Archives for October 2007

I saw two fabulous shows this week, one in New York (Pygmalion) and one in Pennsylvania (Six Characters in Search of an Author). Both get the big rave in today’s Wall Street Journal drama column:

With the prospect of a show-stopping strike by the stagehands’ union casting a shadow over Broadway, the Roundabout Theatre Company pulled off a coup last night. It opened a solid-gold hit–in a strike-proof theater. David Grindley’s extravagant, exhilarating production of “Pygmalion,” in which Claire Danes is making her debut as a stage actress, is the best classical revival mounted by the Roundabout in recent memory. No sooner do the lights go down than it takes off like a supersonic skyrocket, powered by a cast that is strong from top to bottom….
Of course you’ll want to know about Ms. Danes, and the news is good: If I hadn’t known that this was her first straight play, I’d never have guessed it. Unlike so many movie and TV stars who dabble cluelessly in legitimate theater, she has mastered the elusive art of projection. Not only is she audible, but she is blazingly visible as well, lighting up the 740-seat American Airlines Theatre with the kind of space-filling energy that comes naturally or not at all….
Is there a regional drama company with a better name than People’s Light & Theatre? This 33-year-old ensemble, which operates out of a two-theater complex in a suburb just west of Philadelphia, is putting on Louis Lippa’s newly translated, freely adapted performing version of “Six Characters in Search of an Author,” the 1921 play in which Luigi Pirandello beat the postmodernists to the punch a half-century before the fact. It’s every bit as satisfying as the Roundabout’s “Pygmalion,” and a lot easier to get into….
Acting, staging, costumes, lighting, sound design: All sweep over you in a way so unified and involving that you’ll feel disoriented when it’s over, as though you’d just emerged from a funhouse in which truly scary things happen.

No free link. Once again, you know what to do, so get with. (If you’re already a subscriber to the Online Journal, the column is here.)
Footnote for theater-savvy travelers: not only is PL&T’s production of Six Characters terrific, but you can also dine at Places, the company’s on-site bistro, where the food and service are both exceptionally fine and you’re mere steps from the theater. Between Six Characters and the major Renoir landscape show now on display at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, I can’t think of a better time to visit the City of Brotherly Love. What’s keeping you?

Mrs. T is still shaking off the bug that bit her two weeks ago, so I’m going to Chicago alone (sorry that I can’t take you!) tomorrow morning. Our Girl and I will be catching two shows on Sunday, Chicago Shakespeare’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s Passion and Strawdog Theatre Company’s production of Brian Friel’s Aristocrats. I’ll be flying back to New York on Monday, then departing for Minneapolis et ux the following afternoon to see yet another Friel play, The Home Place, which is receiving its American premiere at the Guthrie Theatre. From there Hilary and I fly to St. Louis and drive to Smalltown, U.S.A., to give my mother a first-hand account of the Big Event. Then back to New York, then off to Washington, D.C. I forget what happens after that….
You get the message, right? The joint is jumping. Yes, I’m packing my iBook, and I plan to blog as often as I can, but I’ve also got to hit a string of deadlines while I’m on the road, so kindly expect no miracles. As always, OGIC and CAAF will do their thing in my absence.
More anon.

“The great secret, Eliza, is not having bad manners or good manners or any other particular sort of manners, but having the same manner for all human souls: in short, behaving as if you were in Heaven, where there are no third-class carriages, and one soul is as good as another.”
George Bernard Shaw, Pygmalion

Forgive me if your recent calls and/or e-mails have gone unanswered. I’m struggling to deal with some pressing post-marital deadlines before leaving on Saturday morning for an out-of-town theater trip. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

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)

• The Drowsy Chaperone (musical, G/PG-13, mild sexual content and a profusion of double entendres, reviewed here)

• Grease * (musical, PG-13, some sexual content, 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:

• Dividing the Estate (drama, PG-13, adult subject matter, reviewed here, closes Oct. 28)

CLOSING SATURDAY:

• The Dining Room (drama, PG-13, adult subject matter, reviewed here)

Mrs. T and I gave each of the guests at our wedding a custom-pressed CD called Autumn in New York: A Wedding Album (Mostly by Friends, Present and Absent). The cover is a reproduction of one of the pieces in the Teachout Museum, a fired tile called “View from My Studio” painted in 1966 by Nell Blaine. The album contains sixteen tracks:

• “Down a Country Lane,” composed by Aaron Copland and performed by Leo Smit (Deidre Rodman played it as a processional).

• “Sonnet 49,” composed and performed by Luciana Souza. It’s an excerpt from Neruda, a song cycle based on the poems of Pablo Neruda and the piano pieces of Federico Mompou.

