Archives for 2010

A new book about Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue has just been published–the third to appear in the past decade. Granted that Kind of Blue is a masterpiece and thus by definition worthy of extended discussion and analysis, that still strikes me as a bit excessive, and in light of the album’s undiminished cultural ubiquity, I was inspired to write a “Sightings” column for Saturday’s Wall Street Journal in which I suggest that one of the best things we can do with masterpieces is give them an occasional rest.
Would the world end if we all agreed not to listen to Kind of Blue for the next twelve months, or watch Citizen Kane? Or might such a moratorium actually sharpen our responses to these over-familiar works of art? If those questions pique your interest, pick up a copy of tomorrow’s Journal and see what I have to say.
UPDATE: Read the whole thing here.

“Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

Once Art Linkletter was ubiquitous. Now he’s forgotten, save by senior citizens and those who, like me, are inching slowly but surely toward the sixtieth meridian. Such is fame in the age of television.
For those with very long memories, here’s the opening segment of a 1965 episode of House Party, Linkletter’s long-lived CBS daytime series–it ran on radio from 1945 to 1967 and on TV from 1952 to 1969–in which he interviews Lucille Ball:

Right here:

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:

• La Cage aux Folles * (musical, PG-13, adult subject matter, reviewed here)

• Fela! * (musical, PG-13, adult subject matter, reviewed here)

• Fences * (drama, PG-13/R, adult subject matter, closes July 11, reviewed here)

• Million Dollar Quartet (jukebox musical, G, reviewed here)

• South Pacific (musical, G/PG-13, some sexual content, brilliantly staged but unsuitable for viewers acutely allergic to preachiness, closes Aug. 22, reviewed here)

OFF BROADWAY:

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

• 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)

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

• That Face (drama, PG-13, not suitable for children, reviewed here)

IN CHICAGO:

• Killer Joe (black comedy-drama, X, extreme violence and nudity, extended through July 18, reviewed here)

IN GLENCOE, ILL.:

• A Streetcar Named Desire (drama, PG-13, adult subject matter, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON OFF BROADWAY:

• The Glass Menagerie (drama, G, too dark for children, closes June 13, reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK ON BROADWAY:

• A Behanding in Spokane (black comedy, PG-13, violence and adult subject matter, closes June 6, reviewed here)

• God of Carnage (serious comedy, PG-13, adult subject matter, closes June 6, reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK OFF BROADWAY:

• Doctor Knock, or The Triumph of Medicine (satire, G, not easily accessible to children, closes June 6, reviewed here)

CLOSING SATURDAY IN CHICAGO:

• The Good Soul of Szechuan (drama, PG-13, adult subject matter, reviewed here)

CLOSING SUNDAY OFF BROADWAY:

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

“When the American movie-maker becomes aware of a discrepancy between his film and the appearance of life, he corrects the difference in favor of ‘realism.’ The search for the direct and the literal produces some of our best effects.”
Orson Welles, “Orson Welles Today,” New York Post, May 23, 1945

The Red Norvo Trio plays “Fascinating Rhythm,” with Tal Farlow on guitar and Steve Novosel on bass:

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

“How often have I lain beneath rain on a strange roof, thinking of home.”
William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying