Author Archives: Christopher Arnott

In two recent columns, Miss Manners—arbiter of etiquette for those who need to align traditional values with present-day realities—has addressed crowd behavior at the legitimate theater. I find her advice heartening, In a May column, one of the syndicated columnist’s many “gentle readers” asked “When is one obliged to join a standing ovation?” This was … Continue reading »

As ever, these stage-oriented strips are drawn from the invaluable resources at GoComics (http://www.gocomics.com) anDaily Ink (http://dailyink.com), two sites to which I heartily suggest you subscribe. I put the Ripley’s Believe It or Not item in here because Jean-Paul Sartre was given the prize for Literature, not philosophy, and his personal favorite writings appeared to … Continue reading »

“In this house? This same house?” “Yes, my great-aunt bought it cheaply. Probably because of what happened here during the Siege of Gotham City.” “Uh, the realtor didn’t mention anything.” “You don’t know what happened in this house? This is where Deputy Commissioner Cody cowered behind his wife instead of leading his officers against Bane.” … Continue reading »

  The Long Wharf is doing another Summer Youth Theater Shake It Up Shakespeare project in late August. Only one this year—last year they did a modern musical drama, Threads of a Spider Web, and a pop-fueled take on Hamlet. This time it’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream scored with early rock & roll hits such … Continue reading »

The play reading I helped set up at the Institute Libarary July 21 went very well, thanks. The audience was bigger than we’d expected, for a reading of a new play on a balmy Saturday in New Haven during summer break. The listeners were not only attentive but full of constructive comments which the playwright, … Continue reading »

The run of Carousel at Goodspeed Opera House has barely begun, and now is contending with a major cast change. Teal Wicks, who’s been playing Julie Jordan–the young seamstress smitten with the lowlife Billy Bigelow who runs the show’s titular merry-go-round, has gotten a national touring gig with the revival of Frank Wildhorn’s Jekyll & … Continue reading »

I met this guy Lou Harry about a year ago. We were both part of an Annenberg/NEA fellowship where dozens of theater critics spend a fortnight creating a website in L.A. and bombarding the arts scene there with reviews and snarky commentary. We kept in touch. Lou lives in Indiana, where he’s the Arts Editor … Continue reading »

From the Forever Nuts/Classic Screwball Strips compilation of Bud Fisher’s immortal Mutt & Jeff (NBM Publishing, 2007).

The Ben Allison Band with Robert Pinsky 8 p.m. June 27 in Morse Recital Hall, Yale. Part of the Music at Dusk series of the 2012 International Festival of Arts & Ideas.   I balked at writing about the Robert Pinsky/Ben Allison concert here; this is my theater blog, and my opinions of the music … Continue reading »

Circa Presented by the International Festival of Arts & Ideas through June 30 at the Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School, New Haven. http://artidea.org/ DirectorL Yaron Lifschitz. Associate Director: Ben Knapton. Producer: Danielle Kellie. Tour manager/director: Diane Stern. Technical Director/Lighting Designer: Jason Organ. Costume Designer: Libby McDonnell. Performers: Valerie Doucet, Casey Douglas, Freyja Edney, Darcy … Continue reading »