Today’s Wall Street Journal “Sightings” column is an annotated list of five rarely-seen plays deserving of revival. The plays are S.J. Perelman’s The Beauty Part, Enid Bagnold’s The Chalk Garden, Terence Rattigan’s French Without Tears, Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth, and Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s The Visit. Here’s an excerpt.
* * *
What’s coming to Broadway this spring? Among other things, two familiar American plays that are widely regarded as modern classics are slated for high-profile revivals.
The first is “Death of a Salesman,” which was premiered on Broadway in 1949 and revived there in 1975, 1984 and 1999. In addition, it was filmed in 1951 and has been performed on TV four times.
The second is “A Streetcar Named Desire,” which was premiered in 1947 and revived in 1950, 1956, 1973 (twice), 1988, 1992 and 2005. In addition, it was filmed in 1951 and has been performed on TV twice.
Enough already!
Yes, I’ll give both shows a fair shake. That’s my job. But all things being equal, I’d rather review a show that hasn’t been so often that you can recite the lines along with the actors. In fact, what I’d really like is to review something that I’ve never seen–and even though I go to more than a hundred shows each year, there are any number of worthwhile plays, some of them important, that I have yet to see onstage.
If, like me, you’re more than ready to send Stanley Kowalski and Willy Loman on a nice long vacation, I invite you to consider this wish list of five rarely revived plays that I’ve never been lucky enough to see….
* * *
Read the whole thing here.

“The higher processes are all processes of simplification. The novelist must learn to write, and then he must unlearn it; just as the modern painter learns to draw, and then learns when utterly to disregard his accomplishment, when to subordinate it to a higher and truer effect.”
Willa Cather, “The Novel Démeublé”

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:

• Anything Goes (musical, G/PG-13, mildly adult subject matter that will be unintelligible to children, closes Sept. 9, most performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

• Godspell (musical, G, suitable for children, reviewed here)

• How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (musical, G/PG-13, perfectly fine for children whose parents aren’t actively prudish, reviewed here)

• Other Desert Cities (drama, PG-13, adult subject matter, most performances sold out last week, extended through June 17, reviewed here)

• Seminar (serious comedy, PG-13, closes Mar. 4, reviewed here)

• Venus in Fur (serious comedy, R, adult subject matter, closes June 17, reviewed here)

OFF BROADWAY:

• The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs (monologue, PG-13, extended throug Mar. 18, reviewed here)

• Avenue Q (musical, R, adult subject matter and one show-stopping scene of puppet-on-puppet sex, reviewed here)

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

• Look Back in Anger (drama, PG-13, closes Apr. 8, reviewed here)

• Million Dollar Quartet (jukebox musical, G, off-Broadway remounting of Broadway production, original run reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON IN SARASOTA, FLA.:

• Once in a Lifetime (comedy, G/PG-13, too complicated for children, closes Feb. 29, reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK ON BROADWAY:

• Stick Fly (serious comedy, PG-13, closes Feb. 26, reviewed here)

“The world is always full of brilliant youth which fades into grey and embittered middle age: the first flowering takes everything. The great men are those who have developed slowly, or who have been able to survive the glamour of their early florescence and to go on learning from life.”
Willa Cather, “Joseph and His Brothers”

A 1958 BBC TV interview with Kingsley Amis:

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

“The stupid believe that to be truthful is easy; only the artist, the great artist, knows how difficult it is.”
Willa Cather, The Song of the Lark

Shakespeare & Company has announced performance dates for the New England premiere of Satchmo at the Waldorf, my one-man-two-character play about Louis Armstrong and Joe Glaser, which stars John Douglas Thompson and will be directed by Gordon Edelstein. Opening night is August 22, 2012, and the show will run through September 2 at the Founders’ Theatre in Lenox, Massachusetts.
Tickets go on sale today. We expect them to sell briskly, so if you’re interested in coming, don’t dally.
For more information, or to purchase tickets on line, go here. You can also call the box office at 413-637-3353.
UPDATE: I just received this e-mail from a Playwright Who Must Remain Nameless:

a critic who’s a working playwright!!!!!! outrageous!!!!! outlandish!!!!!! impossible!!!!!!! hoorah!

And yes, I’m smiling. Broadly.

I put this Hugh MacLeod cartoon on the back of my business card around the time that it started looking like Satchmo at the Waldorf was going to get produced.
No, I’m not having second thoughts: