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Coming soon to a bookstore near you

I rode my bike around to a few events at the Newburyport Literary Festival today, and for those of you who might think it a charming provincial exercise, let me tell you I just got a sneak preview of one of the big books of 2008. In a nice gesture to the hometown fest, Andre Dubus III read from his hot-off-the-pad manuscript of "The Garden of Last Days," his followup novel to "House of Sand and Fog," and it's likely to be one of the most talked-about literary efforts of next year - or whenever it's published.

The book takes place on the Gulf Coast of Florida in late summer and early fall of 2001. I slipped in a few minutes late, but the two compelling, closely observed sections I heard him read were from the point of view of a strip club bouncer and one of the club's patrons...a young Saudi man ... who is about to achieve infamy as one of the 19 hijackers on 9/11. Dubus has given this character a fictional name, but researched him intensely. (A couple of the hijackers spent their last days in just such a joint, despite their faith.) And Dubus is as deeply inside the Saudi's head as any of his other characters. Those who read the (Oprah-anointed, Hollywood-approved, but never mind all that) "House of Sand and Fog" know that Dubus is an intensely empathetic writer. The crystal-clear prose here, and its spinning cultural compass, put me in mind of Robert Stone (including pop-cult zaps like "the Jew, David Lee Roth").

After reading, Dubus took audience questions and confessed to profoundly mixed emotions about getting so deeply inside his Saudi  character. He spoke of his rage and sorrow on 9/11, but he was also very clear that he believes the Iraq war has been a great gift for al Queda recruiting. And despite his aw shucks stage manner, Dubus is not afraid to express his thoughts and do so eloquently and forcefully. His other comments made clear this is a manuscript in early days. His editor is only just now reading it, and it's 700 pages long, which you have to think will come down before it's published. But when "The Garden of Last Days" does hit shelves, I suspect you will again be reading much about the author from Newbury.

Get thee to the Zero Arrow

Having spent the weekend rather aggressively ignoring the outside world, except for Red Sox-Yankees, I come late to the Mike Daisey saga. The basics: Last Thursday a high school group from California - it's a public school, but the adults involved seem to have identified the group as "Christian" - walked out on Daisey's Invincible Summer show  at the Zero Arrow Theatre. And in the process, one of the "adults" stopped to pour a bottle of water over Daisey's handwritten outline for the show, making his life very difficult. Too late for me to go off on these schmucks, except to say that the kids in their custody who have emailed Daisey to apologize showed considerably more class. One good post and video of the incident are here. Geoff Edgers has several key posts here. Daisey has his say here. But the best thing I can say at this late date is, tix for this weekend's performances are available here.

I shoulda whacked "The Sopranos," because I missed the homers

So I've been a huge fan of HBO's brilliant "The Sopranos" since the very first episode back in early 1999, and I have stayed steadfast even as the last couple of seasons have seemed to, um, wander a bit. I have been waiting eagerly for these final few episodes, in which I expect creator David Chase to bring the saga to a fittingly explosive conclusion. But I have been a fan of the Red Sox for a lot longer, and they have already given me the ending I wanted, maybe the greatest drama I've ever seen, in 2003-2004. So perhaps I should have known better than to step away from the ballgame last night in the middle of the third inning and run upstairs to the TV with HBO just in time to hear the "Woke up this morning, got yourself a gun..." theme from "The"Sopranos." What's the harm, I miss a couple of innings? Yeah, right.

I'm about halfway through watching the episode with Roe, when the phone rings. Growling, I jump off the bed wondering who has the cojones to call me in the middle of "The Sopranos" at 9:30 on a Sunday night. I snatch up the phone and, from Portland, my friend Scott says, "Didja see it?!?!" Then he gives me the bad news about what I've missed, four straight Sox homers to take the lead back from the Yankees. A feat that, it turns out, had been accomplished only four other times in baseball history. Howling in anguish, I fall back on the bed.

And here's the bitch of it: it was one of the all-time dullest "Sopranos" episodes. If Chase is going to satisfy the widely held expectations of the show's final season, he is going to have to get on the stick. Because last night's episode consisted of a cheap "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" rehash starring Uncle June and some Asian guy we've never seen before, plus a freighted trip down memory lane for Tony and Paulie that ended up going absolutely...nowhere. As Paulie would say, What the fuck, T?? I miss four homers against the Yankees for this?? I went downstairs after the show and watched the rest of the game, but Chase, you owe me.

Earthfest lineup!

