The turning point of Agn

I’m not here–I’m still holed up at my undisclosed location, watching the river flow–but my Friday Wall Street Journal drama-column teaser is reaching you on schedule by way of Our Girl in Chicago, who posted it for me at the usual appointed hour. (Look at the bottom of this posting and you’ll see her stamp, not mine.)

I went to all this trouble because I wanted to be sure that the word got out about The Light in the Piazza, the new Broadway musical adapted by Adam Guettel and Craig Lucas from Elizabeth Spencer’s 1959 novella. It’s a must:

Adam Guettel, the most gifted and promising theater composer of his generation, has returned to the stage after a nine-year absence with “The Light in the Piazza.” To call it the best new musical I’ve reviewed in this space, “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” included, is to understate the case. It is, in fact, the best new musical to open in New York since “Passion,” and Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater has done itself proud by bringing so important a show to Broadway….

The score, radiantly orchestrated by Mr. Guettel and conductor Ted Sperling for a 15-piece chamber ensemble built around a harp, is a shimmering evocation of Italian sunshine, dappled with touches of sorrow. Comparisons to Stephen Sondheim being inevitable, I should say at once that Mr. Guettel resembles Mr. Sondheim only in the richness of his imagination. His harmonic language is more astringent and wide-ranging, his lyrics more conversational (you won’t go away talking about his rhyme schemes). He is, in short, his own man, and in “The Light in the Piazza” he has written a musical directly comparable in seriousness of purpose to “Passion” or “Sweeney Todd” without sounding anything like either of those shows….

If you live in or near New York, make every possible effort to go. If not, Nonesuch will be releasing the original-cast CD of The Light in the Piazza on May 24. (To place an advance order, go here.)

I also reviewed Jeffrey Hatcher’s A Picasso, a play about an imaginary 1941 encounter between Pablo Picasso and a Nazi interrogator:

It’s reasonably intelligent and reasonably entertaining, though I doubt the real Picasso would have cracked quite all those one-liners under such dire circumstances (“Divorced?” “I keep trying”), much less stalked around the basement of a Paris art gallery like Groucho Marx in a tailcoat….

No link. To read the whole thing–and I have much more to say about The Light in the Piazza–buy this morning’s Journal and turn to the “Weekend Journal” section, or go here to subscribe to the Journal‘s online edition. I recommend the latter, enthusiastically.

“Art must give suddenly, all at once the shock of life, the sensation of breathing.”

Constantin Brancusi (quoted in Dorothy Dudley, “Brancusi,” Dial, Feb. 1927)

“During those last weeks of the Bishop’s life he thought very little about death; it was the Past he was leaving. The future would take care of itself. But he had an intellectual curiosity about dying; about the changes that took place in a man’s beliefs and scale of values. More and more life seemed to him an experience of the Ego, in no sense the Ego itself. This conviction, he believed, was something apart from his religious life; it was an enlightenment that came to him as a man, a human creature. And he noticed that he judged conduct differently now; his own and that of others. The mistakes of his life seemed unimportant; accidents that had occurred en route, like the shipwreck in Galveston harbour, or the runaway in which he was hurt when he was first on his way to New Mexico in search of his Bishopric.”

Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop

I’m starting a new job today! That’s good news, and something I’ve been working on since mid-winter. It does mean, however, that I’m going to have a lot less free-floating time on my hands during which to blog–i.e., no time at all during my weekdays, and a lot less on weeknights. But…hey, Saturday. Hey, Sunday. How’re you doin’?

That’s right, I’m moving in on those lonely blank days on the ALN calendar. I’m Weekend Girl now. Look at it this way: you won’t be getting less content, you’ll just be getting it seven days a week instead of five, with nary a lull. And if you hate picking through all that OGIC dross looking for TT gold, your reading will be much simplified!

Now that I’ve said this, it could be I’ll turn around and discover that precisely the thing I most want to do after a long day sitting at a computer in the office is to come home and sit in front of a different computer in my living room. Maybe weeknights will find me newly unstoppable; I’m not ruling out the possibility. Even if they don’t, there will surely be items that I just can’t wait until the weekend to post about. But in general? See you Saturday with bells on. (The first thing I plan to do this weekend is finally recap the panoply of responses I got to my books-within-books query a while back. Besides a highly helpful catalog of far more specimens than I knew existed, I received a number of interesting observations about the risks and rewards of this particular act of literary derring-do. Good stuff, so do check in.)

