Mr. Charles Laughton. Now on home video for the first time, an ultra-rare kinescope of a Christmas special originally telecast by NBC in 1951 in which Laughton presented a shortened version of the much-admired program of prose and poetry readings that he performed throughout America during the Forties and Fifties. Not only is it hugely entertaining, but it’s touching–almost hurtfully so–to see what network TV executives once thought suitable for mass consumption (TT).
Archives for May 2012
PLAY
Man and Superman (Irish Rep, 132 W. 22, now extended through July 1). George Bernard Shaw’s marvelously excessive 1905 philosophical comedy, skillfully trimmed from five hours to three and staged by David Staller with the kind of propulsive comic force that makes a long evening feel short. The cast is first-rate, but the play’s the thing (TT).
TT: So you want to see a show?
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.
BROADWAY:
• Anything Goes (musical, G/PG-13, mildly adult subject matter that will be unintelligible to children, closes Sept. 9, reviewed here)
• The Best Man (drama, PG-13, extended through Sept. 9, some performances sold out last week, reviewed here)
• The Columnist (drama, PG-13/R, extended through July 1, many performances sold out last week, reviewed here)
• Evita (musical, PG-13, nearly all performances sold out last week, reviewed here)
• Godspell (musical, G, suitable for children, reviewed here)
• Once (musical, G/PG-13, nearly all performances sold out last week, reviewed here)
• Other Desert Cities (drama, PG-13, adult subject matter, closes June 17, reviewed here)
• Venus in Fur (serious comedy, R, adult subject matter, closes June 17, 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)
• 4000 Miles (drama, PG-13, extended through July 1, reviewed here)
• Million Dollar Quartet (jukebox musical, G, off-Broadway remounting of Broadway production, original run reviewed here)
• Tribes (drama, PG-13, closes Sept. 2, reviewed here)
IN CHICAGO:
• The Iceman Cometh (drama, PG-13, closes June 17, reviewed here)
• Timon of Athens (Shakespeare, PG-13, closes June 10, reviewed here)
IN LOS ANGELES:
• Follies (musical, PG-13, adult subject matter, transfer of Kennedy Center/Broadway revival, closes June 9, original run reviewed here)
CLOSING SOON ON BROADWAY:
• Death of a Salesman (drama, PG-13, unsuitable for children, all performances sold out last week, closes June 2, reviewed here)
CLOSING SOON IN CHICAGO:
• Angels in America (drama, PG-13/R, closes June 3, reviewed here)
CLOSING SATURDAY IN EVANSTON, ILL.:
• After the Revolution (drama, PG-13, reviewed here)
CLOSING SUNDAY ON BROADWAY:
• How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (musical, G/PG-13, perfectly fine for children whose parents aren’t actively prudish, reviewed here)
TT: Almanac
“Read Jennette Lee’s ‘The Ibsen Secret,’ perhaps the most successul of all the Ibsen gemaras in English, if you would know the virulence of the national appetite for bogus revelation. And so in all the arts. Whatever is profound and penetrating we stand off from; whatever is facile and shallow, particularly if it reveal a moral or mystical color, we embrace. Ibsen the first-rate dramatist was rejected with indignation precisely because of his merits–his sharp observation, his sardonic realism, his unsentimental logic. But the moment a meretricious and platitudinous ethical purpose began to be read into him–how he protested against it!–he was straightway adopted into our flabby culture.”
H.L. Mencken, A Book of Prefaces
TT: See me, hear me (cont’d)
The latest episode of Theater Talk, in which Ben Brantley of the New York Times, Peter Marks of the Washington Post, and I discuss the current Broadway season with Susan Haskins and Michael Riedel, is now available for viewing in streaming video. Here it is:
TT: The other America
A friend who sent flowers to my mother’s funeral writes:
I was the white roses, because your mother seemed like white roses to me. When I called the local florist, it was early Monday morning, nine a.m. I figured out where your mother might be from Google, and called around. When I got the flower shop that starts with P, I tried to explain who I was and what I wanted, and who the flowers were for. The woman who answered the phone asked for the family name, and when I told her she sucked in her breath: “Oh, she was a lovely woman, a wonderful woman.” And then in this little Midwestern way, she managed to tell me she was not claiming closeness, just declaring what was obvious. It was so touching, and we had a nice talk.
That’s what my mother was like–and what small towns are like.
TT: Snapshot
The Louvin Brothers sing “I Don’t Believe You’ve Met My Baby”:
(This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that appear in this space each Monday and Wednesday.)
TT: Almanac
“Prayer must never be answered: if it is, it ceases to be prayer, and becomes a correspondence.”
Oscar Wilde (quoted in Laurence Housman, Écho de Paris)