Archives for 2013

“If the world were clear, art would not exist.”
Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus

The October issue of Essence, now on newsstands, contains a very nice review of Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington–the first to appear in a mainstream media publication.
Here’s the gist:

A thoroughly researched homage to this complex genius….Teachout exhaustively explores Ellington’s influence as one of the greatest composers in any genre. Like a detective, The Wall Street Journal critic pieces together clues to discover the private Duke. Given Ellington’s enigmatic persona, this is no easy feat. However, Teachout delivers a Duke unlike any we’ve seen in previous biographies. Here Ellington is both loyal and self-centered. He has conflicted relationsips with women. At last, Teachout affirms that music was Ellington’s greatest mistress–and to her, the composer was unrelentingly loyal.

Yay!

Today’s Wall Street Journal drama column is the second of two reports from Wisconsin’s American Players Theatre, in which I review productions of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and Hamlet (performed by the same cast) and a rare revival of Somerset Maugham’s Too Many Husbands. Here’s an excerpt.
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Rare is the opportunity to see “Hamlet” played in repertory–and by the same cast–as “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” Tom Stoppard’s 1966 pendant to Shakespeare’s tragedy, in which we find out (in a manner of speaking) what the faithless friends of the melancholy Dane are up to when they’re offstage. The problem is that the major roles in “Hamlet” are minor roles in “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern,” thus making it hard for both shows to be mounted simultaneously other than by a permanent ensemble or in a festival setting. Fortunately, American Players Theatre fills the bill on both counts…
James Bohnen’s trickery-free “R & G” (as Mr. Stoppard’s play is known among theater people) is a text-driven staging in which the bewitchingly clever script is always to the fore, with Ryan Imhoff and Steve Haggard playing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as a genial pair of youthful indie-flick types who don’t know why they’ve been summoned to Elsinore, then are left to stand around and wait for…what? We, of course, know what they don’t, We, of course, know what they don’t, which is that King Claudius (Jim DeVita) has nefarious reasons for wanting them to spy on Hamlet (Matt Schwader), who has his own reasons for not wanting to be spied upon….
John Langs’ “Hamlet” is a purposefully, unabashedly prosy version enacted with vitalizing speed and physicality (the climactic swordfight is positively scary). The costumes are traditional but the feel is contemporary, with Cristina Panfilio giving us a giggly Ophelia who has no notion of the black horrors that await her. Powerful cross-currents of dramatic tension are regularly relieved by laughter that never stoops to cheap irony. I wish that Mr. Schwader’s Hamlet were a bit more alert to the rhythms of Shakespeare’s verse, much of which comes off sounding like straight dialogue, but he fits into Mr. Langs’ potent staging like a blade sliding into its scabbard…
The Shaw Festival’s revival of “Our Betters,” about which I recently raved, left me wondering why Somerset Maugham’s plays aren’t better known. After seeing APT’s champagne-like production of his “Too Many Husbands,” my puzzlement has grown deeper still. Known in England as “Home and Beauty,” this 1919 comedy, staged with lapidary timing by David Frank, is a raucously funny comedy about a high-society fluffhead (Deborah Staples) who marries her husband’s best friend (Marcus Truschinski) after Husband No. 1 (James Ridge) is killed in the Great War. The catch is that he’s not dead–and when he shows up in London a couple of weeks after the armistice, things get out of hand with dizzying rapidity….
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Read the whole thing here.

“Sometimes it is harder to deprive oneself of a pain than of a pleasure.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tender is the Night

The Daily Beast just posted a list called “Our Mega Fall 2013 Books Preview: 21 Must Reads.” Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington made the cut:

The cultural critic and historian Terry Teachout is a meaty thinker, and as he tackles the life of the man who brought jazz into Carnegie Hall, he makes the case that one cannot understand modern America without contending with the sophisticated and complex legacy of Duke Ellington. It’s hard to argue with that.

Read the whole list 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.

BROADWAY:

• Annie (musical, G, closing Jan. 5, reviewed here)

• Matilda (musical, G, all performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

• Once (musical, G/PG-13, nearly 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)

IN NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, ONTARIO:

• Major Barbara (drama, PG-13, closes Oct. 19, reviewed here)

• Our Betters (comedy, PG-13, closes Oct. 27, reviewed here)

IN ASHLAND, OREGON:

• My Fair Lady (musical, G, closes Nov. 3, reviewed here)

IN SPRING GREEN, WISCONSIN:

• Antony and Cleopatra (Shakespeare, PG-13, closes Oct. 20, reviewed here)

• Dickens in America (one-man play, G, too demanding for small children, closes Oct. 19, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON IN NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, ONTARIO:

• Faith Healer (drama, PG-13, closes Oct. 6, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON IN SPRING GREEN, WISCONSIN:

• All My Sons (drama, G, too grim for most children, closes Sept. 28, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON ON BROADWAY:

• The Trip to Bountiful (drama, G, closes Oct. 9, reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK OFF BROADWAY:

• The Weir (drama, PG-13, closes Sept. 15, reviewed here)

“Family quarrels are bitter things. They don’t go according to any rules. They are not like aches or wounds; they are more like splits in the skin that won’t heal because there is not enough material.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald, “Babylon Revisited”

Teddi King sings “Tennessee Williams Blues” on Playboy After Dark:

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