Kabuki: Daemon and the Flower Palace (駄右衛門花御所異聞)

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  • Kabuki: 駄右衛門花御所異聞 (Daemon and the Flower Palace)

7/18/17 (Tues), Tokyo

This is a rarely seen drama about the real-life gangster Nippon Daemon first produced in 1761 (under the name Akiba Gongen Kaisen Banashi) and apparently drastically rewritten for Ebizo. More accurately, it has been reworked as a vanity piece for the star. A villain has stolen a precious manuscript and magical religious heirloom from a noble family in hopes of toppling it and taking over the country. The rest hardly matters.  Continue reading →

Onibaba (鬼婆)

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  • 鬼婆 (Onibaba)

7/11/17 (Tues), DVD

This singular 1964 film by Shindo Kaneto about two country women scraping out a life in the turmoil of 14th-century Japan was described to me as a horror flick, but that description doesn’t seem quite right. Horror can be easily forgotten once the thrill is over. That is not the case with this movie.  Continue reading →

The Deep Blue Sea (1955 film)

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  • The Deep Blue Sea (1955 film)

7/8/17 (Sat), Tokyo

My second viewing of last year’s National Theatre production the previous day inspired me to seek out the old film version, which appeared just a few years after the original 1952 stage show and was scripted by Rattigan himself. (There are also several BBC television adaptations, most recently in 1994, and a bizarre film deconstruction from 2011 that I turned off after five minutes.) This first film stars Vivien Leigh, just coming off Streetcar, as well as the original stage performer Kenneth More as the lover Freddie.  Continue reading →

Nothing Sacred

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  • Nothing Sacred

6/29/17 (Thurs), DVD

I’m not always a fan of screwball comedies, which often seem to be trying too hard. But I loved Carole Lombard in her immediately preceding My Man Godfrey, so I thought I’d give it a shot.

A flailing newspaper reporter Wally Cook seeks to make his name with a human interest story on a small-town girl named Hazel Flagg who is dying of radium poisoning. Unbeknownst to him, Hazel has discovered that she was misdiagnosed and is not dying after all, interrupting her plans to whoop it up for her final weeks (she moans about being “brought to life twice – and each time in Warsaw”). She thus jumps at the chance when the reporter offers her an all-expense-paid trip to New York to help her enjoy her short remaining life – that is, he wants to exploit her to sell papers, and she wants to exploit him to see the big city. Her initial enthusiasm for the city fades quickly when she finds herself the object of pious pity everywhere she turns, including from Wally himself. As the double double-cross proceeds, he makes the mistake of falling for her. Hazel tries to sneak away and fake a suicide, after which she hopes to vanish, but is caught at the last minute by Wally – and she starts to fall too. An examination by eminent European doctors finds her fit as a fiddle, but by this time too many people are invested in the story to risk exposure. So they come up with a ruse…  Continue reading →

The Threepenny Opera (NT Live)

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  • The Threepenny Opera (NT Live)

6/21/17 (Tues), Tokyo

A dark sleaze-fest by Rufus Norris. There was no papering over the cruelty or cynicism of the show, though I could have done without the unnecessarily crude rendering of the lyrics in English by author Simon Stephens (lots of shits and fucks). Vulgarities abound in the book as well, such as the fingers up the butt and a line about cheese that I wish I could forget. Macheath remains the two-, three- or more-timer who has made Polly his latest wife, raising the wrath of (1) her parents, who want him dead (he was also shtupping her mother), (2) his other wife Lucy (he tries to convince her that he wants Polly only for her brains), and (3) Lucy’s father, Inspector Tiger Brown, who as Mack’s former collaborator (and apparently lover) feels betrayed. Another lover Jenny is bribed to give away his whereabouts, and the situation deteriorates from there. The show and its focus on London’s low-life were conceived by Brecht basically as an excuse for his anti-capitalist screed, which remains hard to take seriously as social critique. But it’s good fun to watch.  Continue reading →

London (June 2017)

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London (June 7-15)

  • Lettice and Lovage, 6/7/17 (Wed), Menier
  • Love in Idleness, 6/8/17 (Thurs), West End
  • Half a Sixpence, 6/8/17 (Thurs), West End
  • Harry Potter and the Cursed Child I & II, 6/11/17 (Sun)
  • Kiss Me, 6/12/17 (Mon), Trafalgar Studios
  • Life of Galileo, 6/13/17 (Tues), West End
  • Tristan and Yseult, 6/14/17 (Wed), Globe
  • The Philanthropist, 6/15/17 (Thurs), Trafalgar Studios
  • Incident at Vichy, 6/15/17 (Thurs), Kings Head Theatre

Continue reading →

Diversity again

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Diversity again. Over the past week, Actors’ Equity has released a survey of diversity in US theater, while the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which votes on the Oscars, has sent out a record-setting number of invitations for membership that include a notably large proportion of women and non-whites. I’ll reserve comment on the latter other than observing that many of the invitees would not appear remotely qualified by the objective standard of their film industry credentials, which will ultimately raise questions over the organization’s credibility. I’m more interested in theater.

I live in a country where diversity (as defined in the US) is not a big concern. With rare exception, casts in local productions here are 100% Japanese (note: not “Asian”), even in musicals – The King and I and Miss Saigon come to mind – where some need for ethnic diversity is built into the show. So I’m probably not overly sensitive to the issue.

Nevertheless, I seem to be missing something in the Actors’ Equity survey. Continue reading →

Hello, Dolly!

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  • Hello, Dolly! 

5/13/17 (Sat), Broadway

Bette Midler as Dolly – how perfect is that? In her last Broadway musical back in the 1960s, Fiddler, she was singing to a matchmaker; now she’s become one. The excitement level was very high for this show; it’s easily the hottest ticket in town next to Hamilton, and she’s already extended the limited run into December, which quickly sold out. The audience cheered at the opening bars of the overture, at the title song in the overture, at the opening of the curtains, at Bette’s first appearance, at the opening of her first song and on and on. Let’s face it: we weren’t there for the sets. She carried a tremendous store of good will, and the energy in the audience could have lit the theater. My only worry was the memory of the last time I saw the show, when Carol Channing was treading gingerly through it at an age way too old for the role. We applauded at the staircase scene in sheer relief that she made it down safely. Bette isn’t too much younger (she’s 71), but the word out there is very good. So it was hard not to get caught up in the enthusiasm.  Continue reading →

New York (May 2017)

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New York

  • Indecent, 5/9/17 (Tue), Broadway,
  • Groundhog Day, 5/10/17 (Wed), Broadway
  • A Doll’s House Part 2, 5/10/17 (Wed), Broadway
  • The Emperor Jones, 5/11/17 (Thurs), Off Broadway,
  • The Golden Apple, 5/12/17 (Fri), Encores!
  • Oslo, 5/13/17 (Sat), Lincoln Center
  • The Great Comet, 5/14/17 (Sun), Broadway
  • Sleep No More, 5/14/17 (Sun), Off Broadway

Continue reading →