Local faves Guster will headline the 14th annual WBOS Earthfest at the Hatch Shell on May 26. KT Tunstall, Mat Kearney, the John Butler Trio, Vega4 and Grace Potter and the Nocturals fill out the bill. Girl Authority will perform in the Kids' Planet area.  WBOS also said both the radio station and the festival will be carbon-neutral from here on out, as it's going to start buying "carbon credits." And they're linking up with a couple of environmental groups to make sure the May event is eco-educational and thoroughly recycled.Whole Foods sponsors the free fest.

Tanglewood Music Center's 2007 season announced

...and here's the press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
DATE: April 19, 2007 

BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ANNOUNCES DETAILS OF TANGLEWOOD MUSIC CENTER’S 2007 SEASON 

TMC FELLOWS TO PARTICPATE IN PERFORMANCES OF VERDI’S “DON CARLO,” MOZART’S “COSÍ FAN TUTTE,” BEETHOVEN’S NINTH SYMPHONY, ROGERS AND HAMERSTEIN’S “CAROUSEL,” AND MARK MORRIS DANCE GROUP PERFORMANCES OF PURCELL’S “DIDO AND AENEAS” 

     The Tanglewood Music Center - the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s
renowned summer music academy - opens its 2007 summer session on June 28
and 29 collaborating with the Mark Morris Dance Group in performances of
Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, and closes the session on August 19 with a
performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony under the direction of
Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos. 

     Highlights of the Tanglewood Music Center’s 67th season include
BSO Music Director James Levine leading the TMC Orchestra (TMCO) and
Vocal Fellows and a cast of internationally renowned singers in a
concert performance of Verdi’s opera Don Carlo (July 28), Maestro
Levine conducting TMC vocalists and instrumentalists in staged
performances of Mozart’s Così fan tutte (August 11-14), and TMC Vocal
Fellows performing in a concert performance of Rodgers and
Hammerstein’s Carousel (July 10) with Keith Lockhart and the Boston
Pops.  Other highlights include a discussion of theater and popular
music of 1930s with composers John Williams and Milton Babbitt.

     TMC fellows will also be featured in Tanglewood on Parade, an
all-day musical celebration culminating in an evening concert featuring
the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops Orchestra, and the Tanglewood
Music Center Orchestra, under the direction of James Levine, John
Williams, Keith Lockhart, and Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos. 

     Opening Exercises for this summer’s TMC season will be at 2:30
p.m. on Monday, July 9, in Ozawa Hall.  Maestro Levine will perform
Bolcom’s brief Graceful Ghost (Rag) for solo piano during Opening
Exercises, and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra will perform music
of Holst, Ravel, and Bartók at an 8:30 p.m. concert that day.

Huntington's 2007-08 season announced

...and here's the press release:

(BOSTON) -- The Huntington Theatre Company announced today its 2007-2008 Season, which includes two world premieres by local playwrights, the final work by award-winning writer Wendy Wasserstein, a play that landed on all the major top ten lists of 2006, the American premiere of a West End London smash on its way to Broadway, and a beloved classic musical.

This is the final season to be programmed by Huntington Artistic Director Nicholas Martin, who in June 2008 becomes Artist Emeritus for two years. Martin also will direct the season-closing musical, “She Loves Me.” The offerings, in chronological order, are:

John Buchan's “The 39 Steps”
Adapted by Patrick Barlow
Directed by Maria Aitken
Sept. 14 - Oct. 14, 2007
Boston University Theatre, the Huntington’s main stage
Pre-Broadway American premiere

Mix an Alfred Hitchcock masterpiece with a juicy spy novel, add a dash of vintage Monty Python and you have “The 39 Steps,” a hilarious whodunit, part espionage thriller and part slapstick comedy, adapted for the stage from the famous film and novel. Shots ring out across a crowded theatre and Richard Hannay is lured into a world of intrigue by a mysterious woman claiming to be a spy. When she winds up dead in his flat, he flees London with the police and a secret organization – called The 39 Steps – hot on his trail. A runaway hit in London and the winner of the 2007 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Comedy, this tongue-in-cheek thriller features four actors taking on more than 150 roles.

Hitchcock’s 1935 classic film “The 39 Steps” is considered one of the most popular British films of all time and was based on the best-selling 1915 novel by John Buchan. Adaptor Patrick Barlow is an English actor, comedian, playwright, and founder of the comedic National Theatre of Brent. His collaborator, the highly regarded British actress Maria Aitken (who helmed the London production) will direct the show. After its American premiere at the Huntington, “The 39 Steps” will be produced on Broadway by Bob Boyett.

“Brendan”
by Ronan Noone
Directed by Justin Waldman
Oct. 12 - Nov. 11, 2007
Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts

A recent Irish Immigrant, Brendan now calls Boston home. He misses his family but works hard to fit into his adopted country, earn his American citizenship, and find both love and meaning in his new life in this funny and touching premiere by acclaimed writer Ronan Noone.

