Last week was posh. The style of this little blog website is Adventures in theEndless Pursuit of Entertainment. I enjoy being entertained, but I'm not merely seeking vapid, mindless escapism. I'm looking for live performances andvisual artsthat inspire, challenge and kick me. I'm open to trying almost any new experience, but I also get myself returning to the known quite often as I just can't get enough. 
On Thursday, my friend Kaitlin invited me to the Polish Town Association (FDR was a member! for a "Literary Night with Edward Albee" and dinner afterward. It's an elegant, venerable establishment and I enjoyed the experience very much. Albee is my favorite playwright - I've loved Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Seascape and The Occupant. I especially loved reading Three Tall Women and would know to see a revitalization of it. I enjoyed talking to him about The Occupant, especially in congress to his assertion that he doesn't write about real people, only fictional. The Occupier was near the former Louise Nevelson, a carver and a champion of his. He said that he was capable to use her as a reference because she was already a fictionalized adaptation of herself and that he could never truly love her. He thanked me for my head and was pleased that I liked the play. Albee spoke of his own writing practicesand how he lives with characters for a piece before he always puts them land on paper, how the hanging of unbelief is necessary for theatre, and the grandness of knowing classical music and other visual arts for playwrights to "write" a play. He said that he is influenced by everything he experiences in the humanities and it's up to us to determine what we are passing to accept or reject. He expressed some that I have been unable to explain about my own theatre going habits: "any process that you just see once and 'get,' must not have muchcontent." Perhaps this is why I am apt to see certain shows or programs multiple times. The serious news Albee imparted is that he has at least three plays in mind that he hasn't yet written down and wants to do - he said that will take the following 4 years. He said that good, importantwork is still done although it's hard o make it paid attention to in this media era of the soundbyte.He aid that it's harder for a serious play or art to live amongst the "junk" becasue that's what people need to see - that most people do not wishing tohave their values questioned or challenged and would rather merely be enterainedin an escapist fashion. I, for one, do want to escape - fortunately, it's this form of play that I search for the experience. On Friday night, I went to see The Scottsboro Boys with Noah. It's a new musical by Kander and Eb based on a radical of young, black men who were wrongly accused, convicted and jailed for raping two women in Scottsboro, Alabama in the 1930s. Kander and Ebb employ the minstral show as a way for telling this horrifying story. 
I still don't quite know what to say about it. It's good - beautifully acted, sung and the actors are amazing. But it's black and upsetting as well. The use of traditional minstral is an interesting juxtaposition as the substance of singing the story simply because the era of the black doer having to perform as minstrals was all degrading. Yet, despite the degradation, it's beautiful. The dance is electrifying and the medicine is delightful - until you mind to the lyrics. The lyrics slam you with an agreement of the repugnance that these men experienced. The unanimous experience of existence in the Lyceum for The Scottsboro Boys is definitely staying with me. Plus, the theatricality and the way and the really elementary set is still astonishing me - Susan Stroman is nothing short of brilliant with this production. On Saturday night, Kari and I headed to The Whitney Museum's member night. The allurement of the new exhibit of Edward Hopper and his contemporaries plus the call of a cash bar and live jazz was more than adequate to go all the way to the east side. Before leaving in, we serendipitously caught the fireworks show for the New York Marathon - perfection for a beautiful, clear night over Central Park. The Hopper exhibit is divine - I loved being introduced to paintings by John Sloanandparticularly Martin Lewis' Shadow Dance. I especially loved seeing Robert Henri's portrait of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, the father of The Whitney. I've seen small postcard side print of the portrait, but seeing it so great with all of its vibrant colors was breathtaking. After The Whitney, we headed to Bistro Chat Noir. It's my favorite restaurant in New York City. I had the Lemon Sole "Duglere". So good. On Sunday, Kari, Sally and I went to City Opera's Leonard Bernstein Revue: Lucky To Be Me . The 1st half was Bernstein's classical and the back was Bernstein's Broadway. As he said, "There's no high or low music, just right and bad." This was all good. The classical - Kaddish Symphony, Mass, Songfest - was gorgeous, sweeping andpoetic. The Broadway stuff - selections from his shows, all of which I've seen except 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue - On the Town, West Side Story, Wonderful Town, and Candide- wasfunand finally soaring. Any concert ending with Make Our Garden Growis a winner.The performers - Michael Cerveris, Victoria Clark, Darius de Haas, Christine Ebersole, Christopher Feigum, Joshua Hopkins, Sara Jakubiak, Cheyenne Jackson, Joshua Jeremiah, Donna Murphy, Kelli O'Hara, Sidney Outlaw, Patricia Risley, Talise Trevigne, and Michael Urie - were all excellent - even though at times difficult to hear in the fourth ring - c'est la vie for a cheap ticket. It was the form of operation that I would fain see over and over.
