- Nora Ephron, Jonathan Tunick, George C. Wolfe, and Frank Rich debating musicals.
- Phil Rosenthal, Nina Tassler, Adam Scott, and Damon Lindelof debating TV, including Adam Scott's admission that he has a Gossip Girl addiction.
- Will Leitch facilitating the roundtable on athletes.
- A bunch of architecture-types discussing buildings.
- A ton of one-shots, including Felix Rohatyn on financiers, Pat Kiernan on local news anchors, Thurston Moore on rock shows, and Reggie Watts on stand-up comics.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
IMMA LET YOU FINISH BUT...: This week's New York is well worth picking up, with a series of roundtable discussions on "the greatest New York ________ of all time" including:
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It's interesting that when it came to musicals it was Greatest Musical Ever To Be Performed In NYC rather than the narrower, and perhaps more easily discussed Greatest Musical About NYC ... and where was Rent in the discussion, anyway?
ReplyDelete(Regardless: Guys and Dolls wins.)
Under which category? Besides, the immediate dismissal of Assassins in the first damn line of the piece renders a lot of the discussion moot. (Seriously, over discussing things like Carousel or Caroline? Feh.)
ReplyDeleteThe discussion of Caroline or Change is particularly unfair given that one of the panelists directed the original production and another was a critic who helped push it toward its ill-fated Broadway run.
ReplyDeleteThere's also been some backlash against Rent because it was so commercially successful, because the film was a mess, and becuse parts of it have already dated pretty severely.
That said, I've not much of a problem with their top 3 (with the caveat that I only know Gypsy by the soundtrack, leaving aside trying to watch the movie for 10 minutes and having the same reaction that Sondheim talks about in Finishing The Hat that Rosalind Russell was not made to play working class characters, even if she is in my favorite comedy of all time, His Girl Friday).
ReplyDeleteNot to mention that I have a bone to pick with disses on the score of A Chorus Line!! The original cast album is a mess, but mostly because it is too hard for many of the individual singers attached to the songs. God I hope I get it! Come on.
ReplyDeleteThe TV roundtable was funny but no mention of The Jeffersons or The Cosby Show?
ReplyDeleteMaybe that is a reflection of who was at the table.
The irritated exchange between Stern and everybody else about good citizenship in architecture is both predictable and amusing. I would think they would all agree about the High Line, though.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, there's no doubt at all that you can have a discussion like this about NYC - most NY building, artist, musical, etc. Even if your (my) first reaction is "oh, Jesus, NY masturbation again," the truth is that there is plenty to talk about. But the justification would be just as legitimate (bearing in mind some different topics) about Chicago or LA. If somebody put together a similar discussion about Chicago, it feels like people would call it parochialism, and if somebody put together a similar discussion about LA, everybody would roll their eyes. Which is kind of comical to me, because it is just comical to me for people to dismiss or diminish the roles of those two cities in American culture.
ReplyDeleteRegarding Adam's comment about best musical about NYC, I agree with Guys and Dolls, but I would still consider for various reasons, focuses, time periods, etc.:
ReplyDeleteCompany
West Side Story
Rent
Avenue Q
And add to a "should still be remembered though not in the top 5"
A Chorus Line
Thoroughly Modern Millie
In the Heights
On the Town
Dance for Grandma! Dance for Grandma!
ReplyDeleteI'd wanted to see ITH before it closed, but didn't have a chance to (I was going to go on the 2nd, but they sold out as I got to the ticket window). Regret that. And Millie is underrated on this front in particular.
ReplyDeleteYes, Millie is underrated in terms of representation of NY. And I might add Funny Girl and Hello Dolly to the list, except neither take place exclusively in NY, but both have a very NY feel. And as much as it kills me, Annie might be on the NY list, as well, though not in the top 5.
ReplyDeleteThe idea that Archie Bunker could only be from New York struck me as about the dumbest thing I've ever heard. But the failure to consider the Cosby show, especially, was pretty shocking in light of the fact they did discuss race in an oblique way by talking about All in the Family. They also overlooked both Sesame Street and Johnny Staccato, the 1950s John Cassavettes series staring the auteur as a jazz piano player who moonlights as a private detective. Highly entertaining if you can get your hands on it.
ReplyDeleteMost surprising omission to me was Man of La Mancha. That's a hell of a show.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Adam's original comment - the whole discussion was strange, because they were really just discussing the greatest musical that appeared in NY (and pretty much all musicals have), rather than "the best New York musical." In the sections of the magazine on television, movies and novels, they all stuck with the setting - and the ability to capture something essentially "New York" - was key to picking the winners. Here, they just discussed musicals.
ReplyDeleteMy list of New York musicals would definitely include Avenue Q, Rent, Guys and Dolls, West Side Story, and Company (which is not one of my favorite musicals, but which I think captures very well a certain kind of New York).
In a smaller section, a critic names the theme song from The Jeffersons as the best song about New York.
ReplyDelete