Archives for September 2018

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:
• The Band’s Visit (musical, PG-13, virtually all shows sold out last week, reviewed here)
• 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)
• My Fair Lady (musical, G, nearly all shows sold out last week, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON OFF BROADWAY:
• Days to Come (drama, G, not suitable for children, closes Oct. 6, reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK OFF BROADWAY:
• Be More Chill (musical, PG-13, closes Sept. 30, reviewed here)
• Heartbreak House (drama, PG-13, closes Sept. 29, reviewed here)

“The fact that so many successful politicians are such shameless liars is not only a reflection on them, it is also a reflection on us. When the people want the impossible, only liars can satisfy.”

Thomas Sowell, “Big Lies in Politics” (syndicated column, May 22, 2012)

Otto Preminger is the celebrity guest on To Tell the Truth. The panelists are Orson Bean, Peggy Cass, Kitty Carlisle, and Tom Poston, and Bud Collyer is the host. This episode was originally telecast by CBS on November 8, 1965. Preminger’s segment stars at 16:25:

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

“Put differently, religion is the audacious attempt to conceive of the entire universe as being humanly significant.”

Peter Berger, The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion

From 2008:

In private life Dick was as dapper as his playing, and old-fashioned in all the best ways. He liked Chicago-style jazz, British tailoring, black-and-white movies, Marmite, and The New Yorker before Tina Brown got her hands on it. Not surprisingly, he was more than a little bit at odds with much of the modern world, and I suspect that he would have been vastly happier had he been born in 1908 instead of 1938. He was also a pessimist by nature, but like many such folks, he gave more pleasure than he got–and, I suspect, got more pleasure than he usually cared to admit….

Read the whole thing here

“Man, at least when educated, is a pessimist. He believes it safer not to reflect on his achievements; Jove is known to strike such people down.”

John Kenneth Galbraith, The Age of Uncertainty

Titus Techera, who hosts a podcast for the American Cinema Foundation on which he and his guests discuss important films of the past and present, invited me back to talk about Nicholas Ray’s On Dangerous Ground on his latest episode. Our hour-long chat is now available on line.

Titus and I spoke at length and in detail about the 1951 film, produced by John Houseman, which starred Robert Ryan, Ida Lupino, and Ward Bond, was written by A.I. Bezzerides and Ray, and features a sublime musical score by Bernard Herrmann, Alfred Hitchcock’s close collaborator. While it was only modestly successful on its original release, On Dangerous Ground is now widely regarded by English-speaking critics as one of Hollywood’s film-noir masterpieces.

Here’s part of Titus’ summary of our conversation:

Nicholas Ray’s On Dangerous Ground, the best Robert Ryan noir…moves between social criticism and romanticism effortlessly, the tragic story of a man who believes in justice and who learns to believe in innocence, too. We talk about the many attractions of the movie—Ida Lupino, the Bernard Herrmann score, George Diskant’s cinematography, Ward Bond’s remarkable portrayal of a father mad to avenge his daughter’s murder—and we also talk about noir, genre pictures, social criticism, how America learned about tragedy in World War II, and the new depth of character in story-telling this ushered in.

To listen to or download this episode, go here.

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The original theatrical trailer for On Dangerous Ground:

A scene from the film, featuring Robert Ryan and Ida Lupino and scored by Bernard Herrmann. The viola d’amore heard on the soundtrack is played by Virginia Majewski:

Lenny Breau plays a solo version of his own “Taranta,” followed by a performance of Toots Thieleman’s “Bluesette” accompanied by his trio. This performance was originally telecast on the CBC in 1966:

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