Monthly Archives: April 2019
Bad Behavior
Richard in Richard III is intended to be a villain. Shakespeare paints him as evil on legs. And yet, we get impatient when he’s off the stage. Clarence has a long speech filled with poetry. Yes, yes, beautiful, but could … Continue reading
Posted in Broadway, drama, film adaptation, New York, off-Broadway, playwriting, theater, Uncategorized
Tagged A Streetcar Named Desire, Aaron Sorkin, Abby Rosebrock, Alan Cumming, Atticus Finch, Blue Ridge, Carnal Knowledge, Christopher Walker, Daddy, Downstairs, Halley Feiffer, Hamish Linklater, Happy Birthday Wana June, Harper Lee, Heidi Schreck, Hillary and Clinton, Iago, Ink, Jack Nicholson, Jenny Allen, Jeremy O. Harris, Jessica Tandy, Jez Butterworth, John Osborne, Jules Feiffer, Kurt Vonnegut, Look Back in Anger, Marin Ireland, Marlon Brando, Mike Nichols, Network, Othello, Paddy Chayefsky, Restoration, Richard III, Rita Moreno, Rupert Murdoch, Shakespeare, Socratese, The Double-Dealer, The New Yorker, The Pain of My Own Belligerence, Theresa Rebeck, Tim Blake Nelson, To Kill a Mockingbird, Tyne Daly, What the Constitution Means to Me, Wheelhouse Theater
Leave a comment
Wandering Through History
Sometimes I think of the past as a huge black box, and any time you read a book of history or a biography or a historical novel it’s like shining a concentrated beam of light through that darkness, briefly bringing … Continue reading
Posted in film adaptation, movies
Tagged A World to Win, Alan Brinkley, Amazon streaming, Babylon Berlin, Berlin, Beyond the Fringe, Father Coughlin, FDR, Henry Ford, Hotel Adlon, Huey Long, John le Carre, John Osborne, Labour, Lanny Budd, Meyer Levin, Nazis, Netflix, postwar England, the Beatles, the depression, The Old Bunch, Tory, Traitors, Upton Sinclair, Voices of Protest, WWII
Leave a comment
Icons of the Fifties–Bruce and Holliday
On successive nights I saw shows about two entertainment icons of the 1950s. Neither quite worked, but seeing them in succession triggered a few thoughts. I’m Not a Comedian…I’m Lenny Bruce is by Ronnie Marmo and features him as the … Continue reading
Posted in off-Broadway, theater, Uncategorized
Tagged 1950s, Andréa Burns, Annaleigh Ashford, Bob Fosse, Bruce Marmo, Fifties, HUAC, Judy Holliday, Lenny Bruce, obscenity, Willy Holtzman
Leave a comment
Jeffrey Sweet--Making the Scene 