Archives for May 2018

“Men are wicked, and when I die I shall at least have the consolation of knowing that I have never rendered anyone a service.”

Richard Seymour-Conway, 4th Marquess of Hertford (quoted in the Goncourt brothers’ journal, July 7, 1869)

The latest episode of Three on the Aisle, the twice-monthly podcast in which Peter Marks, Elisabeth Vincentelli, and I talk about theater in America, is now available on line for listening or downloading.

In this episode, Peter, Elisabeth, and I discuss a topic that is increasingly driving the theatrical conversation in New York and elsewhere, the notion that certain older shows, perennially popular though they continue to be, have become dated in a way that makes them…well, politically incorrect:

This week starts with “problematic” shows, an expression used to describe the golden-age musicals My Fair Lady and Carousel, which are currently enjoying well-received revivals on Broadway and show how one can update this type of material either with tiny cuts and adjustments (as in Carousel) or via directorial decisions (the ending of My Fair Lady). Vincentelli points out that while O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh is usually not described as similarly problematic, she agrees with New York magazine critic Sara Holdren that maybe it should be….

Next up is an interview segment in which we talk to Jack Cummings III, artistic director of Transport Group, the highly original and highly regarded New York troupe whose revival of Tennessee Williams’ Summer and Smoke is currently running off Broadway. Jack talked to us in detail about how Transport Group came into existence, and about its ongoing struggle to stay afloat in an environment that is increasingly hostile to small, innovative theater companies.

As usual, we wrap up the podcast by discussing recent productions, in New York and elsewhere, that we’ve seen and liked.

To listen, download the episode, read more about it, or subscribe to Three on the Aisle, go here.

In case you missed any previous episodes, you’ll find them all here.

A scene from Larry Peerce’s 1969 film version of Philip Roth’s Goodbye, Columbus, starring Richard Benjamin and Ali MacGraw. The screenplay is by Arnold Schulman:

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

“All that we don’t know is astonishing. Even more astonishing is what passes for knowing.”

Philip Roth, The Human Stain

From 2004:

A reader wrote to ask if I’d consider posting a list of books and other works of art that had served as “turning points” in my life as a critic. I’ve never drawn up such a list, though I once wrote an essay for the New York Times Book Review called “I’ve Got a Crush on You” (it’s in A Terry Teachout Reader) in which I talked about several authors whose styles I’d emulated at different times in my life. But what gave me the idea to become a critic—and what inspired me to become the kind of critic I became?…

Read the whole thing here.

“You cannot force people to laugh: you cannot give a reason why they should laugh;—they must laugh of themselves, or not at all.”

William Hazlitt, “On Wit and Humour”

Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II appear as the mystery guests on What’s My Line? The host is John Daly and the panelists are Arlene Francis, Fred Allen, Dorothy Kilgallen, and Bennett Cerf. This episode was originally telecast by CBS on February 19, 1956:

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

“A weak man needs weak supporters; strong ones might make him feel insecure, or differ with him.”

Richard Brookhiser, “WFB Today,” National Review, March 5, 2018