Archives for October 16, 2008

Here’s my list of recommended Broadway, off-Broadway, and out-of-town shows, updated weekly. In all cases, I gave these shows favorable reviews (if sometimes qualifiedly so) 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:

• Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps (comedy, G, suitable for bright children, reviewed here)

• August: Osage County (drama, R, adult subject matter, reviewed here)

• Avenue Q (musical, R, adult subject matter and one show-stopping scene of puppet-on-puppet sex, reviewed here)

• Boeing-Boeing (comedy, PG-13, cartoonishly sexy, reviewed here)

• Equus (drama, R, nudity and adult subject matter, closes Feb. 8, reviewed here)

• Gypsy (musical, PG-13, adult subject matter, reviewed here)

• The Little Mermaid * (musical, G, entirely suitable for children, reviewed here)

• A Man for All Seasons (drama, G, too intellectually demanding for children of any age, extended through Dec. 14, reviewed here)

• South Pacific * (musical, G/PG-13, some sexual content, brilliantly staged but unsuitable for viewers acutely allergic to preachiness, reviewed here)

OFF BROADWAY:

• The Fantasticks (musical, G, suitable for children capable of enjoying a love story, reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT SATURDAY IN CHICAGO:

• R.U.R. (serious comedy, PG-13, adult themes, closes Oct. 25, reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT SUNDAY OFF BROADWAY:

• Enter Laughing (musical, PG-13, full of sex jokes, closes Oct. 26, reviewed here)

I heard from a connoisseur of the art of Giorgio Morandi not long after I posted yesterday morning on the deficiencies of the Metropolitan Museum’s Morandi retrospective:

Another time we can perhaps discuss the Met’s presentation. It is a much neglected but in my eyes crucial element to understanding Morandi’s paintings, generally speaking and also to reveal their contemporaneity. To me they have specificity that requires very close attention to how they are (1) framed, (2) grouped, (3) spaced within a room. For example, no one would ever dare to jam as many Robert Rymans in one room, let alone that room. Giacometti is another you would not dare doing this to–although MoMA has (oops!).
The results, as you say, were “educational,” but only in the sense of being able to see the paintings in person rather than in reproduction. Had the Met mounted them with space to spare in the large galleries, it would have been a true eye opener towards greater understanding of the monumentality of Morandi’s work–and a riveting pleasure at that.

I couldn’t agree more. Morandi’s paintings should not be jammed together, as they are at the Met. They need plenty of space to breathe and resonate. They also need silence, and so I went back to the Met at noon yesterday to take a second look at the show, which I had seen under unfavorable circumstances on Sunday afternoon. It was slightly less crowded but no less full of enthusiastic conversationalists. Next time I’ll try going earlier in the morning.
When you go–and you should, soon–I commend your special attention to the following items: 4, 17, 34, 44, 57, 64, 82, 86 (from the Phillips Collection), 105, 107, 111, 120, 121, and 125 (Morandi’s last painting).

“A comfortable house is a great source of happiness. It ranks immediately after health and a good conscience.”
Sydney Smith, letter, Sept. 29, 1843