Liars and Saints

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3rAiwP8IBg   Yip Harburg was a champion of racial and gender equality. Also, he wrote "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." That's enough for one life. But on top of that, he wrote "Down With Love." This is an "I Want" song--but the wish is a wish to commit violence. To murder and stuff a dove. It's an "I Want" song for someone like Sweeney Todd. Down with love--with flowers and rice and shoes. Down with love--the root of all midnight blues. Down with things that give you that well-known pain... Take that moon, wrap it in cellophane. Standard writing advice says, "Use the white space. Pay attention to what a character omits. This matters as much as what a character chooses to advertise." In a catalogue of romantic cliches, Harburg's speaker lets us know exactly what her last six months have been like. Without telling the story, she nevertheless "tells the story." Down with songs that moan ...

  In her twenties and thirties, Sutton Foster had musicals written for her. They often weren't very good--but they happened--one after the other after the other. "Little Women," "Young Frankenstein," "Shrek." Then, a shift occurred. I don't know if this was deliberate. After "Shrek," Foster turned her attention to revivals. In a big way. On and off Broadway. "Anyone Can Whistle," "Into the Woods," "*Violet," "The Music Man," "Sweeney Todd," "Sweet Charity," "Once Upon a Mattress," "Anything Goes." At times, it seems as if Foster is on a mission to do *every* canonical role. The "Sweeney" phase--where Foster was Burnett by night and Lansbury by day--was particularly exciting. I have a list of roles I'd now like to offer to Foster. Desiree Armfeldt, Phyllis in "Follies" (notice how the word "Phyllis" sounds like "Folly,...

  Anne Lamott says that a story is simply a character traveling to a bad place--then traveling to a good place (home, once again). In "Anything Goes," Reno Sweeney is briefly troubled by romantic chaos; she thinks she wants Billy, and Billy does not want her. But in fact Reno is meant for Lord Evelyn, whose sexual dynamism is just waiting, waiting to be discovered. Happy ending. It's not exactly "King Lear." Reno describes her own journey in Biblical terms: Once I was headed for Hell. Once I was headed for Hell! But now that I have seen the light-- I'm good by day and I'm good by night. So I said, Satan? Farewell. And now I'm all ready to fly-- Yes, to fly higher and higher. 'Cause I've gone to the brimstone-- And I've been through the fire. And I've purged my soul--and my heart, too-- So climb up the mountaintop-- And start to blow, Gabriel....Blow! A happy ending can be a religious awakening--but it can also be sexual fulfillment. W...

  Like all of the rest of "Chess," "Someone Else's Story" is a generic, badly written song. It's so generic, it can be lifted from one character and given to another--and the transplant just makes people shrug. The idea is that, when we're viewing a neighbor's actions, we find it easy to give advice. But, when we try to offer counsel to ourselves, we can't see clearly. Long ago, in someone else's story, A girl with my name who looked a lot like me... Came to know a man and made a promise-- He only had to say, and that's where she would be. I hate this writing so much. "He only had to say, and that's where she would be"--? Is this English? The speaker no longer feels able to keep her promise, but the thought of walking away is terrifying. It's all very well to say, You fool... It's now or never... [But, by walking away...] I could be choosing no choices whatsoever... If you're performing this song, you can either ...

  "The Music Man" is a bit like "Better Call Saul"; it's about a charismatic con man and a series of crimes. Harold Hill wants success -- but he has a touch of "Slippin Jimmy" in his soul. He offers to teach children music, but he can't read music; he uses a tactic called "the think method." (If you think about the Canon in D, you'll just somehow master it.) This isn't a really satisfying way to live -- and Harold partly understands his situation -- but old habits die hard. Meanwhile, Harold's antagonist -- his Inspector Javert -- is a tough-minded librarian who is in mourning. She knows who Harold is, but when Harold uses some of his sparkle to brighten the lives of little children in the Town Hall, the antagonist has a hard time imagining how she should proceed. The Times already described what is puzzling about the current Broadway revival. It seems like Hugh Jackman is afraid to play a con man; he is just sort of quiet and...

 A new book that seems to have slipped under the radar--Sutton Foster's memoir--deserves some attention this year. Foster writes about her "crafting" hobby -- stitching, sculpting, sketching -- and this part doesn't interest me at all. If she needed this "hook" to get into her life stories, fine. But I don't think anyone needs to dwell on the paragraphs about collage, crochet tools, etc. Here's the meat of the story. Foster had a difficult mom who suffered from some combination of agoraphobia and borderline personality disorder. As the years went by, the mental illness grew stronger. Despite being often impossible, Mama Foster had ambitions and sometimes-weirdly-clear thoughts about the future. She recognized that her small child had an extraordinary talent--and she found ways to cultivate the talent. Also, when Patti LuPone appeared on PBS to do her now-famous version of Stephen Sondheim's "Being Alive," Mama Foster looked at her adole...

 "Younger" continues to tread water until the inevitable Liza/Charles reunion. But, this past week, it did its treading gracefully. The script--written by a charming, older gay man--has Liza in a tangle with Quinn. Quinn, a Vassar alum, could maybe be tapped to win a "Vassar Spirit" award; the prize had been intended for Jane Fonda, but "last night, she was arrested again." I welcome any chance for Quinn to shine. She embraces Liza and says, "Oof! Your breath tells me you've paid a visit to a food truck! Iron stomach!" And later: "Onions....They keep a food truck in business...." Quinn decides she will accept the Vassar prize, but not before showing off obnoxiously at a "foreign rights meeting." She brusquely issues commands in several languages--German, Italian, Japanese--then shrugs. "All those boys owe me some favors...." Of course my favorite moment is when Quinn levels with Liza. "I'm not the monste...

