Book Reviews

A lot has been happening with our trip to Paris and dealing with bank fraud, so here are some quick book reviews:

The Land and Its People by David Sedaris: (Bought at the Strand for $10): A return to whimsy for David Sedaris. After dealing with the death of his father and the suicide of his sister in Calypso and Happy-Go-Lucky, he is back to complaining about the DuoLingo app, dog bites, moving furniture, theoretically eating truck tires, and other trivia. I needed something fast and light and this was it.

The Best American Short Stories: 2024: (Ordered from Amazon): Bought for my short-story class. My favorite was Lori Ostlund's Just Another Family. A young lesbian woman returns to her disapproving mother when her father passes away. It felt very real. Suzanne Wang's Mall of America was also entertaining and well-written. An AI system is the narrator and ironically is more empathic than the humans it works for. Some of the stories were a bit hard to fathom such as Paul Yoon's Valley of the Moon as overly didactic such as Jim Shepard's Privilege. But over all a fine, varied collection.

The Art Spy (Amazon): The final assignment for my online Book Group, Michelle Young's fascinating non-fiction portrait of Rose Valland, the French resistance worker who documented the Nazis' grand theft of her country's artistic treasures. She worked at the Jeu du Paume museum as the German occupied France and stole thousands of paintings, sculptures, and furniture. There is also a subplot of the son of a Jewish art dealer joining the Allied Army and eventually marching into Paris and retaking the capital from Hitler's goons. It was especially meaningful to read this while I was in Paris and touring the very places mentioned in the book. Full of detailed research and written like a spy thriller. The most exciting part was the final chapters as the Allies march into the capital and Rose has only one thought: to protect the art that remains in her care.

B'way Update: The Odd Couple with Steve Carell and John C. Reilly

Steve Carell and John C. Reilly will star in a new production of Neil Simon's classic comedy The Odd Couple beginning previews at  the Stephen Sondheim Theater on March 3, 2027 at the Stephen Sondheim Theater, opening on March 23. Tony winner Thomas Kail (Hamilton, Sweeney Todd) directs.

Joining Carell as Felix Ungar and Reilly as Oscar Madison are Tony Award winner Laura Benanti (Gypsy, She Loves Me, My Fair Lady) as Gwendolyn Pigeon; Tony Award nominee Kevin Del Aguila (Some Like It Hot) as Roy; Tony Award winner JamesMonroe Iglehart (Disney’s Aladdin, Hamilton, A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical) as Murray; Tony Award nominee Rob McClure (Chaplin, Mrs. Doubtfire) as Vinnie; Heléne Yorke (American Psycho, Bullets Over Broadway) as Cecily Pigeon; and Tony Award nominee David Zayas (Cost of Living) as Speed.

The Odd Couple, Simon's comedy of two mismatched divorced men sharing an apartment, opened on Broadway in 1965 with Walter Matthau and Art Carney and ran for 964 performances. Simon rewrote a new version with female leads in 1985 which starred Rita Moreno and Sally Struthers. The 1968 film version starred Matthau and Jack Lemmon. A 2005 revival was headlined by Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick. Jack Klugman and Tony Randall played Oscar and Felix in the long-running TV series and there were two subsequent TV versions as well as a cartoon series featuring a sloppy dog and a fussy cat voiced by Paul Winchell and Frank Nelson.

B'way Update: Jessica Chastain in Lost Lear

Jessica Chastain, Corey Stoll and
Michael Urie will star in Lost Lear.

Oscar winner Jessica Chastain returns to Broadway in Lost Lear, a new play by Dan Colley which previously played Dublin in 2022 and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2025. Colley directs a cast which also includes Drama Desk winner Michael Urie and Golden Globe nominee Corey Stoll. Performances begin March 29 at the Booth Theater prior to an April 23 opening.

Chastain will play Joy, an actress suffering from early-onset dementia convinced she is in rehearsals to play King Lear. Urie is her nurse who enacts various roles in her delusion and Stoll enacts her estranged son Conor who must step into the drama as well.

"I never imagined, when we first made Lost Lear, that it would one day be on Broadway—and I've imagined some pretty wild things," says Colley in a statement. "I'm so thrilled to have the opportunity to share this piece with New York audiences and to discover new facets of the work through collaborating with this remarkable company of artists."

