About Last Night

Calvin Coolidge speaking on the White House grounds in 1924. This is the first sound film ever taken of an American president:

After a string of variously unsatisfying Shakespeare in the Park productions presented by the Public Theater in recent years, I’m delighted to report in this morning’s Wall Street Journal that Daniel Sullivan’s Merchant of Venice is a major event. Here’s an excerpt.
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The distracting presence of a movie star, even one who knows (as most don’t) what to do on a stage, can be a heavy burden for a classic play to bear. Thus it was with a fair amount of trepidation that I went to Central Park to watch Al Pacino, who was last seen on a New York stage in 2003, play Shylock in the Public Theater’s outdoor version of “The Merchant of Venice.” Mr. Pacino is, or can be, a formidable stage actor, which is one of the reasons why his film performances so often seem overblown. But he is also a celebrity, and I feared the distorting effects of his outsized personality on a play that has more than enough troubles of its own. So what happened? Mr. Pacino’s performance was interesting but problematic–and the rest of the show was so good that it didn’t matter. Not only is this the best “Merchant of Venices” I’ve ever reviewed, but it’s one of the finest Shakespeare productions I’ve ever seen, period.
Daniel Sullivan, the director, was responsible for the hideous modern-dress “Julius Caesar” in which Denzel Washington embarrassed himself on Broadway five years ago. But everyone deserves a second chance, and I rejoice to say that Mr. Sullivan also deserves much credit for the illuminating force of this “Merchant,” which is set in a brokerage house in Vicwardian London, a mercilessly genteel land of spats, cravats and don’t-think-twice-it’s-all-right anti-Semitism. Imposing high directorial concepts on Shakespeare’s plays doesn’t always serve them well, but it makes good dramatic sense to transplant the tale of Shylock and his Christian tormentors into a time and place in which Jews were treated with near-universal disdain. It therefore becomes unnecessary for the other characters to underline their contempt for Shylock: We take it for granted….
Mr. Pacino has opted to make Shylock a traditional “comic” stage Jew, an interpretation that will cause some viewers to wince but makes sense–up to a point–in the context of the evening. What I waited for in vain was the clinching moment when he unsheathes his sword and sets loose his rage. I never expected to see a soft-edged Shylock from Mr. Pacino, but that’s pretty much what he’s giving us, though he and Mr. Sullivan have cooked up between them a redemptive coup de théâtre about which I’ll say only that it’s worth the wait.
That said, I can’t imagine a better ensemble cast than the one assembled for this production….
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Read the whole thing here.

“What object could Fate possibly have in enviously debarring love between Prudence and such an ordinary and colourless young man as this appeared to be? But of course, she remembered, that was why women were so wonderful; it was their love and imagination that transformed these unremarkable beings. For most men, when one came to think of it, were undistinguished to look at, if not positively ugly.”
Barbara Pym, Jane and Prudence

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.

Warning: Broadway shows marked with an asterisk were sold out, or nearly so, last week.

BROADWAY:

• La Cage aux Folles (musical, PG-13, adult subject matter, reviewed here)

• Fela! (musical, PG-13, adult subject matter, reviewed here)

• Million Dollar Quartet (jukebox musical, G, reviewed here)

• South Pacific (musical, G/PG-13, some sexual content, brilliantly staged but unsuitable for viewers acutely allergic to preachiness, closes Aug. 22, reviewed here)

OFF BROADWAY:

• Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps (comedy, G, suitable for bright children, original Broadway production 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)

• Our Town (drama, G, suitable for mature children, reviewed here)

IN ASHLAND, ORE.:

• Hamlet (Shakespeare, PG-13, closes Oct. 30, reviewed here)

• Ruined (drama, PG-13/R, violence and adult subject matter, closes Oct. 31, reviewed here)

• She Loves Me (musical, G, suitable for children capable of enjoying a love story, closes Oct. 30, reviewed here)

IN CHICAGO:

• The Farnsworth Invention (drama, G, too complicated for children, closes July 24, reviewed here)

IN GLENCOE, ILL.:

• A Streetcar Named Desire (drama, PG-13, adult subject matter, closes Aug. 8, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON IN CHICAGO:

• Killer Joe (black comedy-drama, X, extreme violence and nudity, closes July 18, reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK ON BROADWAY:

• Fences * (drama, PG-13/R, adult subject matter, closes July 11, reviewed here)

CLOSING SATURDAY IN EAST HADDAM, CONN.:

• Annie Get Your Gun (musical, G, child-friendly, reviewed here)

CLOSING SUNDAY IN PHILADELPHIA:

• Sunday in the Park with George (musical, PG-13, far too complex for children, reviewed here)

“Things were said on both sides which might be regretted afterwards, and both felt the perverse satisfaction which is to be got from saying things of precisely that kind. It is very seldom that we can tell our friends exactly what we think of them; for some the occasion never presents itself, and they are perhaps the poorer for not having experienced the exultation of flinging the buried resentment and the usually irrelevant insult at a dear friend.”
Barbara Pym, Less Than Angels

Helen Frankenthaler paints and talks about her work:

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

Right here–though things have changed a bit since 1920:

“Understanding somebody else’s filing system is just about as easy as really getting to know another human being. Just when you think you know everything about them, there’s the impossible happening, the M for Miscellaneous when you naturally assumed it would be under something else.”
Barbara Pym, Less Than Angels