The Cripple of Inishmaan (Atlantic, 336 W. 20, extended through March 1). Galway’s Druid Theatre Company brings its letter-perfect revival of Martin McDonagh’s 1997 comedy to New York. What would you be waiting for? This soot-black portrayal of Irish village life at its most claustrophobic is immaculately cast and exquisitely staged by Garry Hynes. Yes, it’s a comedy, and a touching one–but be careful where you touch it or you’re liable to come away with burnt fingers. Anyone who’s allergic to stage-Irish clichés will revel in the wildly funny savagery with which McDonagh skewers them through and through (TT).
Archives for January 1, 2009
TT: Off and running
Hello, 2009! Mrs. T and I spent the night at a serviceable hotel across the street from LaGuardia Airport. Now we’re about to catch a plane bound for Florida, where we embark on a month of nonstop cross-country travel that will take us to Palm Beach, Coral Gables, Fort Myers, San Francisco, San Diego, Kansas City, Chicago, and Lenox, Massachussetts. En route we’ll be seeing plays by Brian Friel, John Guare, Lillian Hellman, Eugène Ionesco, Theresa Rebeck, William Shakespeare, and Tennessee Williams, watching Miami City Ballet dance George Balanchine’s Ballet Imperial and Paul Taylor’s Mercuric Tidings, and visiting four museums. We might even spend the odd hour sitting in the sun.
I expect to blog from our various stops, but I’ll also be filing Wall Street Journal columns and keeping a distant watch on the progress of The Letter and my Louis Armstrong biography, so be so kind as to cut me some slack if I drop a stitch or two along the way.
See you where it’s sunny….
TT: So you want to see a show?
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)
• Equus (drama, R, nudity and adult subject matter, closes Feb. 8, reviewed here)
• The Little Mermaid (musical, G, entirely suitable for children, 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 WEEK ON BROADWAY:
• Gypsy (musical, PG-13, adult subject matter, closes Jan. 11, reviewed here)
CLOSING SUNDAY ON BROADWAY:
• Boeing-Boeing (comedy, PG-13, cartoonishly sexy, reviewed here)
• Dividing the Estate * (black comedy, G, far too serious for pre-teens, reviewed here)
• Irving Berlin’s White Christmas * (musical, G, suitable for children capable of enjoying a love story, reviewed here)
CLOSING SUNDAY OFF BROADWAY:
• My Vaudeville Man! (musical, G, reviewed here)
TT: Almanac
BELIEVING IN FLANNERY O’CONNOR
“After she died, Thomas Merton wrote that ‘when I read Flannery O’Connor, I do not think of Hemingway, or Katherine Anne Porter, or Sartre, but rather of someone like Sophocles.’ Though O’Connor herself would surely have scoffed at such praise, she is among a bare handful of American writers, modern or otherwise, of whom such a thing might plausibly be said…”