Archives for January 2017

Mrs. T and I were forced to temporarily postpone our annual trip to Florida in order to resolve a lingering health problem that had laid her low. The good news is that her doctors finally assured us last Tuesday that we could fly down over the weekend, leaving the gloomy weather in Connecticut far behind us.

It had just started to snow in Hartford when our plane took off, but we got underway in the nick of time and without incident. We landed in Fort Myers at four o’clock, drove straight from the airport to Sanibel Island, dined on Doc Ford’s Yucatan shrimp, and slept deeply and well a stone’s throw from the Gulf of Mexico. On Sunday we drove back across the causeway to see a revival of John Guare’s The House of Blue Leaves that I’ll be reviewing later this week in The Wall Street Journal, then returned with alacrity to our beach hideaway.

Today I’m writing an obituary for Nat Hentoff that will appear this afternoon in the online Journal, after which I’ll go to work on my review of The House of Blue Leaves. Once that’s filed, my plan is to spend a few days doing plenty of nothing. If you need me, it can wait. It’ll have to.

Barbra Streisand sings “When the Sun Comes Out,” by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer, on The Ed Sullivan Show. This episode was originally telecast by CBS on June 9, 1963:

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

“The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.”

H.L. Mencken, “Footnote on Criticism”

Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca play Stanley Kowalski and Blanche du Bois in “A Streetcar Named,” a parody of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire. This sketch was performed live on February 25, 1950, on NBC’S Your Show of Shows:

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

“Almost all great painters in old age arrive at the same kind of broad, simplified style, as if they wanted to summarise the whole of their experience in a few strokes and blobs of colour.”

Kenneth Clark, The Romantic Rebellion

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:
• Dear Evan Hansen (musical, PG-13, all shows sold out last week, reviewed here)
• Hamilton (musical, PG-13, Broadway transfer of off-Broadway production, all shows sold out last week, reviewed here)
• On Your Feet! (jukebox musical, G, some shows sold out last week, reviewed here)

OFF BROADWAY:
• The Fantasticks (musical, G, suitable for children capable of enjoying a love story, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON OFF BROADWAY:
• Finian’s Rainbow (small-scale musical revival, G, closes Jan. 29, reviewed here)

CLOSING SUNDAY OFF BROADWAY:
• The Band’s Visit (musical, PG-13, reviewed here)
• Sweet Charity (small-scale musical revival, PG-13, reviewed here)

CLOSING SUNDAY ON BROADWAY:
• The Color Purple (musical, PG-13, nearly all shows sold out last week, reviewed here)
• The Encounter (one-man immersive drama, PG-13, reviewed here)

“It is lack of confidence, more than anything else, that kills a civilisation. We can destroy ourselves by cynicism and disillusion, just as effectively as by bombs.”

Kenneth Clark, script for Civilisation

Aaron Copland plays his Piano Concerto, composed in 1926, accompanied by Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic. This performance was originally telecast by CBS as part of a “Young People’s Concert” on . February 8, 1964:

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