Lost Lear in Dublin.

Off-B'way Review: We'll See; Ms. Blakk for President

Jay O. Sanders, Sally Murphy, 
Laila Robbins and Maryann Plunkett in
We'll See.
Credit: Joan Marcus

After a hiatus of six years, Richard Nelson’s Apple family has returned. We last saw them on Zoom with three plays in 2020 during the COVID pandemic and Nelson had stated there would be no more Apple plays. Fortunately, he has written an update to take us into the Trump era. The new work We’ll See takes place on Nov. 3, 2026 and the four Apple siblings and the girlfriend of the only brother have gathered together in the tiny upstate New York village of Rhinebeck to share political observations, catch up on family news and offer a snapshot of our divided country. Like Nelson’s previous plays in this cycle of works which followed the Apples, the Gabriels and the Michaels through upheavals both personal and societal, the evening features little in the way of plot or conflict, is full of small, piercing moments and endeavors to show how large events effect everyday lives with quiet insight, compassion, and telling details. It’s like a visit with old friends and an unsparing survey of our fractured union.

Nelson began this cycle of plays known as the Rhinebeck Panorama in 2010 (all presented at the Public Theater except for the Zoom plays). Most of the same actors have returned, delivering the same understated, yet deeply subtextual performances, staged by Nelson with quiet reserve. The five characters are nervously eating a meal on the night of the midterms. They have vowed not to check their phones for election results or to mention the name of a certain occupant of the White House who they regard as the source  of their country’s perhaps irreversible downward slide. “So much seems so inhuman these days,” they complain. 

Though Trump’s name is never specifically uttered, his perverse influence on the national psyche hovers over the conversations like a dark cloud. Barbara (Maryann Plunkett, superb at conveying repressed rage and frustration) relates the fear of ICE experienced by her ESL students at the classes she voluntarily teaches. She is also bitter over her forced retirement as a public school teacher for an incident with a student fueled by polarizing political rancor. Jane (vibrant Sally Murphy) discusses her difficult decision not to vote since she sees such public participation as futile, as well as her strained relationship with her boyfriend and his adult daughter (they all are living together in a cramped Brooklyn apartment). Marian (slyly subtle Laila Robbins), also a teacher, has had to sell her home and move in with Barbara since she could not afford property taxes.

A Week in Paris

Despite reports that violent student demonstrations were wrecking havoc in the French capital, we went ahead with our plans to visit our friends who now live in the Paris suburb of Sceaux (pronounced So) with their eight-year-old son, for a week. The protests were only taking place on weekends, so we were pretty safe from any potential danger as long as we stayed away from the city on Saturday. We arrived on a Tuesday morning and got the train from the Charles De Gaulle airport. Note: customs and immigration were much easier than getting into American airports. All we had to do was scan our passports, stand still for a photo and we were in. 

With James and Russell at
Disneyland Paris.

After a three-hour nap from jet lag our hosts served us dinner and I had trouble sleeping that night. But I somehow felt alert enough to get up at 7AM the next morning for a trip to Disneyland Paris with our host Russell and his son James. It was a 90-minute journey on two trains to the last stop in time to arrive at 930AM just as the park was opening. Smaller than Disney World in Florida, the Paris edition of the park is more manageable. Right away, we got on line for Hyperspace Mountain which was like being shot out of a canon in the dark. This was followed by Star Tours with C3P0 and Darth Vader speaking in French as we boarded a space craft, erratically piloted by the nervous droid. I had been on this ride in Disney World in Florida. After a quick lunch we did Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast which involves shooting aliens and scoring points. We left Discoveryland and headed for Frontierland where we waited in a long line for the Haunted Mansion. I think there were variations on the iteration I rode on in Florida with haunted Wild West town amid the spooks. Same with our next attraction Mickey's Phil-harmonic, a 3-D cartoon featuring Donald Duck slipping into various Disney pictures while chasing a magic conductor's baton. Coco and The Little Mermaid may be new additions.

