An encore performance.
Essays, reviews, and occasional miscellaneous pieces by a central player in American theatre.
New Republic theatre critic and American Repertory Theatre founder Brustein (Dumbocracy in America, 1994, etc.) has distinguished himself as a perspicacious veteran of the culture wars. As in earlier collections, this one begins politically, brings on the reviews, and follows up with vignettes of people and places. Each part has a different pitch, but together they chronicle Brustein’s worldly devotion to the playhouse. The opening essays lead the charge against The Three Horsemen of the Anti-Culture: political, moral, and middlebrow aesthetic correctness. These, allied with corporate capitalism and a rigid multiculturalism, stand accused of laying into serious culture and threatening to make government and foundation sponsorship defunct. Nonetheless, neither a Cassandra nor a preacher, Brustein issues elucidating indictments topped with acerbic epigrams. And aside from trying to lift the “siege of the arts,” Brustein appreciates the complexity of the issues, tracing them to Puritan forebears and prejudicial powers, and acknowledging how the vast entertainment industry imbues as well as corrupts the theatre. However, he wisely calls these essays polemics, their short topical form not allowing the express statements a fuller exposition. If they amount to a convincing case, the reviews are where he finds his muse. A consummate devotee of letters, trained in the classics, having attended countless shows over several decades, he brings a sparkling intelligence to assessing what’s currently out there. Theatrical quality passes Brustein’s basic test if, more than embodying ideas and issues, realizing tragic or comic potential, and uniting production values, it mines emotional depth. Among contemporary shows, Tom Stoppard’s intellectual playgrounds disappoint, while Susan Sontag’s Alice in Bed and Margaret Edson’s Wit dig deep. The book concludes with an irreverent playlet about the final moments of an all-round favorite, aptly titled Chekhov on Ice.
An encore performance.Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2001
ISBN: 1-56663-380-X
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Ivan Dee/Rowman & Littlefield
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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