Archives for October 2013

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, closing Jan. 5, reviewed here)

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

• Once (musical, G/PG-13, 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)

CLOSING SOON OFF BROADWAY:

• Natural Affection (drama, R, closes Oct. 26, reviewed here)

• Philip Goes Forth (drama, G, not suitable for small children, closes Oct. 27, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON IN ASHLAND, OREGON:

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

CLOSING NEXT WEEK IN NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, ONTARIO:

• Our Betters (comedy, PG-13, closes Oct. 27, reviewed here)

CLOSING THIS WEEKEND IN SPRING GREEN, WISCONSIN:

• Antony and Cleopatra (Shakespeare, PG-13, closes Sunday, reviewed here)

• Dickens in America (one-man play, G, too demanding for small children, closes Saturday, reviewed here)

CLOSING SATURDAY IN NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, ONTARIO:

• Major Barbara (drama, PG-13, reviewed here)

CLOSING SUNDAY OFF BROADWAY:

• The Old Friends (drama, PG-13, reviewed here)

Duke Ellington performs live in Paris in 1958:

I wish you all the joy that you can wish.
William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

The National Book Foundation announced the 2013 National Book Award finalists this morning. As I recently predicted, Duke didn’t make the cut, but that’s fine with me. The list of books that were shortlisted today for the nonfiction award is more than enticing enough as is, and I’m proud to have been one of the ten semi-finalists.
To my five colleagues who are now in contention for the big prize, I wish you all the very best of luck.

Marc Myers recently talked to me about Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington for JazzWax, his widely read music blog:

JW: You write that Ellington borrowed extensively from other musicians. Do you view him then as a great original composer or a brilliant recycler who leveraged scraps to create bigger, more dramatic works?
TT: He was both. The Ellington who cobbled together “Sophisticated Lady” out of a pair of melodic fragments supplied by Lawrence Brown and Otto Hardwick was, to use your apt phrase, a “brilliant recycler.” But the Ellington who wrote masterpieces like “Ko-Ko” from scratch, on the other hand, was a truly great original composer–and you mustn’t forget that most of his music was completely original….

To read the first installment of our two-part conversation, go here.

Gary Karr plays the first movement of Serge Koussevitzky’s Bass Concerto, accompanied by Carl Seale and the Valley Symphony Orchestra:

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

Duke Ellington and Count Basie play “One O’Clock Jump”:

“It is impossible to persuade a man who does not disagree, but smiles.”
Muriel Spark, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie