Archives for March 2012

“Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary.”
Robert Louis Stevenson, “Yoshida-Torajiro”

I’m flying out to Smalltown, U.S.A., to see my mother, who is feeling poorly. I expect to be back on Sunday night, but I’ll continue with the usual postings in any case.

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 Sept. 9, most performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

• Death of a Salesman (drama, PG-13, unsuitable for children, most performances sold out last week, closes June 2, reviewed here)

• Godspell (musical, G, suitable for children, most performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

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

• Other Desert Cities (drama, PG-13, adult subject matter, closes June 17, most performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

• Venus in Fur (serious comedy, R, adult subject matter, closes June 17, most performances sold out last week, 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)

• Million Dollar Quartet (jukebox musical, G, off-Broadway remounting of Broadway production, original run reviewed here)

• Tribes (drama, PG-13, extended through Sept. 2, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON OFF BROADWAY:

• Beyond the Horizon (drama, PG-13, extended through Apr. 15, reviewed here)

• The Lady from Dubuque (drama, PG-13, closes Apr. 15, reviewed here)

• Look Back in Anger (drama, PG-13, closes Apr. 8, reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK OFF BROADWAY:

• Saint Joan (drama, G/PG-13, unsuitable for children, closes Apr. 1, reviewed here)

“No brilliance is needed in the law. Nothing but common sense, and relatively clean fingernails.”
John Mortimer, A Voyage Round My Father

Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza sing “Some Enchanted Evening” (from South Pacific) on General Foods 25th Anniversary Show: A Salute to Rodgers and Hammerstein, originally simulcast on ABC, CBS, NBC, and the DuMont Network in 1954. This is believed to be the only surviving film clip of Martin and Pinza performing a song from South Pacific, in whose original 1949 Broadway production they starred:

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

“A lifetime of happiness! No man alive could bear it: it would be hell on earth.”
George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman

From 2005:

Taking a chance on new art is the price we pay for a healthy culture, one in which talented artists don’t have to wait on tables. Those who decline to pay it are the cultural equivalent of rentiers, aesthetic remittance men who live off the accumulated capital of the past without contributing anything of their own….

Read the whole thing here.

“Assassination is the extreme form of censorship.”
George Bernard Shaw, preface to The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet