The Jimmy Smith Trio (with Barney Kessel on guitar) plays “Organ Grinder’s Swing” on The Hollywood Palace in 1965. The group is introduced by Fred Astaire, who then dances a solo to Smith’s “The Cat,” accompanied by Smith and the studio band. The arrangement is by Lalo Schifrin:

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

“What other dungeon is so dark as one’s heart! What jailer so inexorable as one’s self.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of Seven Gables

In today’s Wall Street Journal drama column I report from Chicago on a revival of Side Man and the premiere of a musical version of Sense and Sensibility. Here’s an excerpt.

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If I were to draw up a list of the ten finest American plays of the past quarter-century, “Side Man,” Warren Leight’s Tony-winning 1998 memory play about his parents’ fractured marriage, would be on it. Yet revivals of “Side Man” are rare, perhaps because its author no longer spends much time in the theater game: Mr. Leight is now the showrunner for “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” and it’s been nine years since a full-length play of his was last seen on a New York stage. So when Chicago’s American Blues Theater announced plans to produce “Side Man,” I booked a flight to see what a company about which I’ve heard good things would do with a play that I love. I wasn’t disappointed: Jonathan Berry has staged “Side Man” with a poignant simplicity that allows the vital performances of his ensemble cast to shine forth unobscured by diversionary directorial stuntwork.

Gene Glimmer (Michael Ehlers), Mr. Leight’s fictionalized father, is a journeyman trumpeter who got his start in the big bands of the ‘40s and lived long enough to see the swinging musical culture of his youth pulverized by the rise of rock. Dedicated to his art to the point of obsession, he neglects his family, and his blank inaccessibility drives Terry (Kate Buddeke), his wife, to drink and madness. Even though Mr. Leight sketches Gene’s nocturnal milieu in rich and revealing detail, “Side Man” is less a play about jazz than a life study of the open wounds in the flesh of a family at war with itself….

Having seen both the letter-perfect original Broadway production of “Side Man” and an exceptionally fine 2012 Washington-area revival by 1st Stage, I can report that this one is absolutely up to scratch. Anchored by a raw and desperate performance by Ms. Buddeke, it’s played out on a nightclub-and-cheap-apartment set in a 90-seat black-box theater that puts you a heartbeat away from the action….

American theater audiences can’t seem to get enough of Jane Austen. Having reveled last season in Bedlam Theatre Company’s scampering small-scale adaptation of Kate Hamill’s ingenious stage version of “Sense and Sensibility,” I now find myself reporting on the Chicago Shakespeare premiere of Paul Gordon’s chamber musical based on the same 1811 novel about the eternally diverting romantic misadventures of the Dashwood sisters—and it, too, is a winner.

Mr. Gordon has made the unexpected decision to put all the wit (and plot) of “Sense and Sensibility” into his book and all the romance into his score, which is written in a contemporary-pop idiom that is disarmingly warm and lyrical without once stooping to Disneyfication….

Megan McGinnis and Sharon Rietkerk, who play Marianne and Elinor Dashwood, are lovely and right: Your heart goes out to them the moment they step into the spotlight….

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To read my complete review of Side Man, go here.

To read my complete review of Sense and Sensibility, go here.

A montage of scenes from the Chicago Shakespeare premiere production of Sense and Sensibility:

“Critics give themselves away, not by what they don’t like, but by what they do.”

Anthony Powell, A Writer’s Notebook

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:
• An American in Paris (musical, G, too complex for small children, virtually all performances sold out, reviewed here)
• Fun Home (serious musical, PG-13, all performances sold out, reviewed here)
• Hand to God (black comedy, X, absolutely not for children or prudish adults, reviewed here)
• A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder (musical, PG-13, reviewed here)
• The King and I (musical, G, perfect for children with well-developed attention spans, all performances sold out, reviewed here)
• Matilda (musical, G, reviewed here)
• Les Misérables (musical, G, too long and complicated for young children, reviewed here)
• On the Town (musical, G, contains double entendres that will not be intelligible to children, reviewed here)
• On the Twentieth Century (musical, G/PG-13, virtually all performances sold out, closes July 19, contains very mild sexual content, reviewed here)
• The Visit (serious musical, PG-13, far too dark and disturbing for children, reviewed here)

OFF BROADWAY:
• Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps (comedy, G, ideal for bright children, remounting of Broadway production, original production reviewed here)
• The Fantasticks (musical, G, suitable for children capable of enjoying a love story, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON ON BROADWAY:
• It’s Only a Play (comedy, PG-13/R, closes June 7, reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK OFF BROADWAY:
• Grounded (play, PG-13/R, explicit sexual references, closes May 24, reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK IN MALVERN, PA.:
• Biloxi Blues (comedy, PG-13, sexual content, closes May 24, reviewed here)

CLOSING SUNDAY IN BALTIMORE:
• After the Revolution (drama, G/PG-13, unsuitable for children, reviewed here)

“It is a rule, almost without exception, that writers and painters, who are always talking about being artists, break down at just that level.”

Anthony Powell, A Writer’s Notebook

Arthur Rubinstein plays an abridged version of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, accompanied by a studio orchestra conducted by Alfred Wallenstein. The performance was originally telecast in 1956 on NBC’s Producers’ Showcase and is introduced by José Ferrer:

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

“It is madness to expect anything of anyone. The sooner you expect anything of anyone life becomes a wilderness of disappointment.”

Anthony Powell, A Writer’s Notebook