Posted 6:21 PM by Gene

Terry Teachout has been gloating about the new AH-pe-RA he and Mr. Moravec are concocting, for a Philadelphia AH-pe-RA company: "a backstage comedy--we call it a vaudeville--about the making of Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring." You may not have wanted to call it a vaudeville, Terry -- but regardless this sounds like an upcoming movee we gritted our teeth over called My Week with Marilyn. That one features impersonations of MM and Larry Olivier; this one features impersonations of "Stravinsky, Sergei Diaghilev, Vaslav Nijinsky, and Pierre Monteux". Even granting it's easier to impersonate Pierre Monteux than MM or Larry as no one's likely to know who the hell he was this is still an impersonation -- and in some ways Terry 'n' Paul's is worse because they're tracking the well-worn rut of one of the most famous works of the concert hall and the ballet, making this a virtual equivalent of an MM or Larry impersonation. And pray tell what kind of ear-wax-cleaning sounds has Paul devised here? More wax is more likely. Our culture stinks when it must rely heavily on impersonations as a substitute for inspiration; judging from the raves accorded T 'n' P's first masterpiece their work will be lucky to last the length of the four fastest bars in, say, Petrushka.

But as the above photo categorically demonstrates that does NOT make an MM impersonation any better.

P. S. As I was saying....