About Last Night

In today’s Wall Street Journal I file the first in a series of reports on my summer theater travels, a review from Washington, D.C., of the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s new production of both parts of Henry IV. Here’s an excerpt.

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Sir John Falstaff is the sneakiest scene-stealer in all of Shakespeare. “Henry IV” isn’t really about the fat and roguish knight, but no sooner does he make his entrance than the tablecloth is pulled out from under King Henry and Prince Hal. If the cast and director don’t look sharp, those two characters, central though they are to the plot, will never manage to pull it back again.

Part of what distinguishes the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s new production of both parts of “Henry IV” is the scrupulous care that Michael Kahn has taken to ensure that all three men share the spotlight. Even though Stacy Keach has been cast as Falstaff, Mr. Kahn never yields to the understandable temptation to exalt him over Edward Gero and Matthew Amendt, who play the troubled king and his wastrel son. Indeed, the thematic integrity and high seriousness of Mr. Kahn’s staging are impressive in virtually every way–which doesn’t mean that his “Henry IV” lacks for laughter, just that it gets the proportions right.

The integrity starts with Mr. Kahn’s decision to mount both parts of “Henry IV” in rotating repertory, rather than presenting only the first part (as is common in this country) or mounting a brutally abridged single-evening marathon staging of both parts (as Lincoln Center Theater did in 2003, with Kevin Kline playing Falstaff). To do it in any other way is to disserve the greatest and most complex of Shakespeare’s history plays…

Mr. Kahn’s production places Hal at center stage while simultaneously giving King Henry and Falstaff their due. The casting is the key: Mr. Gero gives a rich-voiced performance full of doubt and resolve, one of the best pieces of classical acting that I’ve seen in recent seasons. Mr. Amendt, by contrast, is a modern-sounding Hal–he might almost have stepped out of a romcom–who struggles to put away childish things and fulfill the awesome duties that devolve upon him with his father’s death and his ascension to the throne.

And what of Falstaff? If you think of him as a flamboyant lord of misrule, you may be be a bit disappointed by Mr. Keach’s low-keyed performance. Even when dandling a red-haired whore on his gouty knee, he never lets you forget that he’s playing an old man: His manner is genial and avuncular, his gait slow and unsure, and when he recalls having heard “the chimes at midnight,” he sounds less melancholy than nostalgic….

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Read the whole thing here.

The trailer for Henry IV:

“Those who heard him lecture never forgot the experience–how he once said, with memorable bite: ‘whenever you hear a man speak of “realism,” you may always be sure that this is the prelude to some bloody deed.'”
Michael Ignatieff, Isaiah Berlin: A Life

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:

• Act One (drama, G, too long for children, closes June 15, reviewed here)

• Bullets Over Broadway (musical, PG-13, reviewed here)

• Cabaret (musical, PG-13/R, all performances sold out last week, closes Jan. 4, reviewed here)

• Casa Valentina (drama, PG-13, closes June 15, most performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

• The Cripple of Inishmaan (serious comedy, PG-13, many performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

• A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder (musical, PG-13, reviewed here)

• Matilda (musical, G, all performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

• Les Misérables (musical, G, too long and complicated for young children, nearly all performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

• Of Mice and Men (drama, PG-13, all performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

• Once (musical, G/PG-13, reviewed here)

• A Raisin in the Sun (drama, G/PG-13, all performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

• Rocky (musical, G/PG-13, reviewed here)

OFF BROADWAY:

• 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)

CLOSING SOON OFF BROADWAY:

• The Heir Apparent (verse comedy, PG-13, extended through May 11, reviewed here)

“He loved quoting the stern admonition he had read on a grave in an English churchyard: ‘Avoid shame.'”
Michael Ignatieff, Isaiah Berlin: A Life

As you may have already heard, I’ve won a Bradley Prize. Here’s part of what The Wall Street Journal had to say about it:

We’re delighted to report that our colleague and artistic polymath Terry Teachout has been named one of the winners of the 2014 Bradley Prize.

The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, based in Milwaukee, offers the awards each year to as many as four individuals for their distinguished contributions to American institutions, free enterprise and other causes that the late Bradley brothers championed. The recognition comes with a cash prize of $250,000 and will be presented in Washington, D.C., on June 18. Additional winners will be named in the coming weeks.

Our readers know Terry as our drama critic and cultural essayist in his biweekly “Sightings” column. He is also a man of many artistic parts, as a playwright, biographer and opera librettist. “Satchmo at the Waldorf,” his first play, is currently running at New York’s Westside Theatre. His books include “Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington,” “Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong” and “The Skeptic: A Life of H.L. Mencken.” He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2012 and has served on the National Council on the Arts.

“Terry Teachout has distinguished himself, not just as a first-rate journalist, but as a supporter of the arts,” said Michael W. Grebe, president and CEO of the Bradley Foundation. “His work as a biographer and a playwright is critical to advancing and preserving America’s artistic and cultural tradition.”…

Read the whole thing here.

I’m flabbergasted–and humbled. And, yes, it’s true: Mrs. T and I really have decided to use part of the prize money to buy a new toaster. We need one.

From a 1945 British Pathé newsreel, preparations for the premiere of Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes:

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

“Isaiah told a long story about the death of the Spanish poet Lope de Vega. Assured that he was now finally at death’s door, de Vega was able to confess one final (for a poet) sacreligious thought: ‘Alors, Dante m’embête’–‘Well, then, Dante bores me.'”
Michael Ignatieff, Isaiah Berlin: A Life