Archives for July 2015

“Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire; you will what you imagine; and at last you create what you will.”

George Bernard Shaw, Back to Methuselah

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:
• An American in Paris (musical, G, too complex for small children, virtually all performances sold out last week, reviewed here)
• Fun Home (serious musical, PG-13, all performances sold out last week, reviewed here)
• A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder (musical, PG-13, nearly all performances sold out last week, reviewed here)
• Hand to God (black comedy, X, absolutely not for children or prudish adults, reviewed here)
• The King and I (musical, G, perfect for children with well-developed attention spans, nearly all performances sold out last week, reviewed here)
• Matilda (musical, G, virtually all performances sold out last week, reviewed here)
• Les Misérables (musical, G, too long and complicated for young children, many performances sold out last week, reviewed here)
• On the Town (musical, G, contains double entendres that will not be intelligible to children, reviewed here)

OFF BROADWAY:
• Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps (comedy, G, ideal for bright children, remounting of Broadway production, original production reviewed here)
• The Fantasticks (musical, G, suitable for children capable of enjoying a love story, reviewed here)
• The Flick (serious comedy, PG-13, too long for young people with limited attention spans, reviewed here)
• Shows for Days (comedy, PG-13, sexual situations, closes Aug. 23, reviewed here)

IN GARRISON, N.Y.:
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare, PG-13, closes Aug. 28, reviewed here)

IN NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, ONTARIO:
• Sweet Charity (musical, PG-13, closes Oct. 31, reviewed here)
• The Twelve-Pound Look (one-act comedy, G, not suitable for children, closes Sept. 12, reviewed here)
• You Never Can Tell (Shaw, PG-13, closes Oct. 25, reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK IN GLENCOE, ILL.:
• Doubt (drama, PG-13, closes Aug. 2, reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK IN PITTSFIELD, MASS.:
• Lost in Yonkers (drama, PG-13, remounting of off-Broadway production, closes Aug. 1, original production reviewed here)

CLOSING SUNDAY IN FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA.:
• Love Letters (drama, PG-13, remounting of Broadway production, original production reviewed here)

CLOSING SUNDAY IN MADISON, N.J.:
• The Guardsman (comedy, PG-13, reviewed here)

“A painting is above all a product of the artist’s imagination, it ust never be a copy. If, at a later stage, he wants to add two or three touches from nature, of course it doesn’t spoil anything. But the air one sees in the paintings of the masters is not the air one breathes.”

Edgar Degas (quoted in Maurice Sérullaz, L’univers de Degas)

Ravi Shankar performs on an episode of The Hollywood Palace, originally telecast on September 5, 1967. He is introduced by Bing Crosby:

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

“The imagination is the power that enables us to perceive the normal in the abnormal, the opposite of chaos in chaos.”

Wallace Stevens, “Imagination as Value”

From 2005:

I’d somehow managed to make it to the age of thirty-nine without losing anyone to whom I was close. Then one day the bolts of lightning started falling all around me. First my best friend, then my father, and in the twinkling of an eye I was picking up the paper each morning and turning to the obituary page. I’d joined the club, the society of those who no longer need reminding that we all die sooner or later–and that some of us die too soon. Such knowledge changes a man permanently….

Read the whole thing here.

“For me, reason is the natural organ of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning. Imagination, producing new metaphors or revivifying old, is not the cause of truth, but its condition.”

C.S. Lewis, “Bluspels and Flalansferes: A Semantic Nightmare”

Today I drive from Spring Green, Wisconsin, to Milwaukee, board a plane, fly to LaGuardia Airport, and make my way from there to my apartment in upper Manhattan. On Tuesday I travel from there to rural Connecticut, where Mrs. T awaits me.

It’s not an especially long trip, all things considered, but it’s likely to be a bit hectic, especially at the Wisconsin end, in addition to which I’ve been up to my ears in deadlines for the past couple of days. As a result, it may be a couple of days before you hear from me again.

I’ll try to make it worth the wait—I have an unexpected adventure to report—but for now, try to content yourself with the routine daily postings.

See you soonish.