Archives for 2013

How can a major symphony orchestra survive a crippling work stoppage? In my “Sightings” column for today’s Wall Street Journal, I look at two American orchestras that are both grappling with this critical problem. Here’s an excerpt.
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The Minnesota Orchestra hasn’t given a concert since October. If you’ve been keeping up with the increasingly dire straits into which America’s regional symphony orchestras now find themselves, then the sequence of events in Minneapolis won’t surprise you in the least:
• The orchestra’s management, citing chronic budget deficits, proposed to cut the musicians’ annual base salary from $113,000 to $78,000.
• The musicians said no and refused to make a counteroffer.
• Management locked out the musicians.
The rest–so far–is silence….
Is there an alternative to such high-risk confrontations? I doubt it. Professional musicians who have worked hard to lift themselves into the upper-middle class (the average per capita income in Minneapolis was $29,558 in 2010) are understandably unwilling to see their paychecks slashed, much less to consider the grim possibility that the public at large might put a lower value on their services. They usually blame management for their plight–at times rightly so–and too often it takes a lockout or strike to persuade the players that the money simply isn’t there.
This being the case, it makes more sense to ask: Is it possible to fix things after a debilitating, trust-destroying strike? The good news is that the Detroit Symphony, which went out on strike for six months in 2010-11, seems to have found a way to do so….
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Read the whole thing here.

“You know what the trouble with peace is? No organization.”
Bertolt Brecht, Mother Courage and Her Children

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)

• The Nance (play with music, PG-13, closes Aug. 11, reviewed here)

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

• The Trip to Bountiful (drama, G, closes Sept. 1, reviewed here)

• Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (comedy, PG-13, remounting of off-Broadway production, extended through Aug. 25, most performances sold out last week, original production 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 Aug. 4, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON OFF BROADWAY:

• The Caucasian Chalk Circle (drama with music, PG-13, closes June 23, reviewed here)

CLOSING SUNDAY IN CHICAGO:

• The Misanthrope (verse comedy, PG-13, reviewed here)

“War is like love, it always finds a way.”
Bertolt Brecht, Mother Courage and Her Children

Now that I’m millimeters away from putting Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington to bed, the time has come to face the public. On Tuesday night I’ll give the first public reading anywhere–yes, anywhere–of an excerpt from the prologue to Duke.
The occasion is a program called “Music to Your Ears” that’s being presented by Big Umbrella Nonfiction, a Manhattan-based reading series that takes place each month at the impeccably cool 2A. I’ll be sharing the bill with Touré, author of I Would Die 4 U: Why Prince Became an Icon, and Brendan Jay Sullivan, author of Rivington Was Ours: Lady Gaga, the Lower East Side, and the Prime of Our Lives. While I’m not entirely sure that I’m hip enough to share a stage with these gentlemen, I’ll don the black outfit and give it my very best shot.
Quoth the press release:

There will be $4 whiskey deals, there will be books for sale courtesy of McNally Jackson, there will be giant video projection, as usual. There will be a great time had.

I regret to say that Duke is not yet on sale, but you can pre-order a copy by going here.
2A is at 25 Avenue A. The proceedings start at eight p.m. For more information, go here.

DeFord Bailey plays “Pan American Blues” at the Grand Ole Opry in 1967:

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

“Show interest in her goodness–for no one can be good for long if goodness is not in demand.”
Bertolt Brecht, The Good Person of Sezuan

From 2005:

Perhaps my powers of concentration have been diminished by advancing age, or maybe I’ve simply become more sensitive to the emotion-evoking power of music. (I cry more easily now than I did a decade ago.) Whatever the reason, I now find music more distracting than I used to, and I no longer listen to any kind of music while working on first drafts. Editing is different, and unless I’m doing battle with a tight deadline, in which case I prefer to struggle in silence, I sometimes listen to music when I’m polishing a piece, though I don’t really hear it. Sometimes I’ll put on a symphony or concerto, start chipping away at an unpolished draft, and emerge from a deep trough of concentration to realize–always with surprise–that the piece of music to which I was “listening” is almost over….

Read the whole thing here.