Archives for 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)

• The Best Man (drama, PG-13, closes July 1, most performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

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

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

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

• Once (musical, G/PG-13, most 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)

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

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

CLOSING THIS WEEKEND OFF BROADWAY:

• Beyond the Horizon (drama, PG-13, closes Sunday, reviewed here)

• The Lady from Dubuque (drama, PG-13, closes Sunday, reviewed here)

• Lost in Yonkers (serious comedy, PG-13, closes Saturday, reviewed here)

“Why, sir, a man is very apt to complain of the ingratitude of those who have risen far above him.”
Samuel Johnson (quoted in James Boswell, Life of Johnson)

An extremely rare color kinescope of an excerpt from Ernie Kovacs’ Silent Show, originally telecast on NBC in 1957:

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

“Revenge is profitable, gratitude is expensive.”
Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

From 2004:

Reformers, like saints, can be awfully awkward people. Their singlemindedness is no small part of what makes them effective, as well as uncomfortable to be with. I’ve known a few, but I’ve never tried to get close to them. No matter how friendly they may seem, I always get the feeling that they’d be perfectly happy to have me guillotined if they thought it necessary….

Read the whole thing here.

“Anger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor.”
Francis Bacon, Apophthegms