• “Autumn in New York,” written by Vernon Duke and performed by Julia Dollison (from Observatory, her first album).

• “Ask,” written by Stephen Morrissey and Johnny Marr and performed by the Lascivious Biddies (from Get Lucky). The Biddies–Deidre Rodman, Saskia Lane, Amanda Monaco, and Lee Ann Westover–also supplied the music for the post-wedding dinner party.

• “Slow Boat to China,” written by David Cantor of Dave’s True Story and performed by Mary Foster Conklin (from Crazy Eyes, her first album). Mary also sang Lucky to Be Me during the ceremony, accompanied by Deidre.

• “Hang Gliding,” composed by Maria Schneider and performed by the Maria Schneider Orchestra (from Allégresse).

• “Black Butterfly,” written by Duke Ellington and performed by Dick Sudhalter (from Melodies Heard, Melodies Sweet…).

• “Hedgehog,” written by Amanda Monaco and performed by the Amanda Monaco 4 (from the group’s self-titled debut album).

• “Gimme a Man,” written and performed by Patty Tuite.

• “Fireworks,” written and performed by Greta Gertler (from The Baby That Brought Bad Weather).

• “The Silence of a Candle,” written by Ralph Towner and performed by Kendra Shank (from Reflections). Kendra also sang “One Hand, One Heart” during the ceremony, accompanied by Amanda.

• “Rock Skippin’ at the Blue Note,” written by Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington and performed by Bill Kirchner (from Some Enchanted Evening).

• “Sweet Airs,” a movement from Tempest Fantasy, composed by Paul Moravec and performed by David Krakauer and Trio Solisti (from the Naxos recording of Tempest Fantasy).

• “Famous Potatoes,” written by Deidre Rodman and performed by Deidre and Steve Swallow (a bonus track from Twin Falls).

• “One Hand, One Heart,” written by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim and performed by Tuck & Patti (from Dream).

• “Two for the Road,” written by Henry Mancini and Leslie Bricusse and performed by Nancy LaMott (from My Foolish Heart).

Bill, Dick, Greta, Julia, Kendra, Luciana, Mary, Patty, Paul, and the four Biddies are all friends. Nancy, who died in 1995, never knew Mrs. T, but I have no doubt that they would have liked each other very much. Copland is my favorite American composer, and “Down a Country Lane,” a two-page miniature for solo piano written as a teaching piece for children and originally published in Life in 1962, is one of his loveliest pieces. Mrs. T chose “One Hand, One Heart” to be sung during the ceremony. I wrote the liner notes for Get Lucky, Neruda, Observatory, and Tempest Fantasy.

All of the albums from which these tracks are drawn can be ordered through amazon.com, and some of them are also available on iTunes. (“Famous Potatoes” is an iTunes-only bonus track.)

Happy listening!

“This music of yours. A manifestation of the highest energy–not at all abstract, but without an object, energy in a void, in pure ether–where else in the universe does such a thing appear? We Germans have taken over from philosophy the expression ‘in itself,’ we use it every day without much idea of the metaphysical. But here you have it, such music is energy itself, yet not as idea, rather in its actuality. I call your attention to the fact that is almost the definition of God. Imitatio Dei–I am surprised it is not forbidden.”
Thomas Mann, Doctor Faustus (trans. H.T. Lowe-Porter)

This site is not about politics, but I was nonetheless intrigued to read in the latest Gallup Poll that 23% of Americans claim not to have heard of Fred Thompson, while one out of three Republicans and 15% of all respondents say they don’t know enough about Thompson to have an opinion of him.
May we take this as proof that, contrary to popular belief, some of us don’t watch Law & Order? Mrs. Teachout does, but I’d seen a grand total of one episode prior to meeting her two years ago, and the only one of Thompson’s films that I’d seen was In the Line of Fire, which is fourteen years old.
While all this says far more about me than it does about Fred Thompson, the fact that his name recognition falls considerably short of universal strikes me as…well, comforting. I’m no culture snob, but it’s still nice to know that I’m not the only American who keeps a relatively safe distance from the massiest of mass media.
UPDATE: A friend writes:

I had to drop you a note because I just read your blog about Fred Thompson. As I am a diehard Law & Order fan (I feel people are either CSI or L&W fans…they can like both, but they really lean towards one. It’s kinda like the Beatles-or-Elvis theory), I never knew what his name was till he announced he was running for president…and even then, it took me a few days to remember it. But no matter how much I adore L&W (or any show for that matter), I usually have no clue what the actors’ names are.

Several other readers echoed that last observation. I guess that’s the difference between a critic and a civilian!