Archives for 2012

“There is but one art–to omit!”
Robert Louis Stevenson, letter to R.A.M. Stevenson (October 1883)

Time: Mid-afternoon. Place: A car en route from Costa Mesa to Hollywood via the freeway. The Rite of Spring is playing loudly on the radio.

HE Does Stravinsky rule, or what? This is just the kind of piece you want to hear while driving on the Los Angeles freeway. (Taking one hand off the wheel to point at the GPS perched on the dashboard) See the Diebenkorn unfolding on the GPS screen? Isn’t it pretty?

The car swerves wildly.

SHE Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! Slow DOWN!

HE (genially) What’s the matter? Don’t you like sailing down the car-pool lane at eighty miles an hour?

SHE (in a still, small voice, covering her face with her hands to ward off shards of flying glass) No.

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, reviewed here)

• The Best Man (drama, PG-13, extended through Sept. 9, some performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

• The Columnist (drama, PG-13/R, extended through July 1, many performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

• Evita (musical, PG-13, nearly all performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

• Godspell (musical, G, suitable for children, reviewed here)

• Once (musical, G/PG-13, nearly all performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

• Other Desert Cities (drama, PG-13, adult subject matter, closes June 17, reviewed here)

• Venus in Fur (serious comedy, R, adult subject matter, closes June 17, 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)

• 4000 Miles (drama, PG-13, extended through July 1, reviewed here)

• Man and Superman (serious comedy, G, far too long and complex for children of any age, closes June 17, reviewed here)

• Million Dollar Quartet (jukebox musical, G, off-Broadway remounting of Broadway production, closes June 24, original run reviewed here)

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

IN CHICAGO:

• The Iceman Cometh (drama, PG-13, closes June 17, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON IN CHICAGO:

• Timon of Athens (Shakespeare, PG-13, closes June 10, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON IN LOS ANGELES:

• Follies (musical, PG-13, adult subject matter, transfer of Kennedy Center/Broadway revival, closes June 9, original run reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK ON BROADWAY:

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

CLOSING NEXT WEEK IN CHICAGO:

• Angels in America (drama, PG-13/R, closes June 3, reviewed here)

“An improper mind is a perpetual feast.”
Logan Pearsall Smith, Afterthoughts

Having grown up in one of the flattest parts of America, I now spend as much time as I can gazing at oceans and mountains. Accordingly, Mrs. T and I passed Sunday and Monday in close proximity to both, staying at Ragged Point Inn, a rustic retreat perched on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and dining at Nepenthe, a similarly situated Big Sur restaurant. Ragged Point Inn and Nepenthe were designed by architects who, like us, favored the style of Frank Lloyd Wright and so took infinite care to ensure that both places were in perfect harmony with the spectacular sites upon which they were built.

Though Ragged Point Inn is beautiful in and of itself, you stay there in order to look at that which surrounds you. Fog rolls in each morning and rolls out by midday, meaning that you can walk through the clouds to breakfast, then retreat to your terrace and spend as much time as you want reveling in the view.

As for our dinner at Nepenthe, which we ate on the outdoor deck, it was as good as it could possibly have been, not just because of the food (which was superb) but because of the setting. To eat a simple but well-prepared meal under such gorgeous circumstances is a profoundly pleasurable experience, and it was further enhanced–for once–by the background music played by the management. Midway through the meal, I realized that we were listening to a track from Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy.

I gleefully nudged Mrs. T. “Hear that?” I said. “It’s a definite omen.”

“Maybe,” she replied. “Maybe it is.”

We smiled happily at one another and went back to our meal, knowing that we’d remember this day for a long time to come.

The 1962 BBC telecast of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, directed by Michael Elliott and starring Peggy Ashcroft, Judi Dench, and John Gielgud:

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

“All women are stimulated by the news that any wife has left any husband.”
Anthony Powell, The Acceptance World

The Metropolitan Opera just issued this press release:

In view of the outpouring of reaction from opera fans about the recent decision to discontinue Met performance reviews in Opera News, the Met has decided to reverse this new editorial policy. From their postings on the internet, it is abundantly clear that opera fans would miss reading reviews about the Met in Opera News. Ultimately, the Met is here to serve the opera-loving public and has changed its decision because of the passionate response of the fans.
The Met and the Met Opera Guild, the publisher of Opera News, have been in discussions about the role of the Guild and how its programs and activities can best fulfill its mission of supporting the Metropolitan Opera. These discussions have included the role of reviews in Opera News, and whether they served that mission. While the Met believed it did not make sense for a house organ that is published by the Guild and financed by the Met to continue to review Met productions, it has become clear that the reviews generate tremendous excitement and interest and will continue to have a place in Opera News.

Needless to say, it wasn’t just “fans.” It was also, so far as I know, each and every single member of the press who had time to comment on Peter Gelb’s outrageous decision before he took it back.
I’m glad he had enough sense to reverse it immediately. I wish he’d had enough sense not to make it in the first place.