Archives for November 2009

“People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestors.”
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France

The man who made The Letter possible died a few weeks ago, though the news has only just been released.
Lord Glendevon, who went by his given name of Julian Hope, was the grandson and literary executor of Somerset Maugham, who wrote the play on which Paul Moravec and I based our opera. He was a noted opera director in his own right, and so he was enormously encouraging when Paul and I first approached him about adapting The Letter.
Alas, I never met Julian, who was too ill to attend the premiere of The Letter in Santa Fe. Judging by his affectionate obituaries, I missed out on an exceedingly good thing.
Paul, who got to know Julian a bit, passes on this reminiscence:

I met Julian for dinner in New York a few years ago to discuss plans and rights for The Letter. As steward of the Maugham estate, he enthusiastically supported the project and granted permission generously and expeditiously. I liked him immensely. He was a person of unpretentious intelligence and elegant civility, a true gentleman. We stayed in touch by e-mail and telephone as the project evolved, and though I didn’t know him well, I still feel as though I’ve lost a good friend.

Would that I could say the same!

Here’s my list of recommended Broadway and off-Broadway 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, closes Jan. 10, reviewed here)

• Finian’s Rainbow (musical, G, suitable for children, dramatically inert but musically sumptuous, reviewed here)

• God of Carnage * (serious comedy, PG-13, adult subject matter, closes Jan. 3, reviewed here)

• Oleanna (drama, PG-13/R, adult subject matter, violence, reviewed here)

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

• A Steady Rain * (drama, R, totally unsuitable for children, closes Dec. 6, reviewed here)

• Superior Donuts (dark comedy, PG-13, violence, reviewed here)

OFF BROADWAY:

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

• The Emperor Jones (drama, PG-13, contains racially sensitive language, extended through Dec. 6, reviewed here)

• 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)

“Not to go to the theatre is like making one’s toilet without a mirror.”
Arthur Schopenhauer, Parerga und Paraliponema

…you can always order a copy of the British edition, which went on sale last week.

The first movement of Peter Anastos’ “Go for Barocco,” a George Balanchine parody set to Bach’s Third Brandenburg Concerto and danced by Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo:

(This is the latest in a weekly series of arts-related videos that appear in this space each Wednesday.)

“Blind and meaningless chance seems to me so much more congenial–or at least less horrible. Prove to me that there is a God and I will really begin to despair.”
Peter De Vries, The Blood of the Lamb