Archives for August 15, 2013

This is the finished dust jacket for Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington. I think it’s gorgeous.
While we’re on the subject of Duke, Publishers Weekly has given the book a thumbs-up review. Here’s the money quote:

Teachout neatly balances colorful anecdote with shrewd character assessments and musicological analysis, and he manages to debunk Ellington’s self-mythologizing, while preserving his stature as the man who caught jazz’s ephemeral genius in a bottle.

Thanks much, PW. That’s Duke in a nutshell–and that last phrase is very neat in its own right.
Booklist was similarly enthusiastic and equally quotable, calling Duke “entertaining and valuable” and going on to say:

Though respectful and musically knowing, Teachout presents the famously evasive and not altogether admirable Ellington (among other traits, procrastination, manipulativeness, and incorrigible womanizing) scars and all, including the rarely photographed one (rectified here) on his left cheek, inflicted by his jealous wife. It is Ellington’s breathtakingly enormous musical contribution (1,700 compositions, from short pieces to major suites and sacred music) and his gift for collaboration, albeit often appropriation, that is the fitting focus of this important book.

So far, so good….

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:

• Annie (musical, G, reviewed here)

• Matilda (musical, G, all performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

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

• The Trip to Bountiful (drama, G, closes Oct. 9, 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)

• The Weir (drama, PG-13, extended through Sept. 15, reviewed here)

IN ASHLAND, OREGON:

• My Fair Lady (musical, G, closes Nov. 3, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON IN GARRISON, N.Y.:

• All’s Well That Ends Well (Shakespeare, PG-13, closes Aug. 30, reviewed here)

• King Lear (Shakespeare, PG-13, closes Aug. 31, reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK ON BROADWAY:

• Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (comedy, PG-13, remounting of off-Broadway production, closes Aug. 25, nearly all performances sold out last week, original production reviewed here)
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CLOSING NEXT WEEK IN CHICAGO:

• Big Lake Big City (comedy, PG-13/R, completely unsuitable for children, closes Aug. 25, reviewed here)

CLOSING SUNDAY OFF BROADWAY:

• Nobody Loves You (musical, PG-13/R, reviewed here)

“Most men would feel insulted, if it were proposed to employ them in throwing stones over a wall, and then in throwing them back, merely that they might earn their wages. But many are no more worthily employed now.”
Henry David Thoreau, “Life Without Principle”