Born and raised in Ireland, Huntington Playwriting Fellow Ronan Noone is quickly becoming one of America’s top young playwrights. His recent play “The Atheist” was part of the Huntington’s 2006 Breaking Ground Festival, and premiered in both New York and London. His other works include the acclaimed trilogy “The Lepers of Baile Baiste” (National Playwriting Award), “The Blowin of Baile Gall” (Elliot Norton Award for Best New Play), and “The Gigolo Confessions of Baile Breag.” "Brendan" was developed as part of the Huntington’s 2005 Breaking Ground Festival and received a student production by the Boston University School of Theatre Arts, also directed by Artistic Associate Justin Waldman, earlier this season.

“Streamers”
by David Rabe
Directed by Scott Ellis
Nov. 9 - Dec. 9, 2007
B.U. Theatre

In this powerful American masterpiece, four young soldiers fresh from boot camp anxiously await orders in 1965 Virginia, watching the Vietnam conflict escalate. As they struggle to make sense of their new life in the army, tensions rise over race, sexuality, and class, culminating in an explosive act that changes them forever. “Streamers” is an unflinching exploration of the turmoil and confusion facing young men threatened by forces beyond their control.

David Rabe is the Tony Award-winning author of “In the Boom Boom Room” and “Hurlyburly,” and screenplays for “The Firm,” “Casualties of War,” and “I’m Dancing As Fast as I Can.” Director Scott Ellis has received nine Tony and Drama Desk Award nominations and helmed the current Broadway hit “Curtains” starring David Hyde Pierce and Debra Monk, as well as “Twelve Angry Men” (Broadway and national tour), “1776,” “Steel Pier,” “The Little Dog Laughed,” and many more. The New York Times called “Streamers” “absolutely a knockout!”

“Third”
by Wendy Wasserstein
Director to be announced
Jan 4 - Feb 3, 2008
B.U. Theatre

Laurie Jameson is a revered, 54-year-old English professor at an elite New England college. A pioneer in her field, Laurie’s seemingly well-ordered life and career slowly become unhinged when she meets Woodson Bull III (whose friends call him “Third”), a conservative, wrestler-jock student. Laurie and Third face off in a series of confrontations over politics, ethics, and Shakespeare, forcing her to reevaluate many of her long-held beliefs.

“Third” is the final play from celebrated playwright Wendy Wasserstein, who drew upon her own life as inspiration for many of her works. She received the Pulitzer Prize, as well as Tony, Outer Critics Circle, and Drama Desk Awards for her 1989 play “The Heidi Chronicles.” Her other credits include “An American Daughter,” “Uncommon Women and Others,” and “The Sisters Rosensweig,” which Martin directed in 2005 to critical and popular acclaim. Wasserstein died last winter shortly after “Third” premiered at New York’s Lincoln Center Theatre.

“Shining City”
by Conor McPherson
Director to be announced
March 7 - April 6, 2008
B.U. Theatre

“Shining City” is set in Dublin, where a guilt-ridden man reaches out to a therapist after seeing the ghost of his recently deceased wife. At the same time, the therapist’s own relationship teeters on the brink. Originally produced at London’s Royal Court Theater to critical acclaim, “Shining City” transferred to Broadway in 2006 and landed on nearly all major critics’ top ten lists.

Irish playwright Conor McPherson took London and Broadway by storm with “Shining City.” It was nominated for three 2006 Tony Awards including Best Play. McPherson’s other plays include “The Weir,” “Rum and Vodka,” and “Dublin Carol,” and his many awards include the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play and the London Critics’ Circle Award.

“The Cry of the Reed”
by Sinan Unel
Director to be announced
March 28 - May 4, 2008
Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA

In this world premiere production, a journalist and her colleague find themselves unexpectedly detained by a band of insurgents as bombs rain down on a war-torn landscape. Her captors offer one telephone call – a chance to reconnect with the mother she hasn’t spoken to in ten years, who now lives in Turkey and is preparing for a festival celebrating the great Sufi poet Rumi. History and religion collide in this powerful, ripped-from-the-headlines portrait of a world at war.

Playwright Sinan Unel’s works have been produced in New York, Boston, New Haven, Los Angeles, London, Germany, and Australia. A former Huntington Playwriting Fellow, he is the winner of the John Gassner Memorial Award, the Daryl Roth Creative Spirit Award and the Lark Theater’s New Play Award. His other plays include “Pera Palas,” “Tolstoy’s Den,” “Thalassa My Heart” and “The Three of Cups.”

