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About Last Night

Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

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Archives for May 2007

TT: So you want to see a show?

May 31, 2007 by Terry Teachout

Here’s my list of recommended Broadway and off-Broadway shows, updated weekly. In all cases, I gave these shows favorable reviews in The Wall Street Journal when they opened. 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 and one show-stopping scene of puppet-on-puppet sex, reviewed here)
• A Chorus Line * (musical, PG-13/R, adult subject matter, reviewed here)
• Company (musical, PG-13/R, adult subject matter and situations, reviewed here)
• The Drowsy Chaperone (musical, G/PG-13, mild sexual content and a profusion of double entendres, reviewed here)
• Frost/Nixon * (drama, PG-13, some strong language, reviewed here, closes Aug. 19)
• LoveMusik * (musical, PG-13, adult subject matter, reviewed here)
• 110 in the Shade (musical, G, suitable for children old enough to enjoy a love story, reviewed here, extended through July 29)
• Talk Radio (drama, PG-13, adult subject matter, 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)


OFF BROADWAY:
• The Fantasticks (musical, G, suitable for children old enough to enjoy a love story, reviewed here)


CLOSING NEXT WEEK:
• A Moon for the Misbegotten * (drama, PG-13, adult subject matter, reviewed here, closes June 10)

TT: New leaves

May 31, 2007 by Terry Teachout

Yesterday’s new piece of music was Elliott Carter’s Second String Quartet, composed in 1959 and recorded for RCA by the Juilliard String Quartet in 1960.

TT: Almanac

May 31, 2007 by Terry Teachout

“The average man simply spends his leisure as a dog spends it. His recreations are all puerile, and the time supposed to benefit him really only stupefies him.”
H.L. Mencken, Minority Report

CD

May 31, 2007 by Terry Teachout

Mosaic Select: Johnny Mercer (Mosaic, three CDs). The greatest lyricist of the pre-rock era was also a marvelously jazzy singer, and this new set, which contains 79 of the singles he cut for Capitol between 1942 and 1947, is the most representative cross-section of his Forties recordings ever to be issued on CD. Best of all are the tracks on which Mercer sings Mercer, including “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive,” “Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home,” and “One for My Baby.” Also present and very much accounted for: the King Cole Trio, Jo Stafford and the Pied Pipers, Jack Teagarden, and a roomful of top Los Angeles session men (TT).

DANCE

May 30, 2007 by Terry Teachout

New York City Ballet, Jewels (New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, June 21, 23, 24). Five performances of George Balanchine’s “full-length, three-act plotless ballet,” which is really three separate, sharply contrasted ballets set to the music of Fauré, Stravinsky, and Tchaikovsky. “Rubies” is a virtuoso romp and “Diamonds” a stately, resplendent delight, but “Emeralds” is the true gem, a hauntingly lyrical meditation on love and loss (TT).

BOOK

May 30, 2007 by Terry Teachout

Laura Lippman, What the Dead Know (Morrow, $24.95).The dust jacket bills it as “a novel,” with nary a whisper of crime, and that’s pretty much on the mark. Yes, dirty work is done in Lippman’s latest, but this tale of a pair of missing persons is expansive, unformulaic, and deeply involving. Read it for the plot if you must–you won’t be disappointed–but the real point of What the Dead Know is the imaginative sympathy with which it explores the complicated lives of its characters (TT).

PLAY

May 30, 2007 by Terry Teachout

Gaslight (Irish Repertory Theatre, 132 W. 22, through July 8). Patrick Hamilton’s creepy play about a thoroughly nasty Victorian husband who tries to drive his terrified wife insane opened on Broadway in 1941, ran for 1,295 performances, and was then sold to Hollywood. Now the Irish Rep is putting on an impeccable revival of the original stage version, which turns out to be both hugely effective and a good deal tighter than George Cukor’s well-known film. No winks, no nudges, no cuteness–this Gaslight is played straight, and it works. If your spine needs a tingle, here’s the place to get it (TT).

CONCERT

May 30, 2007 by Terry Teachout

Emerson String Quartet / Jeremy Denk (Carnegie Hall, June 7 and 10 at 6:45/8). The best string quartet in America plays two mixed bills, each preceded by a related miniature recital by the pianist-blogger. On June 7, Denk plays Charles Ives’ “Concord” Sonata, followed by quartets of Brahms, Beethoven, and Ives. On June 10, Denk plays Béla Bartók’s Piano Sonata, Anton Webern’s Variations, and Beethoven’s Thirty-Two Variations in C Minor, after which the Emersons perform quartets by the same three composers. These concerts are part of “The Quartets in Context,” a Beethoven quartet cycle currently being presented by the Emersons at Carnegie Hall. What a fabulous idea! (TT).

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Terry Teachout

Terry Teachout, who writes this blog, is the drama critic of The Wall Street Journal and the critic-at-large of Commentary. In addition to his Wall Street Journal drama column and his monthly essays … [Read More...]

About

About “About Last Night”

This is a blog about the arts in New York City and the rest of America, written by Terry Teachout. Terry is a critic, biographer, playwright, director, librettist, recovering musician, and inveterate blogger. In addition to theater, he writes here and elsewhere about all of the other arts--books, … [Read More...]

About My Plays and Opera Libretti

Billy and Me, my second play, received its world premiere on December 8, 2017, at Palm Beach Dramaworks in West Palm Beach, Fla. Satchmo at the Waldorf, my first play, closed off Broadway at the Westside Theatre on June 29, 2014, after 18 previews and 136 performances. That production was directed … [Read More...]

About My Podcast

Peter Marks, Elisabeth Vincentelli, and I are the panelists on “Three on the Aisle,” a bimonthly podcast from New York about theater in America. … [Read More...]

About My Books

My latest book is Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington, published in 2013 by Gotham Books in the U.S. and the Robson Press in England and now available in paperback. I have also written biographies of Louis Armstrong, George Balanchine, and H.L. Mencken, as well as a volume of my collected essays called A … [Read More...]

The Long Goodbye

To read all three installments of "The Long Goodbye," a multi-part posting about the experience of watching a parent die, go here. … [Read More...]

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