So, I’m still living on the fumes of my April in New York City adventure.
Went to MOMA on 53rd St and saw the usual suspects – Cezanne, Picasso, Gauguin, Rothko, etc. But, then I went into a little room with the Van Gogh’s. I’ve always liked his work, but I had never seen them in person. They are all beautiful in an intense way.
Of course I’ve seen “Starry Night” in books, magazines, but, when looking close up, I noticed the coiled energy. The whirling stars look as it they are flying thru the air and about to explode. Just amazing.
“Starry Night”, Vincent Van Gogh, 1899
Museum of Modern Art, http://www.moma.org/
* I enjoyed seeing “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”. Unfortunately, James Earl Jones was absent from his role as “Big Daddy” (made famous by Burl Ives in the 50’s movie of the same name), but the rest of the cast, directed by the talented Debbie Allen – Terrence Howard, Phylicia Rashad and Giancarlo Esposito – do a great job with this Tennessee Williams play about a southern family with lots of secrets and lots of lies.
Tony award winner Anika Noni Rose, the “cat” on the heated roof, is terrific as she fights with and for her man – from the opening curtain to the final scene, she radiates and sparkles. She is a star!
Big Daddy: “What’s that smell in this room? Didn’t you notice it, Brick? Didn’t you notice the powerful and obnoxious odor of mendacity in this room?”
“Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”, Broadhurst Theater, NYC
*And, I saw the marvelous Laurence Fishburne in “Thurgood”. Only 90 minutes, the play takes the audience thru personal and historic events of the life of the first African American Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall.
Written by George Stevens and directed by Leonard Foglia, “Thurgood” highlights how the man called “Mister Civil Rights” in the 1950’s, used the law to effect change.
The play follows him from childhood, thru his dangerous and stubborn excursions into the South to register black voters, to his successes with anti segregation legislation and then thru his 20 years on the court.
Fishburne delivers, not just an historic figure but, an accomplished, complex man. Great stories, great events some human and funny, others just make you proud.
“Thurgood”, Booth Theatre, NYC