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Archives for March 24, 2016

Willie Stark’s revenge

March 24, 2016 by Terry Teachout

AllTheKingsMenIn today’s Wall Street Journal “Sightings” column I take note of the contemporary relevance of Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men. Here’s an excerpt.

* * *

Political novels aren’t what they used to be, no doubt because truth really is stranger than fiction nowadays. But three of the top-selling American political novels of the 20th century, Allen Drury’s “Advise and Consent,” Edwin O’Connor’s “The Last Hurrah” and Robert Penn Warren’s “All the King’s Men,” continue to be read and remembered to this day, doubtless in part because they were all turned into Hollywood movies. Alas, none of those movies was worthy of its source material, not even Robert Rossen’s 1949 film version of “All the King’s Men,” which won a best-picture Oscar. Mediocrity is, of course, the usual fate of good novels that make it to the big screen, but it’s especially disappointing in the case of “All the King’s Men,” which is more relevant today than ever before.

It goes almost without saying that Rossen was lost before he started. No film can convey more than a sliver of the essence of a great novel, and “All the King’s Men,” which was inspired in part by the career of Huey Long, ranks among the greatest. This is all the more remarkable because it is about politics, a subject notorious for turning the brains of artists into mush. Yet there is nothing sentimental about Warren’s portrayal of Willie Stark, a Long-like Louisiana politician who seeks power to do good and is ultimately destroyed by it….

An idealistic young reformer turned ruthless operator, Stark’s life is changed utterly when he comes to the reluctant conclusion that all men, however honorable they may seem to be, are both corrupt and corruptible: “Man is conceived in sin and born in corruption and he passeth from the stink of the didie to the stench of the shroud.” This leads him to treat any political means, however illegal, as acceptable so long as the end is sufficiently desirable….

Picture5Is Stark right to be so pessimistic about what he calls “the nature of things”? If so, does that justify his own increasingly monstrous behavior? Or can noble ends be corrupted by the evil means through which we seek to bring them into being? The fact that Warren deliberately leaves this question open is part of what gives “All the King’s Men” its permanent relevance…

But the reason why “All the King’s Men” is of immediate interest can be found in the scene in which Stark addresses a crowd of poor white farmers who care nothing for politics or politicians, having decided that Louisiana will always be ruled by the rich. His first words fill them with resentment: “Friends, red-necks, suckers, and fellow hicks.” But then he surprises them: “That’s what you are. And me—I’m one, too. Oh, I’m a red-neck, for the sun has beat down on me. I’m a sucker, for I fell for that sweet-talking fellow in the fine automobile….nobody ever helped a hick but the hick himself. Up there in town they won’t help you. It is up to you and God, and God helps those who help themselves!” By identifying with their feelings of powerlessness and promising to “nail up anybody who stands in your way,” he forges them into a populist alliance that puts him in the governor’s mansion.

Does this perhaps have a familiar ring? If it doesn’t, your TV is broken….

* * *

Read the whole thing here.

The trailer for the theatrical re-release 1949 film of All the King’s Men:

So you want to see a show?

March 24, 2016 by Terry Teachout

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, reviewed here)
• The Color Purple (musical, PG-13, many performances sold out last week, reviewed here)
• Eclipsed (drama, PG-13, Broadway remounting of off-Broadway production, closes June 19, original production reviewed here)
• Fun Home (serious musical, PG-13, most performances sold out last week, reviewed here)
• Hamilton (musical, PG-13, Broadway transfer of off-Broadway production, all performances sold out last week, reviewed here)
• The King and I (musical, G, perfect for children with well-developed attention spans, many 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, nearly all performances sold out last week, closes Sept. 4, reviewed here)
• On Your Feet! (jukebox musical, G, reviewed here)
• She Loves Me (musical, G, suitable for bright children capable of enjoying a love story, nearly all performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

OFF BROADWAY:
• The Fantasticks (musical, G, suitable for children capable of enjoying a love story, reviewed here)
90• Hold On to Me Darling (drama, PG-13, closes April 17, reviewed here)
• Sense & Sensibility (serious romantic comedy, G, remounting of 2014 off-Broadway production, closes April 17, then reopens June 17-Oct. 2, original production reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON IN SARASOTA, FLA.:
• Ah, Wilderness! (comedy, PG-13, closes April 10, reviewed here)

CLOSING SUNDAY OFF BROADWAY:
• Prodigal Son (drama, PG-13, reviewed here)

Almanac: Lord Byron on jealousy

March 24, 2016 by Terry Teachout

INK BOTTLE
Yet he was jealous, though he did not show it,
For jealousy dislikes the world to know it.

Lord Byron, Don Juan

Terry Teachout

Terry Teachout, who writes this blog, is the drama critic of The Wall Street Journal and the critic-at-large of Commentary. In addition to his Wall Street Journal drama column and his monthly essays … [Read More...]

About

About “About Last Night”

This is a blog about the arts in New York City and the rest of America, written by Terry Teachout. Terry is a critic, biographer, playwright, director, librettist, recovering musician, and inveterate blogger. In addition to theater, he writes here and elsewhere about all of the other arts--books, … [Read More...]

About My Plays and Opera Libretti

Billy and Me, my second play, received its world premiere on December 8, 2017, at Palm Beach Dramaworks in West Palm Beach, Fla. Satchmo at the Waldorf, my first play, closed off Broadway at the Westside Theatre on June 29, 2014, after 18 previews and 136 performances. That production was directed … [Read More...]

About My Podcast

Peter Marks, Elisabeth Vincentelli, and I are the panelists on “Three on the Aisle,” a bimonthly podcast from New York about theater in America. … [Read More...]

About My Books

My latest book is Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington, published in 2013 by Gotham Books in the U.S. and the Robson Press in England and now available in paperback. I have also written biographies of Louis Armstrong, George Balanchine, and H.L. Mencken, as well as a volume of my collected essays called A … [Read More...]

The Long Goodbye

To read all three installments of "The Long Goodbye," a multi-part posting about the experience of watching a parent die, go here. … [Read More...]

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