Archives for November 12, 2015

I’m flying to Beverly Hills on Friday to make an onstage appearance at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, which presented Satchmo at the Waldorf earlier this year and is celebrating the centenary of the birth of Frank Sinatra this weekend. When not singing, Sinatra was a movie star, and I’m going to be moderating a panel discussion of his film career. The panelists include—no fooling—Nancy Sinatra and Tina Sinatra. Also present and accounted for will be Charles Pignone, the Sinatra family archivist and author, most recently, of Sinatra 100. In addition to talking about Sinatra and his screen appearances, we’ll be showing clips from On the Town, From Here to Eternity, The Man With the Golden Arm, High Society, and The Manchurian Candidate.

The panel discussion kicks off at four p.m. on Saturday, followed by a seven p.m. screening of Ocean’s 11. From Here to Eternity will be shown on Friday at seven p.m., and On the Town will be shown on Saturday at two p.m.

Admission to the panel discussion is free. To order tickets to the screenings or for additional information, go here.

John Douglas Thompson can do just about anything, but so far as I know, he can’t be in two places at once. If you follow my calendar, then you know that Satchmo at the Waldorf, my first play, will be produced more or less simultaneously this January at Chicago’s Court Theatre and San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater. The San Francisco production is a remounting of the version of Satchmo that was seen off Broadway in 2014, starring John and directed by Gordon Edelstein. The Chicago production, by contrast, will be newly staged by Charles Newell, the Court’s artistic director, whose work I’ve praised time and again in my Wall Street Journal drama column. Since John isn’t capable of bilocation, Charlie had to find somebody new to follow in his giant footsteps.

To this end, the Court Theatre announced today that the triple role of Louis Armstrong, Joe Glaser, and Miles Davis will be played there by Barry Shabaka Henley, a distinguished veteran of stage and screen whose arm-long list of credits includes Mingus Remixed, his own one-man show about the great bassist-composer. (You’re most likely to remember him as the aging jazz musician in Michael Mann’s Collateral, in which he appeared opposite Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx.) I have yet to meet Shabaka or see him on stage, but I know and esteem his film and TV work, and I have no doubt whatsoever that he’ll give a fabulous performance.

I should mention that the Court’s production of Satchmo will be part of a community-wide Louis Armstrong Festival that will also include concerts, screenings of Armstrong’s films, an art exhibition, and a symposium about Armstrong’s life and work in which I will be appearing jointly with my friend and colleague Ricky Riccardi, the author of What a Wonderful World: The Magic of Louis Armstrong’s Later Years, the other indispensable book about Satchmo. I’ll have more to say about the festival as the dates draw nearer, but you can read all about it now by going here.

As for my new colleague-to-be, I can’t wait to show up at the Court’s rehearsal hall on the morning of December 8 and watch him do his stuff. Welcome aboard, sir.

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A scene from Collateral:

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)
• Fool for Love (drama, R, closes Dec. 13, reviewed here)
• Fun Home (serious musical, PG-13, many performances sold out last week, reviewed here)
• A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder (musical, PG-13, closes Jan. 17, 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, closes Jan. 3, reviewed here)
• The King and I (musical, G, perfect for children with well-developed attention spans, reviewed here)
• Matilda (musical, G, reviewed here)
• Les Misérables (musical, G, too long and complicated for young children, reviewed here)
• On Your Feet! (jukebox musical, G, most performances sold out last week, reviewed here)
• Spring Awakening (musical, PG-13/R, closes Jan. 24, reviewed here)
• Sylvia (comedy, PG-13, closes Jan. 24, reviewed here)

OFF BROADWAY:
• Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps (comedy, G, ideal for bright children, remounting of Broadway production, closing Jan. 3, original production reviewed here)
• Eclipsed (drama, PG-13, closes Nov. 29, 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)

CLOSING SOON IN BOSTON:
• Saturday Night/Sunday Morning (drama, PG-13, closes Nov. 21, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON IN CHICAGO:
• The Price (drama, PG-13, closes Nov. 22, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON OFF BROADWAY:
• First Daughter Suite (serious musical, PG-13, closes Nov. 22, reviewed here)

“I guess I’ve accepted that theatre is never going to be edgy in the way I want it to be. It’s too expensive for a start. And, the audience seems to be complicit in the dullness. It’s like going to a fancy meal in a fancy restaurant with the attitude that, I’m here and I’ve paid the money so I’m going to enjoy it even though it tastes like shite.”

Martin McDonagh, interviewed in the Guardian (Sept. 15, 2015)