be talking dirty on the Internet….

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)

• God of Carnage * (serious comedy, PG-13, adult subject matter, 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)

IN ASHLAND, OREGON:

• The Music Man (musical, G, very child-friendly, closes Nov. 1, reviewed here)

IN CHICAGO:

• The History Boys (drama, PG-13/R, adult subject matter, too intellectually complex for most adolescents, extended through Oct. 18, reviewed here)

IN SPRING GREEN, WIS.:

• Henry V (Shakespeare, G, closes Oct. 2, reviewed here)

IN STRATFORD, ONTARIO:

• The Importance of Being Earnest (comedy, G, closes Oct. 30, reviewed here)

• Three Sisters (drama, PG-13, closes Oct. 3, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON IN SPRING GREEN, WIS.:

• The Winter’s Tale (Shakespeare, PG-13, closes Sept. 26, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON IN TOPANGA, CALIF.:

• The Cherry Orchard (drama, PG-13, adult subject matter, closes Sept. 26, reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK IN EAST HADDAM, CONN.:

• Camelot (musical, G, closes Sept. 19, reviewed here)

CLOSING SUNDAY ON BROADWAY

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

“I have never known a novel that was good enough to be good in spite of its being adapted to the author’s political views.”
Edith Wharton, letter to Upton Sinclair (Aug. 19, 1927)