Archives for 2005

Sides: The Fear Is Real… reopens off Broadway this Thursday at the Culture Project. Here’s what I wrote about it last April in The Wall Street Journal:

“Sides: The Fear Is Real” is an object lesson in how to put together a tightly knit evening of comic sketches. Collectively written by the six terrific Asian-American performers who make up Mr. Miyagi’s Theatre Company, “Sides” is a zany catalogue of everything that can possibly go wrong at an audition. Pretentious playwrights, sexually omnivorous casting directors, fresh-out-of-school actors caught in the chokehold of stage fright: all are portrayed with such demented gusto that you barely stop laughing long enough to catch your breath. Pay no attention to the inside-baseball title, which refers to the script handouts given to actors who try out for a role in a play, TV show or film. Civilians will find “Sides” fully intelligible–and rib-crackingly funny….

For more information, go here.

Sides: The Fear Is Real… reopens off Broadway this Thursday at the Culture Project. Here’s what I wrote about it last April in The Wall Street Journal:

“Sides: The Fear Is Real” is an object lesson in how to put together a tightly knit evening of comic sketches. Collectively written by the six terrific Asian-American performers who make up Mr. Miyagi’s Theatre Company, “Sides” is a zany catalogue of everything that can possibly go wrong at an audition. Pretentious playwrights, sexually omnivorous casting directors, fresh-out-of-school actors caught in the chokehold of stage fright: all are portrayed with such demented gusto that you barely stop laughing long enough to catch your breath. Pay no attention to the inside-baseball title, which refers to the script handouts given to actors who try out for a role in a play, TV show or film. Civilians will find “Sides” fully intelligible–and rib-crackingly funny….

For more information, go here.

Shirley Horn, the great jazz singer-pianist, suffers from diabetes. She lost one of her legs a few years ago as a result of her illness, and now she’s on dialysis in a Washington nursing home. I’m told that she’d greatly appreciate “flowers, cards, prayers, etc.” If you’re one of the many people who has been touched by her music and feel like giving something back in return, here’s where she’s staying:

Shirley Horn

Gladys Spellman Specialty Hospital and Nursing Center

2900 Mercy Lane

Cheverly, MD 20785

If you don’t know Shirley Horn’s music, I commend to your attention this fourteen-track sampler drawn from her Verve catalogue. It’s a beautiful tribute to a unique and irreplaceable artist.

Shirley Horn, the great jazz singer-pianist, suffers from diabetes. She lost one of her legs a few years ago as a result of her illness, and now she’s on dialysis in a Washington nursing home. I’m told that she’d greatly appreciate “flowers, cards, prayers, etc.” If you’re one of the many people who has been touched by her music and feel like giving something back in return, here’s where she’s staying:

Shirley Horn

Gladys Spellman Specialty Hospital and Nursing Center

2900 Mercy Lane

Cheverly, MD 20785

If you don’t know Shirley Horn’s music, I commend to your attention this fourteen-track sampler drawn from her Verve catalogue. It’s a beautiful tribute to a unique and irreplaceable artist.

“Unless I am in love with them, I am delighted to see my friends for an hour, and then I want to be alone like Greta Garbo.”

W.H. Auden, letter to Caroline Newton (April 13, 1942)

“Unless I am in love with them, I am delighted to see my friends for an hour, and then I want to be alone like Greta Garbo.”

W.H. Auden, letter to Caroline Newton (April 13, 1942)

Once I laughed when I heard you saying

That I’d be playing solitaire,

Uneasy in my easy chair.

It never entered my mind.

Once you warned me that if you scorned me

I’d sing the maiden’s prayer again

And wish that you were there again

To get into my hair again.

It never entered my mind.

Lorenz Hart, “It Never Entered My Mind” (music by Richard Rodgers)

Once I laughed when I heard you saying

That I’d be playing solitaire,

Uneasy in my easy chair.

It never entered my mind.

Once you warned me that if you scorned me

I’d sing the maiden’s prayer again

And wish that you were there again

To get into my hair again.

It never entered my mind.

Lorenz Hart, “It Never Entered My Mind” (music by Richard Rodgers)