EPISODE 1003 THE TALE OF THE MAGICAL DETECTIVE FAIRY
Also: What George Gershwin can do in 5 weeks.
POP CULTURE SPIRIT WOW
Hi and welcome back to Pop Culture Spirit Wow. This week: Rhapsodies! Snowfall! The new Must See TV is…big handbags? And hey, don’t hit Amber!
YOUR MONTH OF MARDI GRAS: RHAPSODY
As per my correction last week, you are all entitled to a month of Mardi Gras, which you may very well in need if you spend any time looking at the news (I do not recommend this ha ha.)
If you are looking for things to include in your month, I want to highlight again that Wednesday is the 101st anniversary of the debut of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” in New York.
“Rhapsody” has a wild origin story: In January of 1924, Gershwin was hanging out with some friends at a bar in New York City. Someone had the next day’s paper, and in it Gershwin read that he was one of a number of musicians who would be debuting new work in five weeks’ time, in honor of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. He was supposedly writing a “jazz concerto,” he read; but he had never heard anything about this.
When he confronted bandleader Paul Whiteman, who was behind the concert and had made the announcement that Gershwin was participating, Whiteman insisted he just needed a piano score, that would be enough. Eventually Gershwin agreed, and provided a lot more than that.
“Rhapsody” was one of those songs that absolutely changed my feelings about orchestral music. I just had never heard anything symphonic that was so alive, so visual and cinematic. United Airlines has made it so well known that it’s really ******** our ears when it comes to being able to actually hear it. If you can, take the chance to listen to the whole thing. This 2017 performance by the Orchestre National de Lyon, featuring pianist, Khatia Buniatishivlli, is pretty incredible.
I’ve always felt like the song belongs set to dance, so over the weekend I was looking for performances. I came across two really interesting ones. This one, choreographed by Sarah Chou and performed by the Harvard Ballet Company in 2018, puts the whole song to movement.
This, from Il Centro Coreografico Nazionale/Aterballeto, with choreography by Iratxe Ansa and Igor Bagovich, takes just 6 minutes or so off the song. It’s fascinating to see just how different it is—it’s like watching a flock of birds or fans at a soccer game (with a crazy lady from HSN in the middle—you’ll see).
One other fun fact I learned about the song (from this article): The gorgeous clarinet solo which opens the piece was not written by Gershwin. In rehearsal his clarinetist played it as a little joke, and Gershwin liked it so much he kept it.
DON’T HIT AMBER
I spent last weekend at BroadwayCon, a yearly convention of talks and events for fans of Broadway. A great story I heard there, from trombonist who had subbed on the show Hadestown.
The way subbing works, they send you the entire book of the show—that is, the page by page run through of the entire score—along with a video of the conductor directing the band for you to watch.
And as this musician went through the book, she noticed it had tons of notations from the normal musician in that role. And among was this notation: “Don’t Hit Amber.”
“What the heck does that mean?” she wondered.
So she goes to do the job. If you’ve seen Hadestown, you know the band actually performs on stage. Not only that, they’re amongst the actors at times. And as she’s doing the show, she gets to the page with notation and suddenly here comes Amber Gray, lead actress of the show, just as she’s getting ready to really extend her slide. And suddenly it all makes sense.
Amber Gray, members of the cast, and trombonist.
I’m going to be reporting on a bunch of panels I saw over at my Theater Substack, including one this morning about Oh, Mary that was just a blast. If you’re a subscriber here, I’ve also got some more little stories coming later in the week. Enjoy!
WHAT IF MONK WAS A NICE LADY WHO WORE BRIGHT COLORS?
Last year Paramount +/CBS launched a new spinoff of the popular Good Wife/Good Fight franchise starring fan favorite guest star Elsbeth Tascioni. Actor Carrie Preston stole every single scene she was in as a sort of “But What if Monk were a Nice Lawyer who Carries Big Bags” character, and after Good Fight closed it made perfect sense that they would consider revisiting the character. (Though tell me you’re not dreaming of an announcement that The Good Fight itself will be back to help us through this insane world.)
(If you don’t know the Good Fight, go find the Good Fight. I swear to you it will help you right now.)
What emerged was a show very different than its predecessors, though, only very lightly serialized and modeled on old-fashioned murder of the week shows. Honestly, early on I wasn’t sure it was going to be my cup of tea, but in the second season it has really found its footing, I think because rather than continuing to position Elsbeth as a sort of Magical Detective Fairy who just knows whodunit, they’ve given her personal problems that she is unable to solve on her own. It’s become a show with unexpected pathos and, at times, danger.
A great TV show sets up a concept which it presents as fact, and then, after we’ve come to accept it, finds ways to undermine that reality so we can have the delicious experience of discovering so much more there. For literally decades now, Elsbeth Tascioni has been presented as this indefatigably smart and positive person. To see the Elsbeth writers digging into what’s behind that, to show her vulnerable and emotional—it’s absolutely unexpected, and wonderfully compelling.
LET IT SNOW
It snowed on Saturday night here. Not a lot, but for a while. And I just sat on my couch watching it fall past the streetlights in the dark.
There’s something so reassuring about falling snow. It transports us back for a moment to that childhood sense of wonder at this soft white substance tumbling out of the sky as though poured from a box of cornflakes. And somehow it creates a sense of quiet and calm in the world. There’s nothing to be done, no plans more important. Just sit here for a moment and see the world.
Have a great week.
When my son was a trombonist in high school, I got him a t-shirt that was like a construction zone sign, with a traffic sign-style trombonist smacking a trumpeter with his slide. He cracked up because he said that kind of thing actually occurred regularly in their fairly large high school band. Last month we took said same son to see Hadestown, which he absolutely loved, due to the fact that it’s probably the only show, ever, where the trombone is the orchestral lead.
Love it!!