The Weekend Special

Pieces are given up to three Ellises (for fiction), McClellands (for essays), or Whitakers (for random picks). As with restaurant stars, even one Ellis, McClelland, or Whitaker indicates a generally positive review.

⏰ Fiction

“Standings” by Chang-rae Lee. One Ellis. slur, sliding, slingshot. The editors did a very good job excerpting this from its novel; it never feels like it’s missing a piece. Lee’s prose is very well-crafted, his characters are full of life, and there is real suspense here. I suppose I’m a little worn out on a certain kind of childhood narrative in which the child’s entire world seems defined by other children; I’m sure many people really do grow up that way, and perhaps in the ‘70s it was even more common, but the narrow frame ends up compressing the story, keeping it from feeling more significant than the sum of its parts. (This might not be an issue over the length of a novel.) I wasn’t especially moved, despite my admiration for its craft; my reading partner, on the other hand, really dug this one, and you might too. It’s worth a slingshot.

⏰ Weekend Essay

“Jonathan Swift’s Last Joke” by Ed Caesar. No McClellands. proposal, Primate, prank. Look, if you told me this story at a party, I’d be interested; on the other hand, if you told me this story at a party and it took twenty minutes, I might not be interested. There is no reason not to condense this into the quick anecdote it obviously is. (You can read the very brief section beginning “Marsh was…” and you’ll get the whole idea.) Unless you care a lot about Jonathan Swift, the reason to read this is simply because it gets some of the fun of research and discovery across; still, the unspooling is slow and the denouement limp.

⏰ Random Pick

“The Ode to Joy and the Book of Job” by Desmond Shawe-Taylor. (March 4, 1974). Two Whitakers. choral, charge, chew. Shawe-Taylor spent just one year as a guest critic for the magazine, hence why I haven’t covered him yet despite my seeming thousands of Random Picks devoted to classical music critics. Is it sacrilegious to say he might be my favorite, at least pre-Alex Ross? Where so many of the early critics are stodgy and traditional, Shawe-Taylor is refreshingly willing to consider the atonal and strange, and even use a poetic tone of phrase (figurations “like scudding clouds in a high wind”) to describe them. Listening to this difficult music along with Shawe-Taylor was genuinely enlightening; I could unpick it. This was a far cry from the usual thing, e.g, so many historical operas which the writer apparently expected me to have already researched. Shawe-Taylor is also just a peppy writer with a slight self-aware goofiness, “the plangent and florid obbligato of a flugelhorn” is surely a phrase nobody else has ever used. And it helps that I have actually seen I Puritani, one of a few other pieces Shawe-Taylor comments on here, so I can picture a production with “an excessive affection, in the unit set that was used, for staircases and ramps that lead nowhere” – and I can laugh!

Also read in this issue: Pauline Kael’s superbly acidic take on The Mother and the Whore, which she sort of loathes politically but has to admire and respect as a well-made, personal film. And: A couple takes on the theatre by Edith Oliver, always good.

⏰ Something Extra

Really quickly: Hamlet at BAM was iffy; Innocence at the Met Opera was bad-taste middlebrow nonsense masquerading as provocative art; The Door Slams, A Glass Trembles at La MaMa is decidedly lesser Talking Band, which still means it’s charming, thoughtful, and carefully crafted.

The Tony nominations are on Tuesday, but unfortunately I just don’t think I’ve seen enough of the shows in time to give my full nomination picks as I did last year. I’ll still drop a few thoughts:

In Best Musical, man, I just hope I like Schmigadoon or Titanique, both of which I have future tickets to. Two Strangers and Lost Boys are both dreck. Last year I managed to see every new musical, this year there were way fewer but two of them were Beaches and Queen of Versailles so I did not repeat my feat. I would go to Beaches for, like, three dollars.

In Best Musical Revival there’s more to work with; namely Jellicle Ball, which I saw at PAC and am seeing on Broadway soon. Ragtime, a show I know extremely well, is not exactly revelatory in its current production but there are some great elements. Chess largely sucked, but the ensemble was superbly tight. Rocky Horror Show is so far very difficult to snag affordable tickets to.

In Best Play, I’m softer than many on Liberation while still greatly enjoying it; have tickets to Balusters; hope to manage Giant at some point; saw Little Bear Ridge Road in Chicago but have heard the transfer was almost identical, it was good; did not like Fear of 13 but have to give it up for Brody and Thompson for developing genuine chemistry; am a Dog Day defender despite myself.

In Best Play Revival, hope to see Salesman soon; had many issues with Oedipus but was basically mixed-positive; did not like Bug; have tickets to Becky Shaw; liked Marjorie Prime much more than I thought I would; have zero interest in Proof, a script I don’t like, at its current prices; definitely hope to catch Joe Turner.

Other thoughts, based largely on a scan of Gold Derby’s predicted nominations:

if Nicholas Christopher makes it in, it will be one of the worst accent performances ever up for an award. (Since the obviously British kid in Stranger Things, though Christopher is worse.) Truly dire stuff which his amazing voice barely makes up for.

Actress in a Play is stacked as hell and will be very fun.

Micah Stock was extremely good in Little Bear Ridge Road, possibly better than Metcalf. Seems like he won’t get in, which is a shame.

I don’t know exactly who will get in for Featured Actress in a Musical, but I think Gold Derby could be way off. Nichelle Lewis is not a top five performance in Ragtime, Chasity Moore is not a top five performance in Cats, Shoshana Bean appeared to be actively annoyed to be in The Lost Boys.

If Cynthia Nixon doesn’t even get in for Featured Actress in a Play (Derby has her on the bubble) I’ll cry.

Surely Alden Ehrenreich is a lock, and not merely a ¾ chance, for Featured Actor in a Play? He just won the biggest critics’ award for individual performance, e.g, overall.

Surely Chess will get in for its excellent choreography over, e.g, Ragtime, which has mostly shuffling, or Lost Boys, which has only iffy wire-work.

We’ll see. And I’ll see… more of the shows. Soon.

Sunday Song: