Fall is a time of new endeavors and spectacular transformations. In that spirit, our critics jump outside their usual disciplines to choose an event they’re looking forward to . . .
CLASSICAL MUSIC TO TELEVISION
`The Forsyte Saga’
I will be firing up my VCR in anticipation of the new British-made adaptation of “The Forsyte Saga,” to be aired in October and November on PBS’ “Masterpiece Theatre.” I was a devoted fan of the original BBC adaptation of the John Galsworthy novels when it ran here 33 years ago over the then-fledgling Public Broadcasting Service with a superb cast headed by Eric Porter, Kenneth More, Nyree Dawn Porter and the incomparable Margaret Tyzack.
So it’s partly nostalgia and partly curiosity that prompt my interest in the new series, which will open with a two-hour premiere Oct. 6, followed by six one-hour episodes on Sundays through Nov. 17; WTTW-Ch. 11 will broadcast them in the Chicago area.
Not many of the British actors are familiar to American viewers, with the possible exception of Damian Lewis (“Band of Brothers”) as the strait-laced “man of property,” Soames Forsyte, who is the series’ central figure; and Rupert Graves (“Maurice”) as his bohemian cousin, young Jolyon Forsyte. Gina McKee (“Notting Hill”) is Irene, unhappily married to Soames. Ioan Gruffudd (“Horatio Hornblower”) portrays her lover, the architect Philip Bosinney. I’ll be pleasantly surprised if the new version proves superior to the old in any respect save technical and production values. (The original was taped in black and white, in sets I recall as looking very plain when they didn’t look very cheap.) Still, “The Forsyte Saga” remains a crackling good Victorian soap opera that no “Masterpiece Theatre” addict will want to miss.
— John von Rhein
THEATER TO JAZZ
Bill Charlap trio
I’m no jazz critic — I’m no angel, for that matter — but to these ears pianist Bill Charlap makes some pearly music when he “makes with the hands,” as absolutely no jazz writer of any standing would say. A strong, harmonically rich Bill Evans influence can be detected in Charlap’s recordings. You might say Charlap (son of Broadway tunesmith Moose Charlap) is Evans in a better mood, subject to less intense mood swings, yet very much his own stylist, alternatively ruminative and buoyant.
Last year the Charlap trio played the Jazz Showcase. The trio’s back at the Showcase Nov. 19-24, with guest alto-sax giant Phil Woods. Charlap and Woods go back many years and many gigs, so the chemistry should reflect as much. I’m looking forward to hearing him live.
The Jazz Showcase is at 59 W. Grand Ave., between Dearborn and Clark Streets; 312-670-2473.
— Michael Phillips
JAZZ TO THEATER
Awake and Sing!’
Though I treasure plays of Tennessee Williams and Eugene O’Neill as much as anyone, there’s one playwright whose work means at least as much to me: Clifford Odets. Unfortunately, Odets long has been regarded as a symbol — and, alas, as a relic — of Depression-era social protest drama. But Odets classics such as “Awake and Sing!” are much more than that. They’re living, breathing dramas about ordinary people caught up in extraordinarily difficult times. The large, rambunctious family living in a cramped apartment in “Awake and Sing!” reminds us of the pains and deprivations that a generation endured in the grim era leading up to WWII. Moreover, the often high-flown, gloriously lyrical lines that Odets has given his characters bring out the poetry of everyday life. The question now is when TimeLine or some other Chicago company will revive a real Odets rarity, “Paradise Lost,” arguably the finest work to come from the great playwright’s pen.
“Awake and Sing!” plays at the TimeLine Theatre Company, 615 W. Wellington Ave., from Oct. 12-Nov. 17; 312-409-8463.
— Howard Reich
TELEVISION TO COUNTRY MUSIC
Guy Clark concert
Thank you, contemporary country radio.
Thank you for being trend-obsessed and talent-blind. Thank you for playing any old pap the big labels send your way while ignoring genuine craftspeople such as — to name just a few — Robert Earl Keen, Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, all three of The Flatlanders and Guy Clark.
