TT: News of a wandering critic

Mrs. T and I continue to live out of our suitcases. On Friday we made it to Spring Green, Wisconsin, after spending three unscheduled days in Smalltown, U.S.A., with my mother, who is recovering from her third operation in as many months. Her prospects, unlikely as it may sound, are extremely good.
Once it was evident that she was on the mend, we headed north to see three shows at American Players Theatre, a summer festival that specializes in the classics and isn’t nearly as well known as it ought to be. It’s become one of our regular stops, and we were exceedingly glad to get there, partly because we were desperately tired of running around and partly because one of our favorite people, Keiran Murphy, lives in Spring Green and works at Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright’s rural Wisconsin estate. We took Keiran to the last of our three shows, The Critic, yesterday afternoon, then staggered back to our hotel and fell into (A) the hot tub and (B) bed.
Today is what theater people call a “dark day,” meaning that we don’t have any shows to see. Mrs. T has the day off, but I have to write, so I got up early, ate breakfast, and knocked out Friday’s Wall Street Journal drama column, after which I started working on a Commentary essay about Tony Bennett, who is the subject of a newly published biography. It happens that Bennett is not only one of the greatest pop singers who ever lived but an amateur painter of no small accomplishment. (The canvas reproduced here, “Sunday in Central Park,” is one of his best efforts.) I plan to say a little something about his work in that area if space permits.
Now I need to get back to work, for Mrs. T and I are pulling up stakes again tomorrow morning, and I want if at all possible to finish the Bennett essay before we leave. I’ll say more about where we’re going when we get there!