Terry Teachout's Blog, page 32

TT: Once more, with feeling (V)

Bing Crosby sings Irving Berlin's "White Christmas" in Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas, his last Christmas TV special, telecast in 1977:

TT: The best of the best

Today's Wall Street Journal drama column is devoted to my best-of-2013 list. Here are some of the items on it:

• Best performance in a play. Sally Eames was hauntingly true to life in "Woman in Mind," Alan Ayckbourn's serious comedy about a brain-damaged woman who mistakes her fantasies of a loving family for the real thing, produced in Chicago as part of Eclipse Theatre Company's all-Ayckbourn season.

• Best performance in a musical. Judy Kuhn and Melissa Errico gave identically gripping performances in John Boyle's small-scale version of Stephen Sondheim's "Passion," mounted to miraculous effect by New York's Classic Stage Company.

• Best revival of a play. Lear deBessonet's gender-twisting production of Bertolt Brecht's "Good Person of Szechuan," which transferred to the Public Theater after a run at La MaMa, introduced New York playgoers to an immensely promising new directorial talent.

• Best revival of a musical. Amanda Dehnert staged "My Fair Lady" in Brecht's deceptively austere manner for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, with results that weren't preachy but intimate and appealing.

To see the rest of the list, including my picks for best play, musical, and company of the year, go here .

LIVE THEATER VERSUS OUR ON-DEMAND CULTURE

" What's gone wrong with theater? It isn't a matter of quality control. I've been reviewing performances from coast to coast since 2004, and I continue to be impressed by what I see. Instead, what I'm hearing from regional artistic directors is that they're being slammed by the on-demand mentality..."

TT: Almanac

"The affirmative of affirmatives is love."

Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Success"

TT: Once more, with feeling (IV)

Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol, the first animated Christmas special produced specifically for TV, originally broadcast on NBC in 1962. The script is by Barbara Chain and the songs are by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill:

TT: So you want to see a show?

Here's my list of recommended Broadway, off-Broadway, and out-of-town shows, updated weekly. In all cases, I gave these shows favorable reviews (if sometimes qualifiedly so) in The Wall Street Journal when they opened. For more information, click on the title.

BROADWAY:

• A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder (musical, PG-13, reviewed here)

• Macbeth (Shakespeare, PG-13, closes Jan. 12, reviewed here)

• Matilda (musical, G, nearly all performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

• No Man's Land/Waiting for Godot (drama, PG-13, playing in rotating repertory through Mar. 2, most performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

• Once (musical, G/PG-13, reviewed here)

• Twelfth Night (Shakespeare, G/PG-13, closes Feb. 16, all performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

OFF BROADWAY:

• Avenue Q (musical, R, adult subject matter and one show-stopping scene of puppet-on-puppet sex, reviewed here)

• The Commons of Pensacola (drama, PG-13, closes Jan. 26, reviewed here)

• The Fantasticks (musical, G, suitable for children capable of enjoying a love story, reviewed here)

• Hamlet/Saint Joan (drama, G/PG-13, remounting of off-Broadway production, performed in rotating repertory, closes Feb. 2, original production reviewed here)

• Juno and the Paycock (drama, G/PG-13, far too dark for children, closes Jan. 26, reviewed here)

• The Night Alive (drama, PG-13, extended through Feb. 2, reviewed here)

IN GLENCOE, ILL.:

• Port Authority (drama, PG-13, closes Feb. 16, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON IN CHICAGO, ILL.:

• An Inspector Calls (drama, PG-13, closes Jan. 12, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON OFF BROADWAY:

• Fun Home (musical, PG-13, closes Jan. 12, reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK ON BROADWAY:

• Annie (musical, G, closing Jan. 5, all performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

CLOSING SUNDAY IN SARASOTA, FLA.:

• Show Boat (musical, G, remounting of Goodspeed Musicals production, suitable for bright children, original production reviewed here)

TT: Extremely close and incredibly exciting

I've written a special essay for today's Wall Street Journal about the problem of shrinking audiences for live theater in America--and what to do about it:

The house lights fade to black. The room falls still as an actor steps from the wings and speaks the simple words that set a plot in motion: "O for a Muse of fire." "Yes, I have tricks in my pocket, I have things up my sleeve." "This play is called 'Our Town.'" Suddenly the outside world vanishes and you're swept into a parallel universe of excitement and adventure, poetry and magic, fear and hope.

That's what it feels like to go to the theater and see a great play. But when did you last do so? A week ago? A year? Or do you now prefer to stay home and watch cable television, or use Netflix to stream a movie?

If so, you're one of the reasons why live theater is in trouble.

Take a look at the NEA's latest Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, the most statistically reliable study of its kind. Not only did "non-musical play attendance" drop to 8.3% from 12.3% of U.S. adults between 2002 and 2012, but attendance at musicals fell, to 15.2% from 17.1%, the first time the latter figure has declined since 1985....

I don't know whether watching a play on TV will persuade a significant number of viewers to go out and see one in person for the first time. The theatrical experience, after all, is unique unto itself. It's radically different from watching a movie, or even an HD simulcast. People who go to the theater regularly take that difference--the immediate physical presence of flesh-and-blood actors--for granted. Yet it's the main reason why old-fashioned low-tech live theater is still and will always be worth seeing, even in the age of Netflix.

The trick is to treat it not as a problem but as a marketing opportunity--something that can be sold....

Read the whole thing here .

TT: On this day

To my twin families, here in Connecticut and in Smalltown, U.S.A., the merriest of Christmases, now and always. And to my far-flung friends: let your hearts be bright!

TT: Almanac

Take away love, and our earth is a tomb.

Robert Browning, "Fra Lippo Lippi"

TT: Once more, with feeling (III)

David Crown and the Choir of Somerville College, Oxford, perform Victoria's "O magnum mysterium":