Archives for 2011

I report in today’s Wall Street Journal on Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre’s production of Alan Ayckbourn’s House & Garden. Here’s an excerpt.
* * *
When is a stunt not really a stunt? When it’s dreamed up by Alan Ayckbourn. In addition to being the most prolific playwright of modern times, Mr. Ayckbourn is also a master of ingenuity, as New York audiences discovered two years ago when London’s Old Vic brought its revival of “The Norman Conquests” to Broadway. But “The Norman Conquests,” three interlocking plays set in different parts of the same country house on a single weekend, is far more than just a piece of consummate cleverness. So is “House & Garden,” a 1999 diptych consisting of two plays that take place simultaneously in the sitting room and garden of the same house and are designed to be performed in adjacent theaters by the same cast, with the actors racing from stage to stage as needed. (Only the audiences stay put.)
“House & Garden” is a high-speed whirligig of theatrical trickery, but as always with Mr. Ayckbourn, there’s more to it than that. In between the riotous farce-style sequences, he paints a bleak portrait of the dilapidated state of modern marriage as seen through the eyes of two unhappy couples, and the funnier the jokes, the darker the shadows. It makes for an impressive package–but one that can only be performed by a company that has access to two stages on the same site.
That’s where Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre comes in. Founded in 1996, PICT operates out of the University of Pittsburgh’s Stephen Foster Memorial, a purpose-built theatrical complex that looks like a Gothic-style church. It contains two houses, the 454-seat Charity Randall Theatre and 153-seat Henry Heymann Theatre, that are connected by a backstage spiral staircase, making it possible for PICT to mount “House & Garden” with relative ease. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should, but PICT has taken the measure of “House & Garden” and put together a cast whose members are equal to the challenge of conveying its technical and emotional complexities….
* * *
Read the whole thing here.

“Our century is probably more religious than any other. How could it fail to be, with such problems to be solved? The only trouble is that it has not yet found a God it can adore.”
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man

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.

BROADWAY:

• Anything Goes (musical, G/PG-13, mildly adult subject matter that will be unintelligible to children, closes Jan. 8, reviewed here)

• How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (musical, G/PG-13, perfectly fine for children whose parents aren’t actively prudish, reviewed here)

OFF BROADWAY:

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

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

• Play Dead (theatrical spook show, PG-13, utterly unsuitable for easily frightened children or adults, closes July 24, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON IN CHICAGO:

• The Front Page (comedy, PG-13, extended through July 17, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON IN PITTSFIELD, MASS.:

• Guys and Dolls (musical, G, closes July 16, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON OFF BROADWAY:

• A Little Journey (drama, G, extended through July 17, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON ON BROADWAY:

• The Motherf**ker with the Hat (serious comedy, R, adult subject matter, closes July 17, reviewed here)

CLOSING SUNDAY ON BROADWAY:

• The Importance of Being Earnest (high comedy, G, just possible for very smart children, reviewed here)

CLOSING SUNDAY IN CHICAGO:

• Porgy and Bess (operatic musical, PG-13, reviewed here)

“A sense of the common fallibility of all flesh makes us kin. No man is lovable who is invincible.”
Neville Cardus, Good Days

“Music for the Movies: Bernard Herrmann,” a 1992 documentary narrated by Philip Bosco:

(This is the latest in a weekly series of arts-related videos that appear in this space each Wednesday.)

“Whatever may be said in favour of the Victorians, it is pretty generally admitted that few of them were to be trusted within reach of a trowel and a pile of bricks.”
P.G. Wodehouse, Summer Moonshine

The view from our window in Cape May, New Jersey, is Hopperesque: