Archives for January 7, 2010

I am, or was, in Winter Park, Florida, preparing to take up my duties as a visiting scholar-in-residence at the Winter Park Institute and part-time teacher of criticism at Rollins College. But the ongoing saga of Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong is still going strong, so by the time most of you read these words, I’ll be flying north to Washington, D.C., where I’m speaking at Politics and Prose at seven p.m. tonight and making a string of radio and TV appearances later today and tomorrow morning. Among other things, I’m taping an interview with Brian Lamb of C-SPAN, about which more as soon as I know the air date.
I’ll be taking the train to New York after finishing up my last taping on Friday, and my plan is to spend the evening doing nothing whatsoever. On Saturday afternoon I’ll be speaking about Pops at the Louis Armstrong House Museum, about which more here. (Alas, you can’t come if you don’t already have a ticket–the event is sold out.) I fly back to Orlando that night, then scoop up Mrs. T and drive to Tampa on Sunday to see Jobsite Theatre‘s production of Joe Orton’s What the Butler Saw, one of my favorite plays. On Monday we return to Winter Park, where I teach my first class on Tuesday morning.
As if all that weren’t enough for one long weekend:
• Pops has just been nominated for an NAACP Image Award, about which more here.
• Pops debuts at #32 on the New York Times‘ nonfiction best-seller list for January 17.
Yeah, I know, I buried the lead. Sue me.

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:

• Fela! * (musical, PG-13, adult subject matter, 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, Parts 1 and 2 (drama, G/PG-13, too complicated for children, will be performed in rotating repertory with third part of cycle starting on Jan. 7, closes Mar. 28, reviewed here and here)

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

CLOSING SOON OFF BROADWAY:

• The Emperor Jones (drama, PG-13, contains racially sensitive language, closes Jan. 31, reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK OFF BROADWAY:

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

• Finian’s Rainbow (musical, G, suitable for children, dramatically inert but musically sumptuous, closes Jan. 17, reviewed here)

CLOSING SUNDAY ON BROADWAY:

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

“Address to younger writers, who think older writers like me are so famous and so different. We are no different at all, we are just the same as other writers, only we work harder.”
Patricia Highsmith, notebook entry, Sept. 10, 1962