She's back! Tonight! YOUNGER returns! Some Sutton trivia.... -This kid was on STAR SEARCH almost before she could walk. (I'm being hyperbolic.) -Upon anointing Sutton a new star, one reporter noted the "legs and lungs, the vulnerability and brass" of a major force on Broadway. -After MILLIE, there were the less-lustrous shows: YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, SHREK, LITTLE WOMEN. Sutton's more-recent choices make me wonder if she's now willing only to do revivals. -Sutton identifies herself as a "cock-eyed optimist" and credits her very young daughter with giving her (Sutton) a new lease on life. Thus: Sutton is now frequently singing, in public, Sondheim's hymn-to-discovery, "Take Me to the World." Love, love, love Sutton. Enjoy tonight!

What you may not know about Sondheim is that, in the sixties, he wrote a "TV musical" called "Evening Primrose." I haven't seen it. Here's what I know: The star was the handsome closeted guy who played Norman in "Psycho," Anthony Perkins. The show involved a mannequin who wanted to experience the world, or something like this. (Sondheim says--"Keep them surprised!"--and there you have it.) What do you get when you tell a story from the point of view of a mannequin? You get the chance to "de-familiarize." When we de-familiarize, we describe mundane things from an alien perspective, in an effort to make those things "new again." Sondheim's acolyte--Howard Ashman--famously used a "de-familiarizing" technique when he had Ariel, the Little Mermaid, dream about life on land: Flipping your fins, you don't get too far. LEGS are required for...jumping...dancing... Strolling around on those.... What'...

In its third and fourth seasons, "Younger" seems to borrow heavily from "Sex and the City." That's as it should be. Darren Starr created both shows. Remember, mid-way through SATC, Carrie has her "anti-heroine" story. She becomes someone we emphatically *can't* root for. Can't--really. She is with the John Corbett character, and he's mainly a good guy, but she's lying and sleeping with Mr. Big in secret. And Mr. Big is married. And there's really nothing wrong with his wife. This is a bit shocking--we expect better from Carrie--but, also, Carrie has that New York chic thing going on, and she's always smoking sexy cigarettes, so it's not a big leap to imagine her in a sophisticated and dramatic affair. By contrast, Sutton Foster has a golden-haze-on-the-meadow image. Yes, she became famous in New York, but there's something strongly midwestern about her. She's the girl next door. You might expect her to play Maria...

**Imelda Staunton is riveting in the Amazon Prime $2.99 rental, "Gypsy." Big surprise. What is genuinely notable is how moving Louise is. The director seems to have chosen an actress specifically meant to evoke thoughts of Laura Benanti (smart move). I was especially touched--and unnerved--by "Little Lamb," in which Louise, normally a picture of stillness and quiet, hints at her inner life. She suggests to us that she has dreams of escape. She does this by singing--creepily--to her stuffed animals. Everything about the moment is deliberately "off"; Louise is too old to be doing this. "Will I get my wish?" Louise asks, of a stuffed fish, and we're left to infer what that wish might be. Famously, the song ends: "Little lamb, little lamb....I wonder how old I am...." and we're struck by the realization that life under Rose's thumb means not even knowing how old you are. It's like a moment from Catherine Keener's ...

First, though, a "shout-out" to Tomi Ungerer, the children's lit icon who died this week. As I've written before, Ungerer was a force, and then he was shunned for having shown an artistic interest in sex. Children's librarians removed his work from various shelves. Then he had a renaissance. And now he is gone. Farewell, Tomi! To readers: Check out "The Three Robbers," in memoriam. -The NYT ran a piece this past weekend drawing various lines between the lives of gay children's-book writers and their choices of subject. Some concerned readers, in the heartland, asked: Must everything be tied back to sexual orientation? The answer is YES! And so: More. Forthcoming. -Darren Star, who invented the show "Younger," spent a fair amount of time in the closet. How striking, then, that he chose to write a show about a woman who wears a mask--a woman who poses as someone fifteen years younger, in an effort to get an entry-level publishing job. A w...

"Younger" announces its intentions early--in the first episode, in fact. It's a throwaway scene. Sutton Foster has been tasked with making Jane Austen "sexy" for young readers. The means of attack will be a Jane Austen Twitter account. As Jane Austen, Sutton Foster crazily Tweets: "Mr. Darcy hath just sent to me an etching of his manhood! Shall I respond?" Look past a few things here. For example: Mr. Darcy, a fictional character, would not correspond with Jane Austen, an actual human being. And: Mr. Darcy would not do something as coarse as an iPhone-manhood-photo assault. And: Someone as shrewd and as relentlessly NOT needy as Jane Austen would never take to Twitter to ask what she should do, if accosted in this particular way. Look past all of that. Darren Starr is saying something pretty clear here: "My show will take some of its cues from Jane Austen. This will be a romantic comedy, in the tradition of 'Emma' or 'Pride and Pre...