The Arts Fuse Newsletter, November 13
Coming Attractions, Reviews of the Broadway Revival of “Sunset Boulevard,” Manet at the Gardner Museum, Keith Jarrett's "The Old Country", and Steve McQueen's "Blitz"
From The Editor's Desk:
Last week I pointed out how the demise of arts coverage at The Baltimore Sun was symptomatic of a mainstream media determined to cut serious writing on culture, ousting independent criticism for the sake of pushing ‘up with the arts’ features.
This week it makes sense to look at the arts’ reaction to the redux of Donald Trump. Several theaters have sent out emails, assuring us that they feel our pain. Their salve for liberal despair: the magic of the live stage. SpeakEasy Stage Company asserts that “great storytelling can provide a welcome escape in times of difficulty, but it also has the power to challenge our perspectives, inspire empathy, and bridge differences to promote unity and belonging.” Central Square Theatre swears that “together, we are strong and share a commitment to acknowledge our troubled history of inequity and collectively move forward. We are privileged to be on this journey and in this fight — to be doing the work — alongside you.” Rhode Island’s Wilbury Theatre Group fist pumps that “together we're building a stronger community through the power of live performance.” This is PR bosh.
How do I know? None of these statements contain the words dissent, protest, or civil disobedience, language at the center of an activist tradition of theater that, over the past hundred years, accepted James Baldwin’s challenge that “we made the world we’re living in, and we have to make it over again.” Boston’s theater companies didn’t sound much public alarm during Trump’s campaign and — aside from slinging the ‘we’ll cope’ rhetoric above — will most likely offer none now that he is taking office.
Fascism does not disturb normality, at least for the privileged. The trains run on time and stage curtains go up. Boston area theater will go on, offering shows chosen to rile few, geared to take weary minds away from uncomfortable realities and their pesky demands for change. Just as Trump revs up his mass deportation plan, the Lyric Stage will be performing Hello Dolly! The mercenary American Repertory Theater, hellbent on developing the Hello Dolly!s of tomorrow for Broadway, will stage the rock musical Passing Strange this spring. These are savvy commercial decisions: MAGA-adjacent audiences like musicals (check out Cabaret). The ultra-wealthy and powerful, ranging from those who run our large philanthropic organizations to the movers and shakers in state and city government, prefer a hive of risk-free buzzwords, community and entrepreneurship among them. For this tony crowd, calls for artistic disturbance and disruption are unacceptable — public resistance is not safe, not polite, not customer friendly. Business-as-usual must be maintained, uber alles.
Robert Lowell, in a response to a 1966 Partisan Review questionnaire, articulates my fear: “I have a gloomy premonition … that we will soon look back on this troubled moment as a golden time of freedom and license to act and speculate. One feels the sinews of the tiger, an ascetic, ‘moral’ and authoritarian reign of piety and iron.” My hope is that, as our increasingly corporate-minded arts world cowers at the need to make good trouble, concerned theater artists will organize for the sake of creating rebellious works that respond — with vigorous imaginative possibilities — to the looming threat to our democratic institutions. May an underground arise, one dedicated to making, with apologies to the late Robert Brustein, a theater of revolt.
—Bill Marx, Editor-in-Chief
Archive: From the Editor's Desk
Coming Attractions through November 26 — What Will Light Your Fire
Compiled by Arts Fuse Editor
Our expert critics supply a guide to film, visual art, theater, author readings, and music. More offerings will be added as they come in.
Theater Review: The Broadway Revival of “Sunset Boulevard” Assaults the Senses
Director Jamie Lloyd’s loud and brash revival is all sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Visual Arts Review: Manet at the Gardner — The Tension between Revelation and Obfuscation
It is a great gift that the Gardner Museum has made such a strong and lively exhibition, presented exclusively in Boston, devoted to Manet.
Jazz Album Review: Keith Jarrett’s “The Old Country” — A Welcome Trip Down Memory Lane
By Michael Ullman
The Old Country is a wonderful addition to the Keith Jarrett discography. There are no stale leftovers here — this album adds a whole new course to the pianist’s extraordinary banquet.
Film Review: “Blitz” — Children’s Crusade
By Peter Keough
In director Steve McQueen’s Blitz, chaos can be a scary but exciting adventure, as tragedy and trauma mingle with the magic of a fairy tale.
Theater Review: “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” — A Beautifully Performed, Engaging, and Thought-Provoking Creature Feature
By David Greenham
This stage adaptation of Mary Shelley’s novel earns its keep — the production is provocative, well acted, and completely engaging.
Book Review: “The Absinthe Forger” — Betrayal Among Worshippers of the Green Fairy
By David Daniel
For the absinthe-curious, wondering about those who spend their lives fanning the Green Fairy’s original “spirit,” Evan Rail's enjoyable book will provide a mildly hallucinogenic sip.
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Questions, comments, concerns?
Editor-in-Chief
Bill Marx
wmarx103@gmail.com
