Archives for 2017

“I should like to like Schumann’s music better than I do; I dare say I could make myself like it better if I tried; but I do not like having to try to make myself like things; I like things that make me like them at once and no trying at all.”

Samuel Butler, The Note-Books of Samuel Butler

In today’s Wall Street Journal I write about the Broadway transfer of here. Here’s an excerpt.

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“War Paint” isn’t so much a musical as a pitch. It’s easy enough to imagine it: “I know—let’s do a musical about the Helena Rubinstein-Elizabeth Arden feud! Two tough-as-industrial-sandpaper businesswomen who make cosmetics and hate each other’s guts! We’ll get Patti LuPone and Christine Ebersole to be the stars, and we’ll get the ‘Grey Gardens’ guys to write the show. What’s not to like?” And up to a point, the goods get delivered: The stars are starry, the sets are glossy and the book is full of snappy one-liners. In the end, though, “War Paint” fails to keep its costly promises. Yes, it’s entertaining enough, but nothing like the deckle-edged hit it wants so desperately to be…

Unusually for a commercial musical, “War Paint” is not directly based on a pre-existing play or movie. I suspect that’s part of the problem, because it isn’t very dramatic. For openers, the plot of the show fails to pass the who-cares test: Neither Rubinstein nor Arden is portrayed in a sympathetic way, and since all they care about is getting rich, there’s no special reason to root for either one of them. It’s possible that “War Paint” might have worked better had one of the two women been turned into a secondary character, but they are given exactly equal time on stage (it almost feels as if Doug Wright had written the book in collaboration with his stars’ lawyers). The result is a musical that is structurally rigid, dramaturgically over-crowded and emotionally tepid.

Ms. LuPone and Ms. Ebersole both do their very best to turn their characters into something more than stick figures, and Michael Korie’s well-honed lyrics give them something to work with (“I, too, am called a nouveau riche pretender/The Jew whose application/Gets RETURNED TO SENDER”). Alas, Scott Frankel’s music is harmonically rich but melodically inert, and Michael Greif, the director, has made the mistake of having Ms. LuPone sing in a heavy Polish accent. While the punch lines in her dialogue scenes come through clearly, the accent turns many of Mr. Korie’s pointed lyrics into half-intelligible mush….

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Read the whole thing here.

Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, and the Foggy Mountain Boys sing “You Set Your Fields on Fire” on an undated telecast:

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

“Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life. Thus people haunted by the purposelessness of their lives try to find a new content not only by dedicating themselves to a holy cause but also by nursing a fanatical grievance. A mass movement offers them unlimited opportunities for both.”

Eric Hoffer, The True Believer (courtesy of Patrick Kurp)

In today’s Wall Street Journal I review the new Broadway revival of Present Laughter. Here’s an excerpt.

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“Present Laughter” is Noël Coward’s funniest and most perfectly wrought comedy, give or take “Blithe Spirit.” But unlike “Blithe Spirit,” which all but plays itself, “Present Laughter” won’t come off unless the central character, a monstrously vain actor-playwright-celebrity who behaves in a manner all but indistinguishable from that of Coward himself, is portrayed by an actor who oozes star quality from every orifice and is also naturally funny. Until now, only four men had dared to play Garry Essendine, Coward’s fictional alter ego, on Broadway: Clifton Webb, George C. Scott, Frank Langella and Victor Garber, the last of whom wasn’t quite up to scratch in the Roundabout Theatre Company’s 2010 production. Now their ranks have been augmented by Kevin Kline, who last set foot on a Broadway stage a decade ago, when he donned a false nose and appeared in “Cyrano de Bergerac.” You’d think he’d be rusty, but you’d be dead wrong. Not only is Mr. Kline’s performance a triumph, but this revival, directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel, is the best staging of a Coward play—any Coward play—that I’ve ever seen.

If you know “Soapdish,” the 1991 screen comedy in which Mr. Kline played a pompous soap-opera hero, you’ll have a fairly good idea of how he’s playing Essendine, who’s never seen a mirror he didn’t like, a friend he didn’t try to manipulate or a woman he didn’t try to bed….

It’s a dream part for the famously funny Mr. Kline, but there’s a catch: He’s 69 years old, whereas Garry Essendine has only just turned 40 (as had Coward when he wrote the play in 1939). You can fiddle with the text of “Present Laughter” all you want in order to obscure Essendine’s actual age, but you can’t escape the oft-mentioned fact that he’s a matinée idol who is irresistibly attractive to fans of both sexes.

How have Messrs. Kline and Stuelpnagel dealt with this problem? By confronting it head on. In addition to streaking Mr. Kline’s hair with gray, Mr. Steuplnagel makes him claim at various points in the play to be 45, 43, 47 and (best of all) 57. Moreover, Mr. Kline plays Essendine as an older man, one who is still vital but nonetheless uncomfortably aware that it’s absurd to the point of pitifulness for him to be carrying on with an air-headed 24-year-old wannabe actress (Tedra Millan). Therein lies the originality of performance and production alike: Essendine is played for truth, not as a caricature, which simultaneously makes him more interesting and—yes—even funnier….

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Read the whole thing here.

Noël Coward and Margaret Leighton play a scene from Present Laughter in a 1956 audio recording:

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, reviewed here)
• The Price (drama, G, too long and serious for children, virtually all shows sold out last week, extended through May 14, reviewed here)
• Sweat (drama, PG-13, Broadway transfer of off-Broadway production, most shows sold out last week, original production reviewed here)

OFF BROADWAY:
• The Fantasticks (musical, G, suitable for children capable of enjoying a love story, closes June 4, reviewed here)
• Vanity Fair (serious comedy, PG-13, extended through May 14, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON OFF BROADWAY:
• Come Back, Little Sheba/Picnic (dramas, PG-13, playing in rotating repertory, extended through April 23, reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK IN SARASOTA, FLA.:
• Born Yesterday (comedy, PG-13, closes April 15, reviewed here)

“Outrage is a substitute for religion: It convinces us that our existence has some kind of meaning or significance beyond itself, that is to say beyond the paltry flux of day-to-day existence, especially when that existence is a securely comfortable one. Therefore we go looking for things to be outraged about as anteaters look for ants. Of all emotions, outrage is not only one of the most pleasurable but also one of the most reliable.”

Theodore Dalrymple, “Better Left Unsaid” (Taki’s Magazine, Dec. 31, 2016, courtesy of Patrick Kurp)

Gerry Mulligan and Ben Webster play Mulligan’s “Go Home” and “Who’s Got Rhythm” on The Dinah Shore Chevy Show. They are accompanied by Jimmy Rowles on piano, Leroy Vinnegar on bass, and Mel Lewis on drums. Shore introduces the performance, which was originally telecast on December 9, 1962:

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