Archives for January 2006

Here’s my list of recommended Broadway and off-Broadway shows, updated each Thursday. In all cases, I either gave these shows strongly favorable reviews in The Wall Street Journal when they opened or saw and liked them some time in the past year (or both). For more information, click on the title.

Warning: Broadway shows marked with an asterisk were sold out, or nearly so, last week.

BROADWAY:

– Avenue Q* (musical, R, adult subject matter, strong language, one show-stopping scene of puppet-on-puppet sex, reviewed here)

– Chicago* (musical, R, adult subject matter, sexual content, fairly strong language)

– Doubt* (drama, PG-13, adult subject matter, implicit sexual content, reviewed here)

– The Light in the Piazza* (musical, PG-13, adult subject matter and a brief bedroom scene, extended through July 2, reviewed here)

– Sweeney Todd* (musical, R, adult situations, strong language, reviewed here)

– The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee* (musical, PG-13, mostly family-friendly but contains a smattering of strong language and a production number about an unwanted erection, reviewed here)

– The Woman in White (musical, PG, adult subject matter, reviewed here)

OFF BROADWAY:

– Abigail’s Party (drama, R, adult subject matter, strong language, reviewed here, extended through Apr. 8)

– Mrs. Warren’s Profession (drama, PG, adult subject matter, extended through Feb. 19, reviewed here)

– Slava’s Snowshow (performance art, G, child-friendly, reviewed here)

– The Trip to Bountiful (drama, G, reviewed here, extended through Feb. 19)

“If you develop an ear for sounds that are musical it is like developing an ego. You begin to refuse sounds that are not musical and that way cut yourself off from a good deal of experience.”

John Cage (courtesy of Doug Ramsey)

“Comedy is all about superfluous energy, those impulses that have nowhere else to go but into enjoyable mischief.”

Michael Blakemore, Arguments with England: A Memoir

The runs of several of my favorite New York shows were extended during my recent illness, and I only just caught up with the good news. Specifically:

– Mrs. Warren’s Profession and The Trip to Bountiful have been extended through February 19.

– Abigail’s Party has been extended through April 8.

– The Light in the Piazza has been extended through July 2.

Why wait? Go now!

The Metropolitan Opera has revived its 1997 production of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck, directed by Mark Lamos, designed by Robert Israel, and conducted by James Levine. I covered the premiere for the New York Daily News nine years ago. Here’s the last paragraph of my review:

“Wozzeck” is one of the most difficult scores in the operatic repertoire, and James Levine and his peerless orchestra brought it off with breathtaking aplomb. But this is the kind of production in which all the pieces fit together so snugly that to single anyone out for special praise is almost to miss the point. As I left the theater Monday with the fervent cheers of the audience ringing loudly in my ears, I felt certain the Met had never done anything better than this amazing “Wozzeck,” and its spell has not yet worn off as I write these words.

I don’t write many reviews like that, especially about the Met, but I meant every word of this one, and my enthusiasm was confirmed when I saw the production a second time two years later (accompanied by Our Girl, who was visiting New York that week and remembers the evening well). As a rule, the Metropolitan Opera isn’t the place to go for great drama, but the Lamos-Israel Wozzeck is a shining exception to the rule. I rank it with the Met’s productions of Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites (directed by John Dexter) and Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades (directed by Elijah Moshinsky) as one of the most theatrically compelling experiences of my operagoing life.

As for the opera itself, regular readers know I’m no fan of Austro-German expressionism, but Wozzeck is one of the supreme masterpieces of twentieth-century opera, a work so overwhelmingly compelling as to overwhelm any possible objections. I simply can’t imagine anyone who loves theater failing to respond to it, especially in a production as gripping as this one.

I took a houseguest to see Wozzeck the other day, and I’m delighted to say that it once again lived up to my expectations. Alas, the opera has always been box-office poison in New York–most of the Met’s regular patrons prefer fluffier fare–which is why the company revives it only at lengthy intervals. This is the first time Wozzeck has been seen there since 2001, and the management has scheduled just four performances, the last of which will be this Friday at eight p.m. Tickets are available for as little as $36. Go if you possibly can–I’m sure you won’t have another chance for some time to come.

For more information, or to order tickets, go here.

“The welcome one gives to the success of one’s friends can certainly be genuine, but once one becomes established in the arts it is rarely without a degree of ambiguity. In the last analysis you are both competing for a limited supply of attention.”

Michael Blakemore, Arguments with England: A Memoir

The new, easy-going me is only just starting to grapple with the monstrous pile of snail mail that accumulated between the time I went into the hospital and last Friday, when I returned to New York. My guess is that it will take me most of the week to get caught up in a sane manner rather than a crazy one, so don’t expect too many postings from me until next Monday.

Just in case you’re wondering, I feel terrific. I’ve already started taking daily walks around the Central Park reservoir (about which more later) and have lost a great deal of weight. It’s a start!

Later.

“Up till now I had relied as an actor on my small store of sophistication and assurance, and had got nowhere. Only now when I was making use of the most vulnerable and naked aspects of myself had I come up with something of real value. I began to see that notwithstanding its occasional triumphs, its conspicuously public success, there was at the heart of an actor’s life an aspect of public confession, something perplexed and even grieving.”

Michael Blakemore, Arguments with England: A Memoir (courtesy of Chris Hartman)