Theatre Books

While neither overtly vicious nor devoid of hope as his fellow "In Yer Face" dramatists, Penhall nonetheless gains access to our heart and proceeds to twist it in dimensions it was never intended to hold. When he lets go, our view of what constitutes love and union are warped beyond recognition. And I suspect Penhall considers the resulting disorientation not only beneficial, but ultimately necessary given our proclivity to establish relationships (aimed at understanding) but still based on desires we hardly are equipped to manage. Some Voices is especially powerful.

John Simon is, along with Robert Brustein and Stanley Kauffmann, one of America's three greatest drama critics, and my personal favorite. I've learned an enormous amount from him over the years, and so will you.

I have almost completed reading the Jolson Book, it is one of those books you put down and pick up again, it is Fantastic.

In his new biography Joseph Jefferson: Dean of American Theatre Arthur Bloom captures the life of one of the most compelling figures in the history of American Entertainment. As a comic actor and producer, Joseph Jefferson stood alone at the head of his art. In terms of financial and critical success, Jefferson had no rival. He built this success, for the most part, by perfecting a stage version of Washington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle". A role which Bloom shows Jefferson lived off-stage as well. Like Will Rogers and comics who followed, Jefferson traded on a home-spun simple image. For years and years audiences packed houses to see the simple character Rip experience the extraordinary. However, behind this mask was a man who lived a luxuriant life, and cultivated fame at the cost of artistic growth. In his life, Jefferson was filled with contradictions. He was the common man in public, and a pampered man in private.

It is the contradictions in Jefferson's life that Bloom reveals for the first time in this biography, and captures with great detail. Before he died, Jefferson had published and enormous autobiography which is charming and seemingly the last word on the subject of Jefferson's life. Fortunately, Bloom penetrates the amiable facade of Jefferson without viciousness. Indeed, the contradictions which Jefferson would have hid from the public, make him all the more appealing as subject for biography. Jefferson's response to the civil war, his relationship with his wives, his temperament as a manager, his impoverished childhood--all of these subjects keep this book from falling into the realm of the dry theatre biography.

Born into a theatrical family in 1829, he made his debut as an infant in crowd scene. His work as an actor would end only with his death in 1905. In his lifetime, Jefferson was praised as an actor of comedy touched with pathos. Like Robin Williams of today, this sentimental side was embraced by some and rejected by others. In this biography, the praise and criticism co-exist with dynamic results.

Wisely, Bloom has found a way to balance the details of Jefferson's 76 years of life at a swift pace. His method is to present the narrative followed by a large appendix. The core of the book is 300 pages, but what follows is another 200 pages of footnotes and performance information. While the appendix is not needed to appreciate the book, it holds additional colorful stories and odd bits of information. Bloom's style is straight-forward, clear, and he supports his work with details. At times, the biography is even quite fresh and witty. In discussing Jefferson's All-Star production of "The Rivals" , Bloom quotes a letter from Jefferson: "We all lived in four cars which were provided for us and during the whole four weeks of the trip, I never heard a cross word". Bloom responds: "If Jefferson never heard a cross word among ten star actors living together for four weeks in a railway train, it is probably because he was going deaf'. Bloom then provides evidence that there was much unhappiness on that tour.

Another strength of the book is the description of Jefferson's acting style. As an artist, Jefferson was consistently praised for his natural style. He achieved humor without artifice. His work as a comic actor seems to shatter many stero-types about 19th century theatre. He was an innovator. There is no question of Jefferson's artistic ability, but even here Bloom does not take anything for granted. Using criticism, promptbooks, and recordings, he is able to communicate Jefferson's unique artistic accomplishment in a clear way, without becoming clinical. In his autobiography, Joseph Jefferson wrote with great eloquence about the craft of acting...communicating with great clarity and passion. Arthur Bloom proves to be Jefferson's equal in this area.

While the first quarter of the book moves slowly, the momentum picks up and the picture of Jefferson emerges with contradictions, frailties, strengths and more. His life spanned from the days when actors were denied burial in a church (Jefferson's view of religion is colored by this, another delightful contradiction), to the days when, at the end of his life, successful actors had risen to be honored men in society. By focusing closely on the life of Jefferson, Bloom indirectly captures the evolution of theatre in America.

