notanotherbookreview

Life scrolls ever more quickly. It's almost January 2025 yet I still recall the surprise of SKYSCRAPER (Urban Stages November 7-17, 2024), the freshness of this 1960s piece (book by Peter Stone, lyrics by Sammy Cahn and music by James Van Heusen.)  After many years of existing only in memory and writing, this  SKYSCRAPER  was the first live onstage revival, since its Broadway debut in 1965.  Multiple collaborators-- Regeneration Theatre , Combustion Collective and Nelda Yaw Buckman  wanted to produce this show, a short run in a small storefront theater on 30th St. Why? This was not a showcase for a bigger production. Economies of scale enriched the focus of this show, on target for its era and ours. Groups dancing seemed to defy our time and the small stage.   SKYSCRAPER was a successful musical with 248 performances, 5 Tony nominations, including "Best Musical." The ballad, "I'll only miss her when I think of her, " was a hit for Sina...

ARIANE  a Russian Girl  by Claude Anet  (New York Review of Books ) is set in 1920s provincial Russia, though its teen heroine's attitude toward men is pure pop diva. Yet in this time and place, men might rule women from birth to death, but Ariane's life was her own. Her aunt may be an influence, a rare educated woman and a physician, who's chosen to pursue a happy single life.. Then past 40, Ariane is shocked to see her proud aunt humilated, ruined by "romantic love." Weaponizing her beauty and intelligence,  Ariane becomes popular among men of her class, young and old with money and titles, who assume she is marriageable. Yet, the only expectations she entertains are to pursue her education at the university in Moscow.  When her final exams are "brilliant," and she's accepted by the elite Moscow university, Ariane's thrilled, though her father to pay.  He demands she arrive at his home and prepare to marry his friend. Legally, at 17, Ariane...

  THE COAT CHECK GIRL by Laura Buchwald (10/22, Roan & Weatherford) is an absorbing metaphysical mystery set in 1999 New York City, with Y2K fears of computer collapse. At the "Bistrot," long a downtown destination,  the "countdown" underscored the staff's insecurity about the restaurant's future. Despite the rich mahogany and red leather booths, business was down, despite regulars of many years, tourists, and occasional  celebrities, like John F/ Kennedy Jr. and his lovely wife. Such visits were decreasing, thought Josie, as she surveyed the empty room. It was early yet and she thought with compassions of Sylvie, a regular, who seemed to be teetering on senility, mixing up the present and yesteryear.  Jose's welcome was warm and professional. She was quick to see to customers' needs. And she was cheerful, despite her own anxiety. At 29, Josie mourned her lost dreams for a fuller life. She was not the only one. Many of the older staff, identified...

                                                                   "Bagatelles" a minimalist novel, one of five short prose  sequences, was published in Peter Cherches' 2013 collection " Lift Your Right Arm , was first published with other microfictions in Cherches' uniquely inspired 1986 collection,  Condensed book.  What we now think of as  "Flash Fiction" in Cherches' explorations conjure the humorous uncanny experiences of being alive, a person in a body on this planet--with the concision of a 30-second advertising spot.  In EVERYTHING HAPPENS TO ME  ( September 12, Pelekinesis Books) Cherches' work explores the surreality of everyday situations that are and aren't what you think. Suppose, out of the corner of your eye, you glimpse something you can'...

  THE BRONZE BOY by Nancy Hamada, directed by Todd Faulkner. Cast included August Kiss Fegley, Nicole Greevy and Todd Faulkner. The production was showcased in "East of Edinburgh" at 59 E.59th Street, one of 6 plays selected for Edinburgh's Fringe Festival. The 59th Street venue offered an opportunity to stage shows prior to the festival. It's an unusual opportunity in the United States. Unlike Britain, there is no National Theater to provide festival opportunities for new plays, let alone venues to showcase them.  THE BRONZE BOY is a surprisingly funny, nuanced and serious play about America's love-hate relationship with guns, explored in a road trip. This meandering journey on our highways is a visit to our hidden gun culture. We see headlines in America, telegraphed shots of life and death madness, but rarely stories of our subterranean inheritance. Our relationship to guns is largely ignored in news culture, which emphasizes senselessness over the hidden ...

                                                                  IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE won the Noble Prize for Sinclair Lewis in 1930s for his postwar dystopia, where the fascist threat isn't external but home-grown.   The book is free at libraries or guttenberg.com.  Local bookstores probably have on "classics" shelves.  Amazon may be cheap and convenient, though never free. (Below is adapted from Wikipedia): Plot : In It Can't Happen Here   by American author Sinclair Lewis  an American politician, Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip, quickly rises to power to become the country's first outright dictator.  Doremus Jessup, a newspaper editor, early on sees Windrip's fascist  policies for what they are and becomes his most ardent critic.  Se...