MOST RECENT POSTS
- Snapshot: George Sanders appears in a Spiedel TV commercial
George Sanders appears in an undated TV commercial from the Fifties for Spiedel watch bands: (This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and ... read more - Almanac: the best thing about the human race (from Starman)
“Shall I tell you what I find beautiful about you? You are at your very best when things are worst.” Bruce A. Evans and Raynold Gideon, screenplay for Starman ... read more - A Room in India at Park Avenue Armory: A theater titan stumbles? Or fights back?
Those who like theater that’s epic, brainy and political couldn’t have had a more irresistible ticket than A Room in India – no matter how expensive it was. Curtain call at A Room in India ... read more - A user-friendly jazz master
In today’s Wall Street Journal “Sightings” column, I pay tribute to Bill Charlap, my favorite living jazz pianist. Here’s an excerpt. * * * Will jazz ever become popular again? I claimed in this ... read more - Lookback: on revisiting a much-loved TV series of the past
From 2007: Am I viewing Hill Street Blues through nostalgia-colored bifocals? Probably. I have no doubt whatsoever that part of the appeal it holds for me now is the way in which it reminds me ... read more - Almanac: Santayana on marriage“It takes patience to appreciate domestic bliss; volatile spirits prefer unhappiness.” George Santayana, The Life of Reason ... read more
- Kevin Mahagony RIP
The singer Kevin Mahagony has died at the age of 59. As The Kansas City Star’s Timothy Finn reported today, Mahagony had only recently returned to his hometown. To read Finn’s column, ... read more - Touched by a Virtual Hand
Charles Atlas, Rashaun Mitchell, and Silas Riener collaborate on a video/live performance. Part II—Tesseract O in BAM’s Next Wave Festival. Projected: Silas Riener. Onstage (L to R): Kate Jewett, David Rafael Botana, Silas Riener, Cori ... read more - The Afterlife of Adam and Eve
ONE of my favorite books of the year is the effort by Shakespeare scholar Stephen Greenblatt to make sense of several thousand years of Adam and Eve. Where did the original myth and its ... read more - What have you LEARNED from 2017?
No doubt you have worked hard. You have challenged your creativity, stretched every penny, and exhausted every option. Good job! So, in these last two weeks of this year, how about taking a moment to ... read more - Who’s Afraid of Virginia Boeuf
We have so many ways nowadays to discover how boeuf en daube is pronounced without having to tap a French shoulder, human or beef. Raise your hands, readers, if you know what novel ... read more - Wrapping it up
A poet, the Russians say, always cheats his boss. This is something I’ve been determined not to do to The Wall Street Journal, whose editors have been uncommonly agreeable about allowing their drama critic to ... read more - Just because: Marcel Marceau’s “Youth, Maturity, Old Age, and Death”Marcel Marceau performs his “Youth, Maturity, Old Age, and Death” on TV in 1965: (This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and ... read more
- Almanac: Joan Didion on marriage“Marriage is memory, marriage is time.” Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking ... read more
- Monday Recommendation: Experiencing Ornette Coleman
Michael Stephans, Experiencing Ornette Coleman (Rowman & Littlefield) When Ornette Coleman (1930-2015) became prominent in the late 1950s, critics almost invariably described him as “iconoclastic.” In his invaluable history and appreciation of ... read more - Schubert Uncorked
Every once in a while a master composer creates music so radically new that it seemingly falls wholly outside its time and place. Franz Schubert’s 1828 song cycle Winterreise (“Winter’s Journey”), charting an uncanny descent ... read more - Pre-Enacting: Performing the Future We Want
Anticipating new investment in the Monon 16 neighborhood in Indianapolis, neighbors and artists got together to create a vision for their community. Like residents in many mid-size cities, they welcome new businesses and more housing ... read more - Replay: Jerry Lewis conducts Bernstein’s Candide OvertureJerry Lewis leads the Tucson Symphony Orchestra in a 1991 performance of Leonard Bernstein’s Candide Overture: (This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, ... read more
- Almanac: George MacDonald on old age“Age is not all decay; it is the ripening, the swelling, of the fresh life within, that withers and bursts the husk.” George MacDonald, The Marquis of Lossie ... read more
- Recent Listening: Jane Ira Bloom’s Early Americans
http://amzn.to/2yvsA1G Jane Ira Bloom, Early Americans (Outline Records) In a piece that lasts less than two minutes, the purity of Jane Ira Bloom’s unaccompanied soprano saxophone in a piece titled, “Nearly (For ... read more - Wanna Pay $125 to See Two Shows at the Met? Now You Can!
“Have you dreamed of getting VIP treatment at The Met?…Now you can.” That sounds like a quip I’ve used repeatedly on CultureGrrl. But the Metropolitan Museum is dead serious: If you wanna be a Met ... read more - American Television’s Götterdämmerung Frightens the London Theatre Zone
John Marquez, Amy Griffiths, Lizzy Connolly and Neil Haigh in the dinerphoto Marc Brenner Owing to circumstances of age and birthplace, I expect I was a fan of – perhaps addicted to – the ... read more - On America’s stages in 2017, vitality in every way—but one
Today’s Wall Street Journal contains my best-theater-of-2017 list. Some highlights: • Best performance in a play. Nehassaiu deGannes was fiercely impassioned in Shakespeare & Company’s production of “Intimate Apparel,” Lynn Nottage’s 2003 play about a ... read more - So you want to see a show?
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 ... read more - Almanac: on growing old, from The Straight Story“Well, the worst part of being old is rememberin’ when you was young.” John Roach and Mary Sweeney, screenplay for The Straight Story ... read more
- Aida at the Met
When I was a teenager, my mentor in all things operatic was Conrad L. Osborne. I read him religiously in High Fidelity Magazine. I thrilled to his encyclopedic erudition, to his impassioned advocacy, and (not ... read more - Snapshot: the Mills Brothers perform “Tiger Rag”The Mills Brothers perform “Tiger Rag” in The Big Broadcast, directed by Frank Tuttle and released in 1932: (This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that appear in this space each ... read more
- Almanac: on brothers, from The Straight Story“There’s no one knows your life better than a brother that’s near your age. He knows who you are and what you are better than anyone on earth.” John Roach and Mary Sweeney, screenplay for ... read more
- Your bio, with a personal story
I’ve been working with a consulting client on his branding, on how he talks about himself. He’s slowly crafting a new artist bio for himself, one that doesn’t just list his achievements, but weaves who ... read more - Lookback: on the mystery of my lifeFrom 2007: At various points along the way, I was sure I was going to be a lawyer, a high-school teacher, a jazz musician, and a psychotherapist, and I fully expected to pursue each of ... read more
- Almanac: Fulton Sheen on suffering and guilt“Some will not look on suffering because it creates responsibility.” Fulton J. Sheen, Those Mysterious Priests ... read more
- Thoughts for the morrow
With two previews and five performances of Billy and Me under our belts, everyone at Palm Beach Dramaworks is finally starting to unwind. The previews and opening-night performance all went smoothly and securely, and the ... read more - My favorite posts of 2017
In addition to writing about theater and the other arts for a living, I also blog in this space purely for my pleasure. Here are ten of my favorite posts from the year almost past: ... read more - Just because: Pete Seeger plays “Living in the Country”Pete Seeger plays his “Living in the Country” on an undated episode of Rainbow Quest, originally telecast on WNJU-TV in 1965 or 1966: (This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that ... read more
- Great Expectations, Set By Museums, And Then?
I was drawn to an exhibition at the Toledo Museum of Art by its title: Glorious Splendor: Treasures of Early Christian Art. When I went to see it last month, it was not quite what I ... read more
