Archives for July 12, 2018

The National Endowment for the Arts has announced the names of its four Jazz Masters for 2019. One of the recipients of the award, the highest honor that the United States bestows on jazz artists, is my old friend Maria Schneider, whom I have known for more than a quarter of a century.

In addition to writing about Maria many times in this space and elsewhere, I contributed the liner notes to her second album, Coming About, which was originally released in 1996. They were based in part on a profile that I published in The Wall Street Journal two years earlier—the first piece, so far as I know, ever to written about Maria outside the jazz press. In it I said that she was “regarded by a rapidly growing number of insiders as one of the most promising young jazz composers in the world.” Now the whole world knows of her greatness, and I am proud beyond belief to have played a part in bringing her to the attention of the public at large.

To read that piece, go 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:
• The Band’s Visit (musical, PG-13, all shows sold out last week, reviewed here)
• Dear Evan Hansen (musical, PG-13, all shows sold out last week, reviewed here)
• Hamilton (musical, PG-13, Broadway transfer of off-Broadway production, all shows sold out last week, reviewed here)
• My Fair Lady (musical, G, virtually all shows sold out last week, reviewed here)

OFF BROADWAY:
• Carmen Jones (musical, PG-13, closes Aug. 19, reviewed here)
• Symphonie Fantastique (abstract underwater puppet show, G, closes Sept. 2, reviewed here)

IN GARRISON, N.Y.:
• Richard II (Shakespeare, PG-13, closes Aug. 26, reviewed here)
• The Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare, PG-13, closes Aug. 24, reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK OFF BROADWAY:
• Conflict (drama, PG-13, closes July 21, reviewed here)

CLOSING SUNDAY ON BROADWAY:
• Angels in America (two-part drama, R, alternating in repertory, virtually all shows sold out last week, reviewed here)

“There is nothing in the world like a persuasive speech to fuddle the mental apparatus and upset the convictions and debauch the emotions of an audience not practised in the tricks and delusions of oratory.”

Mark Twain, “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg”