Thursday, May 28, 2015
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 Wal…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:30AM“Laziness has become the chief characteristic of journalism, displacing incompetence.” Kingsley Amis (quoted in Eric Felten, “Drinks Before Lunch with Kingsley Amis,” Weekly Standard…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMWednesday, May 27, 2015
I flew out to Los Angeles yesterday morning for Tuesday’s sold-out preview of Satchmo at the Waldorf, which officially opens tonight at Beverly Hills’ Wallis Annenberg Center for the Per…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 12:21PMI’ve never had what it is now the custom to call a “bucket list.” I’m pretty sure this is because I’m not one to think in terms of long-range goals. Don’t be bored has always bee…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:30AMA 1973 telecast of the opening scene of Rodeo, danced by American Ballet Theatre, followed by an interview with Agnes de Mille. The choreography is by de Mille and the score is by Aaron Copl…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:15AM“All schizophrenia patients are mad, and none are sane. Their behaviour is incomprehensible. It tells us nothing about what they do in the rest of their lives, gives no insight into the hu…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMTuesday, May 26, 2015
From 2005: I got a call yesterday from a fact checker at The New Yorker who wanted to know whether H.L. Mencken actually sent the following form letter to angry correspondents: Dear Sir or M…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 05:15AM“New York is a terrifying city but hectically beautiful in many ways. The kindness and welcome are overwhelming, but there is too much money, food and drink and too much respect for succes…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 05:00AMMonday, May 25, 2015
Is marriage a bed of roses- or of nails? Your answer to that question may depend on whether you choose to see Westport Country Playhouse's sunny revival of "I Do! I Do!" or Barrington Stage …
SOURCE: The Wall Street Journal Subscription at 05:58PM"Another Part of the Forest" at American Players Theatre in Spring Green, Wis., throws a dramatic punch comparable in weight to "The Little Foxes."
SOURCE: The Wall Street Journal Subscription at 05:58PMIn Somerset Maugham's "The Circle," instead of the not-quite-Wilde-enough epigrams of "The Constant Wife," we get a drawing room full of well-dressed but plain-spoken characters who might ha…
SOURCE: The Wall Street Journal Subscription at 05:58PMThe NFL has put its marketing muscle behind "Lombardi," an extremely well-crafted piece of intelligent middlebrow theater by Eric Simonson.
SOURCE: The Wall Street Journal Subscription at 05:58PMTony Kushner has been served well by Signature Theatre Company's Off-Broadway revival of "Angels in America," and even those who have their doubts about the play will likely go home feeling …
SOURCE: The Wall Street Journal Subscription at 05:58PMThe problem is that all this formidable talent has been enlisted in the service of a musical so smug that I could scarcely bear to sit and watch it.
SOURCE: The Wall Street Journal Subscription at 05:58PMIt's as if they'd tried to turn "Shoot the Piano Player" or "Wings of Desire" into a Big Mac musical—and the results, not at all surprisingly, are a flavorless mess.
SOURCE: The Wall Street Journal Subscription at 05:58PMTeller of Penn & Teller fame has come up with "Play Dead," a sensationally entertaining shockfest. Aside from great puppetry, the main new thing about "The Pee-wee Herman Show" is all the do…
SOURCE: The Wall Street Journal Subscription at 05:58PMWhen "The Merchant of Venice" appeared in Central Park this summer, it seemed destined for Broadway. Now that it has arrived there, is it ready for the big stage?
SOURCE: The Wall Street Journal Subscription at 05:58PMJohn Guare's "A Free Man of Color" masterfully tells a complex, richly realized American story set in New Orleans at the dawn of the 19th century. The Arizona Theatre Company does great just…
SOURCE: The Wall Street Journal Subscription at 05:58PMCorny, charming and handsomely made, Arena Stage's production of "Oklahoma!" is pretty much the same show your grandfolks loved. And just as safe.
SOURCE: The Wall Street Journal Subscription at 05:58PMOf all the great musicals, "Candide" poses the greatest problems to anyone who tries to stage it. Mary Zimmerman, whose "Metamorphoses" hit it big in 2002, is the latest director to take up …
SOURCE: The Wall Street Journal Subscription at 05:58PMWhen not writing plays like "August: Osage County" and "Killer Joe," Tracy Letts acts. In David Cromer's 2005 Off Broadway staging of Austin Pendleton's "Orson's Shadow," he played an effete…
SOURCE: The Wall Street Journal Subscription at 05:58PMOne of the reasons "Finishing the Hat," Stephen Sondheim's annotated volume of his song lyrics, has attracted so much attention is because he takes potshots at certain of his colleagues...
SOURCE: The Wall Street Journal Subscription at 05:58PMVampire stories have been done to undeath in Hollywood and on TV, raising the stakes for anyone putting Count Dracula's original story back on stage.
SOURCE: The Wall Street Journal Subscription at 05:58PMA.R. Gurney's "Sylvia," which is being performed with terrific comic energy by the Florida Repertory Theatre, is both clever and cute in all the right ways.
SOURCE: The Wall Street Journal Subscription at 05:58PMOrlando Shakespeare Theater makes a strong case for presenting in tandem "Pride and Prejudice" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream."
SOURCE: The Wall Street Journal Subscription at 05:58PM 
