Archives for March 2012

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)

• 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)

• Beyond the Horizon (drama, PG-13, closes Apr. 8, reviewed here)

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

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

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

CLOSING NEXT WEEK OFF BROADWAY:

• The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs (monologue, PG-13, closes Mar. 18, reviewed here)

• Galileo (drama, G, too complicated for children, closes Mar. 18, reviewed here)

CLOSING SUNDAY OFF BROADWAY:

• Blood Knot (drama, G/PG-13, possible for unusually mature children, reviewed here)

“The advice of the elders to young men is very apt to be as unreal as a list of the hundred best books.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., “The Path of Law”

An excerpt from the TV documentary The Broadway of Lerner and Loewe, directed by Norman Jewison and originally telecast on NBC in 1962, in which Robert Goulet, Richard Burton, and Julie Andrews talk about and perform a scene from the original Broadway production of Camelot. The host is Maurice Chevalier:

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

“Certainty generally is illusion, and repose is not the destiny of man.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., “The Path of Law”

“There is in all men a demand for the superlative, so much so that the poor devil who has no other way of reaching it attains it by getting drunk.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., “Natural Law”

If you live in or near Waco, Texas, I’m making two public appearances this week at Baylor University:
• Today I’ll be speaking about the state of American culture at Mabee Theater. The theater is in the Hooper-Schaefer Fine Arts Center and my presentation starts at four p.m.
• On Tuesday I’ll be speaking about Louis Armstrong and his legacy in the Alexander Reading Room of Alexander Residence Hall. Again, my presentation starts at four p.m.
Both of these events will be jointly hosted by the Honors College and the Department of Theatre Arts and are free and open to the public.
For more information, go here.
* * *
I’ll also be paying a visit to a a class in which Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot is being discussed. This video, in which Nathan Lane, Bill Irwin, John Goodman, and John Glover, who appeared in the Roundabout Theatre Company’s 2009 revival of Godot, talk about the play, is for the students:

Well, not always: I did post a little last week in response to an unexpected stimulus and an irresistible urge. Mostly, though, I worked on Satchmo at the Waldorf and Mood Indigo, and I expect to do the same after I get back from Texas on Wednesday. So don’t expect anything much in the way of full-length postings this week (except for the usual videos, almanac entries and theater-related stuff).
In lieu of same, I finally cleaned out the Top Five module of the right-hand column and supplied you with an all-new set of fresh picks. Enjoy.

Maria Callas and Sir Thomas Beecham chat with Edward R. Murrow in 1959 on the CBS program Small World. Callas is speaking from Milan, Beecham from Nice:

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