Penelope

I thought about seeing The New Electric Ballroom at St. Ann's Warehouse last year, but when I realized the author's name was Enda (male) rather than Edna (female) Walsh, decided I could miss it. Big mistake.

Having just seen Walsh's brilliant and magical Penelope, I won't make such a mistake again.

I'd like to see, or at least read, everything this extraordinary playwright has written, and am regretting I didn't spring for a copy of Penelope, which was on sale at the theater.

One of these days, I hope to see Walsh's work on his home turf--the Druid theater in Galway.

In the meantime, I'm grateful to St. Ann's for bringing Walsh's work to New York.

Penelope runs at St. Ann's Warehouse till November 14.

www.stannswarehouse.org

Panic! Euphoria! Blackout . . .

. . . is the latest gem from the inimitable Talking Band, and a challenging show to describe. Its subject: trading and financial dealings and crises through the years, the work of traders, and much more. Style: mind-bending, poetical . . .

You'll earn a practical dividend from your attendance, as well as an aethetic one.

Go! You have through 10/23.

At HERE, 145 Sixth Ave

www.talkingband.org/panic

www.here.org

In Transit

This Friday, I saw an amazing new a cappella musical, still in previews, that felt like a New York classic--one that will be delighting tourists as well as New Yorkers for years to come.

With witty lyrics, tuneful score, and beatbox rhythms, In Transit speaks of the lives New Yorkers lead, especially those who ride the subways or struggle in the arts.

Amid the laughter, applause, and sighs, I heard many a whoop of self-recognition joining mine, as the dynamite cast spun the stories of the actress-temp, the ex-financier down to his last transit fare, the truculent subway clerk, the beat boxer who engages fellow travelers, and others into a glowing, moving, hilarious, and wise vision of urban community.

Singing inside, I floated out into the night after it was over, glad all over to be privileged to live here, and to be reminded of how this city can bring out the best in us--if we'll only let it.

In Transit opens on October 5 and closes on October 30 at Primary Stages, 59 East 59 St.

Catch it now if you can, or wait for its next move or incarnation. This is a show I expect to have the pleasure of seeing again, and of introducing to family and friends.


http://primarystages.org/intransit

Saving Lone Star

On Monday, I caught the first episode of Lone Star--a show about a con man--found it engrossing and intriguing, and was eager to see how it developed.

Then on Saturday, in the New York Times, I read that the show, up against Event and Dancing with the Stars, had done so poorly in the ratings that it might have been canceled immediately.

Only Fox has given it another chance--maybe only one.

If you're free to watch television this Monday at 9:00 pm, please choose Lone Star.
It may be your last chance.

But if enough others watch to buy Lone Star more time, its creator, Kyle Killen, will thank you:

http://thelettereleven.blogspot.com/

And I'll thank you.

Reading now. . .

It's taken a mere decade, but Norman Spinrad's He Walked Among Us, first published in France, is finally available in an English hardcover from Tor (for a while Spinrad offered it on his website as a download).

It's vivid and gripping, and keeping me awake way too many nights, and will likely haunt my dreams when I'm done with it.




For reviews and other information (including Spinrad's forthcoming work), see

http://www.sff.net/people/normanspinrad/

Can't Wait to Read . . .

The Sultan's Shadow, by Christiane Bird, the story of Sultan Said of Oman and his daughter Princess Salme, who would write the first known autobiography of an Arab woman--and of the nineteenth century East African slave trade.

For more information about the book, see the Salon review:

http://www.salon.com/books/laura_miller/2010/06/27/shadow_of_the_sultan

or the author's website:

http://christianebird.com/

The Blessing Next to the Wound . . .

. . . a memoir by Hector Aristizabal, co-authored by my friend Diane Lefer, is aptly subtitled "a Story of Art, Activision, and Transformation."

Exiled from his native Colombia, where he survived torture, Aristizabal now lives in this country. Trained as an actor, he works for social justice, often in collaboration with Lefer, who will be discussing their book this Wednesday at the radical bookstore and cafe Bluestockings, 172 Allen St., at 7 pm.

Lefer also writes wonderful plays and short stories. For information about her work, see

http://www.dianelefer.weebly.com

And for more information about The Blessing Next to the Wound, go to

http://www.lanternbooks.com/detail.html?session=f79da872f32a1be8f6672dd7f974c43a&id=9781590561713