Liars and Saints

  The reason I felt drawn to Dolly Parton was that she seemed to follow the Stephen Sondheim playbook. One of the Sondheim rules was that form should match content. And there I was last night in a restaurant, listening to "Jolene": Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene. Please don't take him just because you can. Dolly's speaker does not need to explain to us that she is obsessed--because Dolly's use of *form* conveys the message. Those four "Jolenes"--on ascending notes--create the feeling of obsession. We know what it is like to be inside the speaker's ruminating head. Another note from Sondheim was that every song should function as a one-act play, with exposition, development, and a conclusion. Recall that Dolly was just in high school when she wrote "The Bridge." It's a little bit overheated and predictable--but it's still nothing like the writing you would expect from a teenager. A kid appears on a bridge and recalls that this was he...

  I have no idea how carefully the writers of "Six" were thinking about Ariana Grande. There is of course the link between Catherine Howard's hairstyle and Grande's iconic ponytail. There is also the choice of song structure. Howard's solo is a kind of resume: the verses walk us through the story of her love life. Grande uses the same trick in "Thank U, Next": we hear about each and every major ex (rather than focusing on just one). I can't help but notice an additional parallel. When a pop star addresses a crush, she is also (covertly) addressing her audience: A little less conversation and a little more TOUCH MY BODY. Cuz I'm so into you, into you, into you. We would be naive to pretend that the music industry isn't--on one level--selling sex. "All you wanna do--all you wanna do, Baby, is touch me, squeeze me, birds and the bees me." At some point, the relationship becomes toxic. Some of Grande's recent songs have been "a...

  We flew to another country — then drove a long way — to see a revival of “Guys and Dolls.” Is this odd? I don’t care. Loesser’s musical, one of the all-time greats, is essentially a Shakespearean comedy, and so it “works” at the Stratford Festival. In a Shakespeare story, a young man or woman travels to an enchanted place (a forest or island), assumes a false identity for bizarre reasons, then makes a mess. That’s also Sky Masterson. He begins wooing Sarah by pretending certain things are true: a Havana “milkshake” doesn’t really have alcohol, a certain flight to Cuba is really just about finding a decent lunch. Complications ensue. Amazingly, Sky’s conscience begins to wake up. He finds that he cares too much about Sarah to continue pulling the wool over her eyes. At the same time, Sarah notices she has a “well of forgiveness” deeper than the well she’d imagined for herself. A casual remark from a third party points the way toward resolution — just in time. Generally, a succ...

  Before Mac Barnett “fell from grace,” he wrote a blog called “Looking at Picture Books.” This did exactly what it claimed to do. Barnett and his friend, Jon Klassen, analyzed old masterworks. They weren’t afraid to touch a nerve; they criticized Barack Obama for repeatedly reading “Where the Wild Things Are” at high-profile events (when other books could have profited from the Obama spotlight). Barnett really, deeply thought about Maurice Sendak. For example, he pointed out that Max, the hero of “Where the Wild Things Are,” doesn’t have any toys. His bedroom is joyless. It’s a bedroom designed by a parent who is struggling. (Indeed, the parent has just sent Max to sleep without having eaten dinner.) Second, Barnett pays attention to Sendak’s use of scale. The initial images are small; we see a good deal of white space. When Max escapes to the land of the Wild Things, the white space disappears. The image even seems to spill *off* the page. Max has found freedom within his ima...

  Raul Esparza is returning to Broadway. I don't have trust in Esparza's ability to select good material, but I do think his co-star, Joy Woods, has often made wise choices ("Little Shop," "Six," "Gypsy"). Could this be the year that Joy Woods wins a Tony Award? I'm ready. The Katherine Parr (Joy Woods) character in "Six" is the clearest link to the musical "Hamilton." With its goosebump-inducing conclusion, "Hamilton" reveals that Eliza has a massive Second Act, packed with political advocacy, editorial work, and business management. Something similar happens with Katherine Parr. After the death of Henry VIII, Parr writes books, fights for the education of women, and recruits a female painter for a high-profile job. I see Katherine Parr as a comment on Sara Bareilles. When told to write a love song for financial reasons, Bareilles felt repelled--and turned her repulsion into a hit ("I'm Not Gonna Write Yo...

 Sometimes, I think about my life in relation to "The Sopranos." There is that moment when Carmela barks, "AJ needs his routines!" That could easily be yours truly--talking about a different little boy. The dispute with the neighbors. If I bake rigatoni for your in-laws, that means my daughter *will* win a spot at Georgetown . My family has a similar arrangement where we back school board candidates in exchange for basic civility from our school principal. (This sometimes works!) The final scene of "The Sopranos" is treated as a kind of Rosetta Stone--what can it tell us about the mob storyline? But I'm not sure that the mob is of paramount importance in this scene. Before the nebulous final seconds, AJ offers advice to his father. "You need to relax. Remember the good times. OK? You told me that once." This is a specific observation about family life--your child will repeat your own words in front of you. (If I'm visibly stressed, my son...