Saturday, November 18, 2000
The animator of worlds
[on Wullschlager's biography of Hans Christian Andersen]
An unmarried man, without family of his own, he was dependent, emotionally and physically, on others until the day of his death, demanding assurance, consolation, praise and home comforts. In his sixties, he was described by an English visitor to one of his surrogate families as "a child ... entirely egotistical, innocently vain, the centre of life, interest, concern and meaning to himself". And after his death the great Danish critic, Georg Brandes, perhaps the first to appreciate quite how extraordinary and innovative his stories were, wrote that "Andersen's mind was wholly filled by himself".
Books Unlimited
posted by Marco Graziosi 6:41 AM
Friday, November 17, 2000
Counter Culture - The dialogue stars in You Can Count on Me. The 6th Day thinks through cloning and capitalism. Why'd they bother with How the Grinch Stole Christmas? by David Edelstein
The new, live-action How the Grinch Stole Christmas doesn't settle for this biological-determinist interpretation of the Grinch's misanthropy. It takes a humanistic approach and gives the Grinch a lengthy "back story." See, he had some genetic problems (deformity, green pallor, a tendency to munch on glass bottles) but was also teased and driven into exile—which makes him clearly redeemable.
Slate
posted by Marco Graziosi 2:06 PM
'Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas': And He Clucked, 'What a Faaabulous Trick'
The movie is so clogged with kooky gadgetry and special effects and glitter and goo that watching it feels like being gridlocked at Toys "R" Us during the Christmas rush. Both the film and its omnivorous star, Jim Carrey, who seems to change voices every few seconds, come at you from so many directions at once that half the time you don't know where to look or how to react.
The New York Times
posted by Marco Graziosi 3:19 AM
Tuesday, November 14, 2000
Seussical
Seussical, the Musical, , produced here in Boston, but warming up to open at the Richard Rodgers Oct. 15th in NYC, is currently something like what hatches from the egg that moon-faced Kevin Chamberlin (Horton) keeps warm through most of the show; it looks something like an elephant, but has wings. The show is a dizzying compilation of Dr. Seuss favorites revolving around faithful Horton's two major adventures involving two disparate worlds; his home, the outrageous Jungle of Nool, inhabited by birds and beasts only the good doctor could have imagined, and the tiny dust-mote world of the Who, which only an elephant can hear. His tribulations, as he holds fast to two mottos known to most early readers; "A person's a person, no matter how small" and "I meant what I said, and I said what I meant, An elephant's faithful, One-Hundred percent." keep the show moving forward, somewhat fitfully.
Aisle Say (Boston)
posted by Marco Graziosi 5:57 AM
Seussical The Musical
The official home page for the musical discussed in the NY Times Review below.
posted by Marco Graziosi 5:46 AM
Is There a Dr. in the House for 'Seussical'?
How the charmed musical that could do no wrong turned into the "troubled Suessical" that could do no right has become a parable about how much Broadway has changed. What in the past might have gone unremarked as a new show's routinely bumpy road to Broadway instead became a matter for public scrutiny.
The New York Times
posted by Marco Graziosi 5:12 AM
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