Archives for July 5, 2012

I dreamed last night that I was about to give a performance of Satchmo at the Waldorf in front of an invited audience of a hundred or so people, one of whom was Lucille Armstrong, Satchmo’s fourth and last wife (yes, she’s dead). One minute before it was time for me to go on, I suddenly realized that:
(A) I can’t act
(B) I can’t do Armstrong’s voice
(C) I couldn’t remember the first line of the play
As I ran around the performance space snatching papers out of people’s hands to see if they happened to have a copy of the script, Gordon Edelstein, the director, was rolling on the floor, laughing with utter glee.
Somehow I suspect this won’t be the last such dream I have between now and August 22.

• Rain dripping from the trees long after the sun comes out
• The sheep in the meadow next to my studio
• Ping-pong games in Colony Hall
• The raucous clang of the dinner bell
• A dog barking in the middle distance, just far away enough for the sound to be swaddled in a haze of echo
• The small, precise, dryly amused voice of one of my fellow colonists
• The quiet clunk that my external hard drive makes as it warms up
• Leontyne Price’s recording of Samuel Barber’s “St. Ita’s Vision,” played on tiny travel speakers hooked up to my laptop at a moment of flagging inspiration
• The not-quite-silence of a soft summer afternoon

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 Aug. 5, reviewed here)

• The Best Man (drama, PG-13, closes Sept. 9, most performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

• Evita (musical, PG-13, most performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

• Once (musical, G/PG-13, all performances sold out last week, 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)

• Tribes (drama, PG-13, closes Sept. 2, reviewed here)

IN CHICAGO:

• Freud’s Last Session (drama, PG-13, restaging of off-Broadway production, closes Sept. 2, reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK IN CHICAGO:

• Floyd Collins (musical, G, very problematic for children, closes July 15, reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK IN PASADENA, CALIF.:

• Jitney (drama, PG-13, transfer of South Coast Repertory revival, closes July 15, original run reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK IN PITTSFIELD, MASS.:

• Fiddler on the Roof (musical, G, closes July 14, reviewed here)

“A sin takes on new and real terrors when there seems a chance that it is going to be found out. This gives it a fresh and most substantial and important aspect.”
Mark Twain, “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg”