Here it comes – the moment when all the bloggers you visit try and entice you to keep coming back with our promises of things to come. Some of my plans are rather amorphous: I hope to do some spiffing up of the site itself so that Ah Sweet Mystery will be better organized, sport … Continue reading BITING OFF MORE . . . (My 2022 Resolutions)
Plays
SPIELBERG’S WEST SIDE STORY: Update or Improvement?
In 1957, when live theatre still rivaled movies for social relevance, and the latest Tin Pan Alley songs burst through the radio and were hummed everywhere, Broadway was teeming with musicals. Considering that the heyday of musical theatre was the 1930’s-1940’s, what’s interesting is how experimental the major composers got. Lerner and Loewe’s Brigadoon enchanted audiences with its … Continue reading SPIELBERG’S WEST SIDE STORY: Update or Improvement?
BEATING PUZZLE DOCTOR AND KATE TO THE PUNCH: The 2021 Mystery of the Year
It’s February 28, and I know exactly what you’re doing: you’re waiting with bated breath for 306 more days to go by, the amount of time it will for the Puzzle Doctor and Kate at Cross Examining Crime to finish sifting through the respective books they’ve read all year (about 2000 for PD, and 6953 … Continue reading BEATING PUZZLE DOCTOR AND KATE TO THE PUNCH: The 2021 Mystery of the Year
FAST FORWARDING INTO ‘21
“Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent.” (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Complete Adventures of Sherlock Holmes) Does anybody want to hear me vent about 2020? Because, you know, I can do it, and I will . . . that is, if anyone wants to listen. To be honest, however, … Continue reading FAST FORWARDING INTO ‘21
A CENTURY OF AGATHA CHRISTIE, PART TWO: The Glittering 1930’s
“They say all the world loves a lover – apply that saying to murder and you have an even more infallible truth. No one can fail to be interested in a murder.” The Murder at the Vicarage (1930) WORKS Seventeen Novels (as Agatha Christie) The Murder at the Vicarage (1930) The Sittaford Mystery (1931) Peril at End House (1932) … Continue reading A CENTURY OF AGATHA CHRISTIE, PART TWO: The Glittering 1930’s
IMAGINE POIROT SINGING: A Look at That Rarest of Things, the Mystery Musical
Here it is, the middle of January, the perfect time to start making your summer plans! Seriously, my Seasonal Affective Disorder is kicking up, and having something to look forward to can really cheer you during these dreary days. This summer, I’m visiting two of my favorite cities. First stop is London, where I will … Continue reading IMAGINE POIROT SINGING: A Look at That Rarest of Things, the Mystery Musical
IT DON’T MEAN A THING IF YOU SLAY WITH NO SWING: Finding Murderous Inspiration from the Great American Songbook
When I’m at work, teaching drama students and musical theatre students and film students and credit recovery students (don’t ask!) and producing two musicals and one play a year and acting as department co-chair for the Visual and Performing Arts . . . well, there doesn’t seem to be much time for Golden Age anything! … Continue reading IT DON’T MEAN A THING IF YOU SLAY WITH NO SWING: Finding Murderous Inspiration from the Great American Songbook
GAD = GORY AND DARK: Sarah Phelps Takes On the Establishment
The latest BBC rendition of an Agatha Christie classic , 1936’s The ABC Murders, has just dropped onto Amazon Prime. Now we forward-thinking Americans can add our two cents to the European reaction over Sarah Phelps’ treatment of the Mistress of Mystery. (I believe the words “Burn the witch and her laptop!” have been uttered in … Continue reading GAD = GORY AND DARK: Sarah Phelps Takes On the Establishment
THEATRICAL OCTET, PART FOUR: Strangers in a Strange Land
I went to New York this summer under the apprehension that the theatre world was in a bit of trouble. Tourism has been down in the Big Apple for several years now, and the high box office numbers point not to full houses and a play in every house but to exhorbitant ticket prices at … Continue reading THEATRICAL OCTET, PART FOUR: Strangers in a Strange Land
THEATRICAL OCTET, PART THREE: Social Upheaval on Broad
We view art through a lens that includes social context. It’s the reason you can see a movie or a painting or a play multiple times and have different reactions. As I explained yesterday, two classics became problem plays in light of the raucous atmosphere that has been generated over the past year and a … Continue reading THEATRICAL OCTET, PART THREE: Social Upheaval on Broad
Ah Sweet Mystery! 