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Life Sucks
Once upon a time, when a musical opened on Broadway, it was common for a combo to release an LP (everybody remember what an LP is?) of jazz impressions of the score. Shelley Manne released Jazz Performances of Songs from Li’l Abner. Bobby Hackett released The Swingin’est Gals in Town featuring his takes on songs Continue reading
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Voices From the Past
To do the new edition of Something Wonderful Right Away, I had to have the text scanned and OCR’ed because I wrote the book before computers. So now I’m working my way, chapter-by-chapter, through the text to make corrections. It’s the closest reading of these chapters I’ve done since I was preparing the material for Continue reading
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On the Trail of Juano Hernandez
Since becoming a fan of Juano Hernandez through Intruder in the Dust and The Breaking Point, I have my DVR set to record anything he’s listed as appearing in. Which is how I ended up watching an oddball movie directed by Mark Robson and written by Don Mankiewicz called Trial. (No relation to The Trial Continue reading
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“Mockingbird” — Stage and Screen
Kristine and I just watched the film version of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird a few days after seeing the play. The differences between the film and the stage play are instructive. In the film, the Finches’ housekeeper, Calpurnia, has maybe ten lines. In Sorkin’s play, she is one of the leading figures. Sorkin’s Calpurnia is Continue reading
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An Antidote to Trumpery
With the daily assault on decency and intellectual coherence coming out of the White House, and the spectacles of crowds with red caps sitting on top of heads filled with confusion, fear and hostility, it was a relief to pick up a book that offers a more positive view of America today. I started paying Continue reading
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Rejected by the O’Neill
I have heard from a number of friends that that have received word that they will not advance to the next level of consideration at the O’Neill. It may surprise some that, even though I wrote the book about the O’Neill — cleverly titled The O’Neill — I have never had a play produced there. Continue reading
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In Dialogue
One of the differences between a blog post and an essay is that an essay is expected to be shapely and to move to some resonant conclusion. Occasionally a blog post will end resonantly, but mostly I find blogging is where I stir the kettle a little. I’ve been thinking about dialogue lately. Not dialogue Continue reading
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“Behind the Sheet” and a Recurring Dramatic Problem
For a while, J. Marion Sims merited a statue in Central Park for his ground-breaking gynecological operations. What was largely unknown for years was that he was also a plantation owner and he used the female slaves he owned as guinea pigs for his experiments, trying out different techniques in a trial-and-error manner on these Continue reading
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“Everyman” and After
Thinking about the National Theatre’s 2015 production of Everyman, a modern-language adaptation of the medieval morality play by Carol Ann Duffy, directed by Rufus Norris and starring Chiwetel Ejiofor. It is indeed a modern spin. The original doesn’t open with Everyman snorting long lines of cocaine with partying friends and accidentally falling off the top Continue reading
Jeffrey Sweet--Making the Scene 