Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City
An excerpt from Isaac in America: A Journey with Isaac Bashevis Singer, a 1987 documentary directed by Amram Nowak. In this scene, Singer is seen returning to Coney Island and Brighton Beach, where he lived during his early years in New York:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday)
“When a book is boring, they yawn openly, without any shame or fear of authority. They don’t expect their beloved writer to redeem humanity. Young as they are, they know that it is not in his power. Only the adults have such childish illusions.”
Isaac Bashevis Singer, speech at the Nobel Banquet, December 10, 1978
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One of the reasons why Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton” won over so many older playgoers who couldn’t care less about hip-hop is that it’s not a hip-hop show. It’s an extremely well-made musical about the founding fathers that just happens to have a hip-hop score. Yes, I exaggerate, but not by much, and I can’t tell you how many senior citizens of my acquaintance were pleasantly surprised by how much they liked “Hamilton.” Unfortunately, it was an inherently impossible act to follow, and to date, Mr. Miranda has yet to follow it…
In the meantime, Mr. Miranda has now gotten himself back on Broadway—after a fashion. He is very prominently credited as co-creator and co-producer of “Freestyle Love Supreme,” which just opened at the Booth Theatre after a successful off-Broadway run, and if you didn’t know any better, you could be forgiven for assuming that it’s “Son of ‘Hamilton.’” But you’d be dead wrong: “Freestyle Love Supreme” is the name of a hip-hop improv comedy troupe, which is a fancy way of saying that it’s a nightclub act, not a musical….
Each performance consists of 85 minutes’ worth of hip-hop numbers and sketches made up on the spot by the members of the troupe, who invite the audience to shout out words and phrases on which they improvise. Whatever else that is, it’s not a musical, nor does it purport to be one….
Therein, of course, lies the catch: Improvisational comedy is by its nature a hit-or-miss proposition. Some nights you get lucky, some nights you don’t, and some nights—most nights, truth to tell, unless you’re Elaine May and Mike Nichols—you spend a fair amount of time circling the airport, hoping against hope for inspiration to strike. On Wednesday, that came to about 45 minutes…
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Read the whole thing here.Lin-Manuel Miranda and the cast of Freestyle Love Supreme perform on The Tonight Show:
W.C. Fields performs his vaudeville juggling act in The Old Fashioned Way, directed by William Beaudine and released in 1934:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday)
“When you’re forty, half of you belongs to the past—and when you’re seventy, nearly all of you.”
Jean Anouilh, Time Remembered (trans. Patricia Moyes)
“A fault concealed is presumed to be great.”
Martial, Epigrams
Bing Crosby sings a medley of “Pennies from Heaven,” “The Second Time Around,” and “In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening” on The Bob Hope Chrysler Special, originally telecast by NBC on November 16, 1966:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday)
“The complete life, the perfect pattern, includes old age as well as youth and maturity. The beauty of the morning and the radiance of noon are good, but it would be a very silly person who drew the curtains and turned on the light in order to shut out the tranquillity of the evening. Old age has its pleasures, which, though different, are not less than the pleasures of youth.”
W. Somerset Maugham, The Summing Up