Clifford (to audience) I am twenty-one years old, out of college, out of work. On line for my first unemployment check. It is 1977. As I inch my way up the beginner’s line, I spot my father, who is over there (points) to sign for what, his four millionth check. As a jazz musician, he is sort of always there. There’s the National Endowment for the Arts, which is money for classical musicians, and there’s the New York State Bureau of Unemployment, which gives grants to jazz musicians. It’s a two-tiered system.

Warren Leight, Side Man

I am forever in your debt, Eric McErlain, for calling my attention to this resolution that recently hit the table in the Idaho House of Representatives:

A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION STATING LEGISLATIVE FINDINGS AND COMMENDING JARED AND JERUSHA HESS AND THE CITY OF PRESTON FOR THE PRODUCTION OF THE MOVIE “NAPOLEON DYNAMITE.”

Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Idaho:

WHEREAS, the State of Idaho recognizes the vision, talent and creativity of Jared and Jerusha Hess in the writing and production of “Napoleon Dynamite”; and WHEREAS, the scenic and beautiful City of Preston, County of Franklin and the State of Idaho are experiencing increased tourism and economic growth; and WHEREAS, filmmaker Jared Hess is a native Idahoan who was educated in the Idaho public school system; and WHEREAS, the Preston High School administration and staff, particularly the cafeteria staff, have enjoyed notoriety and worldwide attention; and WHEREAS, tater tots figure prominently in this film thus promoting Idaho’s most famous export; and WHEREAS, the friendship between Napoleon and Pedro has furthered multiethnic relationships; and WHEREAS, Uncle Rico’s football skills are a testament to Idaho athletics; and WHEREAS, Napoleon’s bicycle and Kip’s skateboard promote better air quality and carpooling as alternatives to fuel-dependent methods of transportation; and WHEREAS, Grandma’s trip to the St. Anthony Sand Dunes highlights a long-honored Idaho vacation destination; and WHEREAS, Rico and Kip’s Tupperware sales and Deb’s keychains and glamour shots promote entrepreneurism and self-sufficiency in Idaho’s small towns; and WHEREAS, Napoleon’s artistic rendition of Trisha is an example of the importance of the visual arts in K-12 education; and WHEREAS, the schoolwide Preston High School student body elections foster an awareness in Idaho’s youth of public service and civic duty; and WHEREAS, the “Happy Hands” club and the requirement that candidates for school president present a skit is an example of the importance of theater arts in K-12 education; and
WHEREAS, Pedro’s efforts to bake a cake for Summer illustrate the positive connection between culinary skills to lifelong relationships; and WHEREAS, Kip’s relationship with LaFawnduh is a tribute to e-commerce and Idaho’s technology-driven industry; and
WHEREAS, Kip and LaFawnduh’s wedding shows Idaho’s commitment to healthy marriages; and WHEREAS, the prevalence of cooked steak as a primary food group pays tribute to Idaho’s beef industry; and WHEREAS, Napoleon’s tetherball dexterity emphasizes the importance of physical education in Idaho public schools; and WHEREAS, Tina the llama, the chickens with large talons, the 4-H milk cows, and the Honeymoon Stallion showcase Idaho’s animal husbandry; and WHEREAS, any members of the House of Representatives or the Senate of the Legislature of the State of Idaho who choose to vote “Nay” on this concurrent resolution are “FREAKIN’ IDIOTS!”…

It passed, 69-0-1, and a good time was had by all. Napoleon Dynamite, much as I enjoyed it, never made me want to go to Idaho, but these guys almost do.

“It is interesting how action has been stolen almost completely by the screen nowadays, and the theatre is more and more given over to psychological exposition, with almost embarrassingly realistic dialogue and atmosphere and character taking the place of story situations–not the long-winded perorations of Shaw and Ibsen, but the nostalgia mixed with violence which is also so characteristic of Tennessee Williams and other American dramatists.”

Sir John Gielgud, letter to Kate Terry Gielgud (Nov. 23, 1950)