Archives for December 17, 2009

Today I’m headed for New Orleans, though my first event there, oddly enough, isn’t a local one: I’ll be talking about Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong by phone from New Orleans with David Inge of Focus 580, broadcast live each morning over WILL-AM, the radio station of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Tune to 580 on your AM dial to hear me live starting at 11:06 a.m. CT, or go here to listen on your computer via streaming audio.
For those of you who live in or near New Orleans, I’ll be speaking about Pops at the Garden District Bookshop, 2727 Prytania Street, starting at 5:30 p.m. Go here for more details.
I have one more event in New Orleans on Friday morning: I’ll be talking about Pops on WWL-TV, Channel 4, at 8:15 a.m. CT. After that I fly up to St. Louis, meet Mrs. T at the Amtrak station, and drive down to Smalltown, U.S.A., for the holidays. Yes, I plan to ease off on the blogging next week–I need a bit of rest–but there’ll still be something new to amuse you every day in this space.
Just in case you’re wondering, I’ll be eating red beans and rice tonight!
UPDATE: Actually, I had them for lunch. Satchmo, who liked to sign his letters “Red Beans and Ricely Yours,” would have been pleased.

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, closes Jan. 10, reviewed here)

• Fela! * (musical, PG-13, adult subject matter, 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, 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:

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

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

• The Orphans’ Home Cycle, Part 1 (drama, G/PG-13, too complicated for children, will be performed in rotating repertory with second and third parts of cycle starting on Dec. 3 and Jan. 7 respectively, closes Mar. 27, reviewed here)

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

• The Understudy (farce, PG-13, closes Jan. 17, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON ON BROADWAY:

• Superior Donuts (dark comedy, PG-13, violence, closes Jan. 3, reviewed here)

CLOSING SATURDAY OFF BROADWAY:

• Biography (comedy, PG-13, reviewed here)

• The Starry Messenger (drama, PG-13, adult subject matter, reviewed here)

“Traveling in the company of those we love is home in motion.”
Leigh Hunt, The Indicator