“She Loves Me”
Book by Joe Masteroff
Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick
Music by Jerry Bock
Based on a play by Miklos Laszlo
Directed by Nicholas Martin
May 16 – June 15, 2008
B.U. Theatre

“She Loves Me” is the perfect musical – warm and funny, with what’s considered one of the most beautiful scores in the American theatre. Acclaimed since its 1963 premiere and rediscovered in a hit 1993 Broadway revival, “She Loves Me” had captivated audiences for decades.

This romantic comedy is the story of two lovesick, anonymous pen pals who work together during the day, blissfully unaware they are writing to each other at night. Centering on these unlikely sweethearts and the eccentric colleagues who aid and abet them, “She Loves Me” is based on “Parfumerie,” the play that also inspired the Jimmy Stewart film “The Shop Around the Corner,” and the Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan film “You've Got Mail.”

Perhaps best known as the songwriting team behind “Fiddler on the Roof,” Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock's credits include the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning “Fiorello!,” “The Apple Tree,” “Tenderloin,” “The Rothchilds,” and “Cyrano - The Musical.” Joe Masteroff also wrote the book for the Kander and Ebb musicals “Cabaret” and “70, Girls, 70.” “She Loves Me” is the first major musical produced by the Huntington in six years, and the final directing assignment for Nicholas Martin in his role as Artistic Director.

SUBSCRIPTIONS
This year subscriptions for the Huntington’s 2007-2008 Season are more flexible and less expensive than before. Packages are available now in 4-, 5-, 6-, or 7-play increments. Subscription prices at all levels have been reduced, with packages that start as low as $100. As well, subscribers can now build their own ticket packages by choosing whichever shows they want to see.

Syrup of squirrels?

Surely there are many bookish types in 02138 and adjoining zips who'll be rushing online to book trips to the new Dickens World theme park in Chatham, England. Having done a Dickens project myself a few years back - I (re-)read most of the major novels and the big Peter Ackyod bio - I think I'd rather not. Rats and deprivation and debtor's prison, y'know. The park's formal opening date is uncertain anyway, due to some last-minute glitch with the "4-D animatronics." The official web site now says May 25. But still, it's kind of wonderful that such a place exists, I think.

B$O - they're kidding, right?

I've been otherwise engaged the last few days, but Geoff collects all the debate on the Boston Symphony Orchestra's budget shortfall and their decision to make up part of it by charging their volunteers $75 for the privilege of helping out. I'll just say that from here it looks insane.

RIP Kurt Vonnegut

Nothing particularly Hub-oriented about this post, although this obit notes that the great writer once paid his rent by selling Saabs on Cape Cod. However it's impossible to have come of age in the 1960s or '70s without having been influenced by Vonnegut's view of the world as terrible and absurd and hilarious and beautiful. I spoke with him a couple of times, most notably amid the absurd luxury of the TV press tour in Los Angeles one summer in the early 1990s. Showtime was making a rather good series of adaptations of his "Welcome to the Monkey House" stories, and he was to attend the cable network's publicity party at Wolfgang Puck's newest trendy West L.A. restaurant - I think it was a brewpub. A couple of colleagues and I (Shoutout to Duane, wherever you are!) managed to catch the first limo shuttle from the hotel to the party and quickly infiltrated the dining room, which was soon to be full of reporters and famous actors. We found the table where Vonnegut was to sit and, at my instigation, covertly disposed of the place cards of several prominent journalists and replaced them with our own. Vonnegut arrived late and grumped about the slow drink service until his assistant produced a pint of whiskey from her purse. Once he found out that we represented papers in and around Chicago, he cheered up considerably, regaling us with tales from his post-war days as a cub reporter at Chicago's legendary City News Bureau. I seem to recall that the key anecdote involved a tragic and absurd elevator accident, and a subsequent assignment to contact the next of kin and swipe a photo of the deceased. I may be conflating this with someone else's City News anecdote - we all had a few beverages that evening. But Vonnegut lived up to his billing.

Addendum: Thanks to Salon, you can hear Vonnegut read a selection from "Slaughterhouse Five" here.

Addendum II: You must read the New York Times obit, all the way to the end.

Addendum III: A quote from Andre Dubus III, when I interviewed him last year for the Globe. He recalled the days in the 1960s when his father brought the family along to the famed writing workshop at the University of Iowa...

''Every day this guy Kurt would come down from his house on our street to sit down with the four of us kids and watch 'Batman' in the afternoon, chain-smoking. Fill the room with his smoke. He'd say, 'I like False Face, who do you like?' 'I like the Riddler.' He was just kinda Uncle Kurt. But he was Kurt Vonnegut."

Calling for peace, loudly

The Globe's Sound Effects blog reports that some Boston musicians, including Rick Berlin, Roger Miller and Asa Brebner, are coming together to record an anti-war song.