Kennedy Center Honors Not Quite as Whacky This Year

Playwright David Mamet is among this
year's not-totally bizarre Kennedy Center 
Honors list

The Kennedy Center Honors for 2026 have been announced and they are not quite as nutty as last year's, the first group of Trump's insane takeover of the formerly revered arts center. The previous honorees included dubious choices such as KISS, Sylvester Stallone, Gloria Gaynor and Michael Crawford, who sole qualification seemed to be starring in Trumpy's favorite musical Phantom of the Opera almost 40 years ago. While the 2026 winners are also MAGA friendly, at least they are not totally without artistic merit. David Mamet is a Jan. 6 apologist, has been spouting right-wing diatribes lately, and his recent theatrical output has been not top drawer (China Doll, The Anarchist), but he is a Pulitzer Prize recipient and has had many important works including Glengarry Glen Ross and American Buffalo. Trump probably likes that he includes a lot of swear words in his plays.

Paul Anka has contributed many standard songs to pop culture including that immortal Kodak commercial jingle "Good Morning, Yesterday" and he's also allowed Trump to alter the lyric of his classic "My Way" to reference Mara-Lago. Andy Garcia? What's the last movie he was in that anyone heard of? His most recent credits are the third remake of Father of the Bride for HBO, Expendables 4 and some episodes of Landman. Probably they couldn't find another actor with any degree of name recognitions to accept. Garcia is from Cuba and vehemently anti-Communist which qualifies for this honor. The list is rounded out by the now-obligatory country-music choice Barbara Mandrell and music producer David Foster, a personal friend of Trump's who turned down organizing the music for Trump's first inauguration but has since put on shows for Mara-Lago fundraisers.

Surprisingly there was no Kelsey Grammar, Nikki Minaj, Roseanne, Scott Baio or Kid Rock.

For the first time, the awards will not be presented at the center itself which Orange Cheeto has vowed to keep closed until his name can be put on the facade despite court orders to the contrary. Trump hosted last year's debacle which received the lowest ratings in its history. It's not clear if the Prez will host again but CBS still plans to broadcast the event which will be held at the cavernous Capitol One arena. I might hate-watch again. It can't be worse that least year's.

Off-B'way Review: Degenerates; The Hairy Ape

Zachary Desmond and Christopher Dylan White
in Degenerates.
Credit: Jackie Abbott

Though they were written a century apart, Else Went’s Degerenates (at Playwrights Horizons) and Eugene O’Neill’s The Hairy Ape (now in revival at Irish Repertory Theater) both address the alienation of young men and their resultant violence and self-destruction. Whether it’s Went’s outraged online community of incels (involuntary celebrates) or O’Neill brutish coal stoker Yank, the anger engendered by their feeling of being left behind by the larger culture leads to the same frustration and desire to strike back. Both playwrights document their blind rage and aching need with compassion and depth in productions staged with imagination and prickly fire.

Went’s frightening vision of isolated, screen-obsessed youths takes place in a fractured void where communication in real life, or IRL as the characters would say, is rare and potentially dangerous. Significantly, we first encounter them as voices in the dark. The despondent Kemp (a brilliantly devastated Tyler Nowell Felix), friendless and unable to attract a girlfriend, desperately phones a suicide prevention hotline. His aching need to be loved is unrelieved by the anonymous counselor on the other end (Olivia Rose Barressi plays all the females roles). After Kemp howls out his anger and sorrow, we enter into the cyber world of his fellow incels, spewing venom and disgust at women for rejecting them. Mikiko Suzuki MacAdams’ splintered set depicts the stark environment of these frustrated souls. Miller (intensely snarling and magnetic Zachary Desmond) inhabits a barren basement apartment in his parents’ house while girly, agoraphobic Target (sympathetic and sweet Christopher Dylan White) snuggles in a nest of plush stuffed animals and a riot of anime posters. In a group chat with Miller and Target, Kemp is still unseen as is Serge (Juan Arturo) who is rejected from the group when it’s revealed he is divorced and has a child, meaning unlike his online misogynist compatriots, he has had sex.

The dynamic between Miller, Target and Kemp shifts several times throughout the play as they seek comfort from each other and then push away when they get too close. Went treats these sometimes nasty, sometimes relatable guys with a balanced hand. We see their sexist, racist rage but also the cruel treatment they’ve received. Miller and Kemp recount horrific childhood encounters with girls that still pain them. Like Anne Washburne in her play Anon, Went depicts a culture where people are unable to exist without validation from social media. At one point, Target watches and rewatches coming out as trans to his sister as if to confirm the experience really happened.