On Wednesday, I treated myself to Wings at Second Stage Theatre. I went for Jan Maxwell, who is one of the almost miraculous actresses around. In my opinion, she can do anything and she proved it once again in this jarring story about a woman who has suffered a stroke. It's a terrifying performance and story. I was shivering from the attack and I trust that neither any of my loved ones nor myself ever suffers a stroke. Visually, it was a hectic mix of multi-media audio and projection. It was fair as overwhelming to see as what the case was experiencing. Then when she began to recover, the pace seemed to relax as well. Still, it was an extremely intense theatrical experience.
I still don't quite know what to say about it. It's good - beautifully acted, sung and the actors are amazing. But it's black and upsetting as well. The use of traditional minstral is an interesting juxtaposition as the substance of singing the story simply because the era of the black doer having to perform as minstrals was all degrading. Yet, despite the degradation, it's beautiful. The dance is electrifying and the medicine is delightful - until you mind to the lyrics. The lyrics slam you with an agreement of the repugnance that these men experienced. The unanimous experience of existence in the Lyceum for The Scottsboro Boys is definitely staying with me. Plus, the theatricality and the way and the really elementary set is still astonishing me - Susan Stroman is nothing short of brilliant with this production. On Saturday night, Kari and I headed to The Whitney Museum's member night. The allurement of the new exhibit of Edward Hopper and his contemporaries plus the call of a cash bar and live jazz was more than adequate to go all the way to the east side. Before leaving in, we serendipitously caught the fireworks show for the New York Marathon - perfection for a beautiful, clear night over Central Park. The Hopper exhibit is divine - I loved being introduced to paintings by John Sloanandparticularly Martin Lewis' Shadow Dance. I especially loved seeing Robert Henri's portrait of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, the father of The Whitney. I've seen small postcard side print of the portrait, but seeing it so great with all of its vibrant colors was breathtaking. After The Whitney, we headed to Bistro Chat Noir. It's my favorite restaurant in New York City. I had the Lemon Sole "Duglere". So good. On Sunday, Kari, Sally and I went to City Opera's Leonard Bernstein Revue: Lucky To Be Me . The 1st half was Bernstein's classical and the back was Bernstein's Broadway. As he said, "There's no high or low music, just right and bad." This was all good. The classical - Kaddish Symphony, Mass, Songfest - was gorgeous, sweeping andpoetic. The Broadway stuff - selections from his shows, all of which I've seen except 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue - On the Town, West Side Story, Wonderful Town, and Candide- wasfunand finally soaring. Any concert ending with Make Our Garden Growis a winner.The performers - Michael Cerveris, Victoria Clark, Darius de Haas, Christine Ebersole, Christopher Feigum, Joshua Hopkins, Sara Jakubiak, Cheyenne Jackson, Joshua Jeremiah, Donna Murphy, Kelli O'Hara, Sidney Outlaw, Patricia Risley, Talise Trevigne, and Michael Urie - were all excellent - even though at times difficult to hear in the fourth ring - c'est la vie for a cheap ticket. It was the form of operation that I would fain see over and over. 
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