Archives for August 27, 2015

Four years ago next month, Satchmo at the Waldorf, my first play, was premiered in Orlando, Florida. Since then it’s been produced in Lenox, Los Angeles, New Haven, Philadelphia, and off Broadway, and it’ll be staged later this season in Chicago, Colorado Springs, San Francisco, and West Palm Beach. Now I’ve received word that a package containing the very first printed copies of Dramatists Play Service’s acting edition of Satchmo has just been shipped to my New York apartment. Alas, I’m not there and won’t be until next week, but my agent e-mailed me this photo to tide me over.

In case you’ve ever wondered whether dreams come true…well, they do. And sometimes the reality is even better than the dream.

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Louis Armstrong and the All Stars perform “A Kiss to Build a Dream On” in Stockholm in 1962:

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:
• An American in Paris (musical, G, too complex for small children, some performances sold out last week, reviewed here)
• Fun Home (serious musical, PG-13, all performances sold out last week, reviewed here)
• A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder (musical, PG-13, some performances sold out last week, reviewed here)
• Hamilton (musical, PG-13, all performances sold out last week, reviewed here)
• Hand to God (black comedy, X, absolutely not for children or prudish adults, reviewed here)
• The King and I (musical, G, perfect for children with well-developed attention spans, nearly all performances sold out last week, reviewed here)
• Matilda (musical, G, nearly all performances sold out last week, reviewed here)
• Les Misérables (musical, G, too long and complicated for young children, some performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

OFF BROADWAY:
• Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps (comedy, G, ideal for bright children, remounting of Broadway production, original production reviewed here)
• The Fantasticks (musical, G, suitable for children capable of enjoying a love story, reviewed here)
• The Flick (serious comedy, PG-13, too long for young people with limited attention spans, reviewed here)

IN ASHLAND, OREGON:
• Sweat (drama, PG-13, closes Oct. 31, reviewed here)

IN NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, ONTARIO:
• Sweet Charity (musical, PG-13, closes Oct. 31, reviewed here)
• You Never Can Tell (Shaw, PG-13, closes Oct. 25, reviewed here)

IN SPRING GREEN, WIS.:
• An Iliad (drama, PG-13, closes Oct. 18, reviewed here)
• The Island (drama, PG-13, closes Sept. 26, reviewed here)
• The Merry Wives of Windsor (Shakespeare, PG-13, closes Oct. 4, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON IN NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, ONTARIO:
• The Twelve-Pound Look (one-act comedy, G, not suitable for children, closes Sept. 12, reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK IN LENOX, MASS.:
• Mother of the Maid (drama, PG-13, closing Sept. 6, reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK IN SPRING GREEN, WIS.:
• A Streetcar Named Desire (drama, PG-13, closes Sept. 5, reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK OFF BROADWAY:
• The Weir (drama, PG-13, remounting of original off-Broadway production, closes Sept. 6, original production reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK ON BROADWAY:
• On the Town (musical, G, contains double entendres that will not be intelligible to children, closing Sept. 6, reviewed here)

CLOSING THIS WEEKEND IN GARRISON, N.Y.:
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare, PG-13, closes Friday, reviewed here)
• The Winter’s Tale (Shakespeare, PG-13, closes Saturday, reviewed here)

“A sense of security, of well-being, of summer warmth pervades my memory. That robust reality makes a ghost of the present. The mirror brims with brightness; a bumblebee has entered the room and bumps against the ceiling. Everything is as it should be, nothing will ever change, nobody will ever die.”

Vladimir Nabokov, Speak, Memory