Although one wishes for more information on the relationship between Edwin Booth and Jefferson, and for more details about Jefferson's relationship with his children, it is difficult to fault the author. Jefferson's life was so long, and there is so much to cover that one is grateful for the amount of compelling detail Bloom is able to present. This biography will stand as a cornerstone for future works on Joseph Jefferson and the American Theatre. "Joseph Jefferson: The Dean of the American Theatre" is as innovative and compelling as its subject. Who could have imagined that the real life of Joseph Jefferson was more engaging than the story told in his autobiography?

This exhaustive collection of Kantor's writing on theater accompanied by an exhaustive biography of his life is a must-have for ANY (I repeat: ANY) person interested in avante-garde theater. His theories about representation and memory address some of the most important issues facing all theater workers. His work has been ignored for far too long.

Wonderful history by the best historian of the 19th century ballet. Very detailed and complete. Excellent contemporary dance prints. A classic of the period.

Mothers and wives fighting? Sounds oddly familiar. The problems in this household are comedic yet amazingly real. Feels like home to me!

This book (written by a Univeristy of Hawaii theater professor) is absolutely brilliant. It's a great, basic primer on the history and world of Kabuki, with fun facts and clever writing to keep it's audience interested. If you're just looking for pictures of the theater, try and pick up the amazingly pricey (but worth it) Kabuki no Sekai (World of Kabuki, with photos of actor Tamasaburo Bando). If you have any interest in learning about Kabuki, pick this up!

This is one of Rogers and Hammerstein's greatest musicals of all time! It contains a history of the show, history of the composers, even those who starred in the show. It's a great book on the history of the show as well as the musical examples! This book is a must have for any serious musical theater person!

Wow, the god of small things must be glancing my way. The first to write about an August Wilson play! I feel honored.
King Hedley II is Wilson's 8th play in his monumental 20th Century cycle, here reflecting the 1980's. Full of the pains and pressures to maintain one's dignity and relish a life constantly off-balance, the play focuses on King, who is in his 30's and living in Pittsburgh's Hill District in 1985. His face has a long scar from a razor cut by the man he later killed, ultimately doing 7 years. With him is his best friend Mister, with whom he plans to open a video store, operates as a middle man selling refrigerators and is otherwise a business partner. King's wife Tonya met him after his prison time, and can only stand so much of his anger and is not emotionally ready to take him getting arrested again, or the suggestion that he'll be in trouble again. King's mother Ruby lives with them, an ex-lounge singer, she is a hardened woman, not the woman Tonya wants to be, having been with and through men who abandoned her, were murdered or imprisoned. Her relationship with Hedley is tenuous at best. When Elmore, a longtime flame of Ruby's returns to Pittsburgh the pressures of these people's lives are boiled toward the inevitable but horrible ending. An ending that is infused with tradition and sacrifice, as the spiritual, either crazy or touched Stool Pigeon-the play's chorus-proudly observes.
What makes Wilson such a master is his potent characters all of whom make strong proclamations of themselves with remarkable language. He is able to define another world, an American culture I can experience very clearly. The difficulties of being black in America are here as in his other plays, but in King Hedley II there is little joy. There is love and the need for affection, but the violence and anger of being taken advantage of, of staying true to oneself in a world where friends can be killers, or parents can abandon children takes over. There is tragedy in these people's stories. How can somebody survive and thrive in a community full of dangers and desperation in a country that is indifferent, contradictory and ever disappointing.
Through Stool Pigeon Wilson informs the superstitions, the connections to the Earth, the Black American spectrum that has held onto it's spirituality, "the world that the characters turn to when they are most in need." That spirituality, for example made out in the numbers 66 and 67, which appear frequently, intense personal stories of murder and loss, black cats, hard dirt or his Falstaff like Aunt Ester's offstage presence.
King Hedley II is another fabulous Wilson work. Sad and maddening, it has many highlights, symbols and wisdom. His passionate visions of each decade are all the more amazing for his subsequent and premature death the same year his final play, Radio Golf was produced.