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LIGHT FANTASTIC

Name: LIGHT FANTASTIC
Author: John Lahr
ISBN: 0-385-31546-5

ADVENTURES IN THEATRE

by John Lahr ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 16, 1996

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A thoughtful, enjoyable collection from critic and theatrical biographer Lahr (Dame Edna Everage and the Rise of Western Civilisation, 1992, etc.). Most of these lucid reviews/essays originally appeared in the New Yorker, which employs Lahr as its theater critic. Rather than simply evaluate a production, the author prefers to incorporate interviews with those who created it—playwright, actors, director- -in order to give readers a sense of the artists' goals as well as Lahr's opinion on whether or not they achieved them. The results are mini-histories of Tony Kushner's Angels in America, Anna Deavere Smith's Twilight: Los Angeles 1992, George C. Wolfe's Jelly's Last Jam, and other important contemporary works, as well as cogent biographies of comedians Bill Hicks and Peter Cook (the latter receives a notably moving, determinedly unsentimental tribute). Except in discussing Stephen Sondheim, whom he feels has led the American musical into a dead end, Lahr is almost unfailingly generous in his assessments: Even when he dislikes an individual production—Steppenwolf's Awake and Sing! or the Royal National Theatre's Sweet Bird of Youth—he musters his knowledge of theatrical and literary history to remind us why Clifford Odets and Tennessee Williams are key figures in modern theater. Like all good critics, Lahr focuses primarily on the play's text rather than the actors' performances; he considers theater an arena for ideas, not a showcase for celebrities. Unlike Robert Brustein (his only peer in current theater criticism), Lahr is seldom stridently polemical, though he does have a staunchly liberal political point of view. More openly stated is his artistic credo: that theater at its best is a collective art that binds the artists and the audience together into a community. In Lahr's view, individualism has its limits, both socially and creatively, even though he examines and pays tribute to individual achievements. Filled with love for the theater, ably conveyed to the reader.

Pub Date: Feb. 16, 1996

ISBN: 0-385-31546-5

Page Count: 368

Publisher: Dial Books

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1995

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
ARTHUR MILLER
by John Lahr

- BOOK REVIEW
JOY RIDE
by John Lahr

- BOOK REVIEW
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
by John Lahr

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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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

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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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.