Liars and Saints

There are many ways to observe the birth of Jesus--tree lightings, chats with Santa, trips to Dyker Heights, etc. But may I suggest: Kristin Chenoweth? I've had few major romantic relationships in my life, but each has involved Kristin. My first partner--before I came out of the closet--took me to the Hamptons to see Kristin in concert. I think we sat behind Ralph Lauren, if he was still alive? Kristin said, "I'm going to perform a little ditty from a show I'm working on, about the witches of Oz. We'll see what happens." I realize none of this is normal--did I wipe tears from my eyes?--but I swear it did occur. At one point, I was a young "straight" man, on a "Kristin Chenoweth" date somewhere near Sag Harbor. Years passed, and, having faced the facts, I found myself entangled with someone of my own gender. These were the "Glee" years. We listened obsessively to Kristin's performance of "Alone," and we visited, and r...

  Today, the NYTimes celebrates one of my favorite writers, Jon Klassen; the critic praises Klassen's subversive gifts. Couldn't say it better myself. Many classic fables and fairy tales involve theft or murder, i.e. "Goldilocks," "Little Red," "Jack and the Beanstalk," "Rapunzel," "Rumpelstiltskin." Klassen returns us to the anarchic world of fairy tales. His stories feature violence, self-delusion, and deceit. It's sort of crazy (and delightful) that, in the era of "Cocomelon" and "Miss Rachel," Jon Klassen is the winner of a Caldecott Medal. I especially like his story, "The Future," which seems to rewrite Chris Van Dusen's "If I Built a School." In the van Dusen tale, the power of the mind is celebrated; a child dreams of an ideal school (perhaps on Mars! with robots!), and the reader can offer three cheers for the wonders of ingenuity. This seems to be the path "The Futur...

 Anne Lamott is the queen of the personal essay, and it's unjust that she doesn't even want to be doing this. She wants to retire. But the stories still come out of her. Lamott's gift is an ability to see material where others would see nothing. Today I woke up old and awful in every way. I simultaneously cannot bear the news and can't turn it off--Gaza, Israel, the shootings in Maine. Cobra hypnosis. The world is dark as a scarab. I have two memorial services this week. A dear friend is dying; she keeps assuring me, "I ain't in no ways tired." And I say, "Stop with that, or I'm not going to visit again." Lamott makes herself a character; she pokes fun at her own hyperbolic misery ("old and awful in every way"). She then highlights her own pettiness. A dying friend's sense of resilience is a pet peeve. "Stop with that!" Who could fail to relate? To me, an essay is a chance to show off various crazed characters--and Lam...

 Sometimes, New York seems to design its own self-parody--and a fine example is the case of Sondheim's last musical. Sondheim allegedly authorized a production of this show right before dying, but I wonder if certain wires were crossed. In the current season of "The Crown," Dodi calls his father, Mou Mou, to deliver news about Diana. He uses a deliberately ambiguous sentence--"An agreement has been reached!"--because he knows his father will misinterpret the news. "This will get people off my back for a while...." I see Sondheim doing something similar: "Joe Mantello, an agreement has been reached!" And Sondheim died, and Mantello was free to make of the nebulous sentence whatever he might have wished. (I have no evidence for this theory.) The site of the Sondheim production is a brutal wind tunnel near the Hudson River; you scale six flights of stairs to reach the stage, and the program features one-eighth of an interview between Frank Rich ...

  Sometimes, an opening is so strong that you immediately know you're in good hands. The new film "Thanksgiving" begins with a Black Friday shopping event. A local business owner hires minimal security, then forces disgruntled employees to chip in at the last minute. The tycoon's thoughtless daughter breaks into the store--several minutes before the official countdown--because her friend needs a new lipstick.  The masses witness this obnoxious move--and a volcano of fury erupts. The surge of the crowd results in several deaths. A shard of glass inserts itself into one human neck. A braid of hair gets stuck in the wheels of a shopping cart, and thus a piece of scalp "frees itself" from a head. One shopper really wants a free toaster oven, so she snatches it from the hands of a corpse. The writer is saying something here: "I promise to deliver in the middle sections, and in the ending, as well." So: you get an interlude in which stainless steel ...

 One reason that I love Roz Chast is that she has invented a wonderful character: her father. Chast has such mesmerizing ambivalence for this deeply anxious, neurotic man, so much compassion and exasperation. The guy can be in a tiny, tiny conflict--and still you're fascinated, because the artist is fascinated. In "Father's Day Memory," Mr. Chast is at war with himself. He wants to instruct his daughter, but he can't find words. His sense of myopia is such that he can offer just two pieces of advice: "Carry your subway token in your hand, and always take care of your teeth." His greatest enemy is the Parachute Jump, at Coney Island--which seems to beckon to him, even as it maintains its own sinister aura. The end of this story is tremendously moving; you suddenly realize you're reading a love letter, from the artist to a dead man. Everything is understated; not one word is out of place. I'm so inspired by Roz Chast. https://www.newyorker.com/maga...

  What a thrill to go to "Hamilton"--for a third time--for my husband's birthday. The current star, Miguel Cervantes, is said to be the definitive Alexander (whatever that means); one thing that helps is that he has actually lost a child. When--as Alexander--he mourns the death of little Junior, you sense an unusual level of actorly authority. My main lens for watching was a consideration of Lin Manuel Miranda's relationship with Sondheim. Miranda has said that Sondheim urged him to look for opportunities to surprise. (A surprise would be moving from "Sweeney Todd" to "Merrily." Or from "Merrily" to "Sunday in the Park.") When Miranda told Sondheim that he was working on a rap musical about the Founding Fathers, Sondheim apparently laughed, with delight, and said, "That's exactly what you should be doing." (Not a shock, then, that Miranda is now pivoting toward a musical adaptation of "The Warriors.") Son...