Your willful ignorance means that, for instance, when Clark comes to town Nov. 29, he’ll be playing in the almost harrowingly intimate confines of the Old Town School of Folk Music, rather than in some acoustically dead sporting temple.
Clark is touring in support of a new album, “The Dark,” which I haven’t heard yet, but whose lyrics suggest it may be one of his strongest since his landmark first recording, 1975’s “Old No. 1.”
In concert, the 60-year-old Texan oozes authenticity as he strums on his guitar and sings his wry and poignant songs in a weathered but tender voice. More than just one of American songwriting’s old masters, he’s a first-rate live performer who deserves broader popularity but — luckily for fans — hasn’t yet achieved it.
— Steve Johnson
DANCE TO MOVIES
`Chicago’ the movie
“Chicago.” Yeah, yeah, movie musicals are dead, that confounding overproduction, “Moulin Rouge,” notwithstanding. And yeah, yeah, theatrical musicals keep coming up with styles that really only work in live theaters, darn them. “A Chorus Line” was doomed from the start, “Cats” wound up on TV and “Les Miserables” just ain’t gonna happen. But who doesn’t hope that movie miracle makers figure out a way to transfer the stage resurrection of this masterpiece? Rob Marshall, who helmed “Annie” and “Cinderella” for television, may seem a weirdly G-rated choice for this sexy, nasty putdown of ’70s amorality disguised as ’20s pop history. But he impressed Miramax with his imaginative script. And he got a hot cast: Catherine Zeta-Jones as Velma, Renee Zellweger as Roxie, joined by Richard Gere, Queen Latifah and, singing “Mr. Cellophane,” one-time Chicagoan John C. Reilly. “Chicago” is due in theaters in December.
— Sid Smith
MOVIES TO ROCK
Springsteen concert
The event this fall that got me most excited is in a field I rarely write about: rock ‘n’ roll. It’s Bruce Springsteen’s concert at United Center on Sept. 25. I’ve seen The Boss only once, (in Madison, Wis., in the late ’70s), but it was among the most memorable live musical events I’ve caught. Rock ‘n’ roll from the ’60s and ’70s is the music I grew up with and that era’s main artists are still the ones who affect me most deeply. Springsteen is a great dramatist and powerful performer; he uses his songs, as Bob Dylan did, to comment pointedly on society, but he also uses them, like the Rolling Stones or The Beatles, to raise our spirits and make us move. Since I haven’t seen him for many years — and he’s gone through many changes and traveled many roads since, I’m curious to see how I’ll react this time. It can be unnerving to run across somebody you thought you knew well — an old classmate or friend after, say, 10 years or so — and register all their changes at once. That won’t quite be the case with Springsteen, since I’ve seen or heard him in the interim on TV or records and CDs. I won’t be surprised at his new self. But I haven’t seen him live for more than two decades. If he still connects with the same passion and force, it’ll be worth wait.
— Michael Wilmington
ROCK TO BOOKS
Picasso’s War’
I’ve been fascinated in the last year by how recording artists have struggled to come to terms with the events of Sept. 11, 2001, in their songwriting. How to condense the complexities of a catastrophic event in a three-minute song? How to make a statement that will be bold yet appropriate, specific yet universal, timely yet timeless? In a sense, the most ambitious of these artists are trying to make their “Guernica,” the Picasso masterpiece that demonstrated how art can respond to and interpret tragic world events. That’s why I’m looking forward to reading Russell Martin’s “Picasso’s War: The Destruction of Guernica and the Masterpiece That Changed the World” (Dutton), due out next month.
— Greg Kot
ARCHITECTURE TO TELEVISION
Chicago Tonight’
There’s fluff and then there’s substance. “Chicago Tonight,” WTTW’s nightly news and public affairs show, always has stood for the latter — a half-hour of meaty discussion in a medium that typically serves up cotton candy. But now, that role may be in jeopardy.
This November, “Chicago Tonight” will shift to an hourlong format hosted by Bob Sirott, best known for his stint as host of (ugh!) “Fox Thing in the Morning.” Instead of being devoted to a single topic each night, a WTTW spokeswoman says, the new and more fast-paced show will focus on many topics, including interviews with visiting celebrities.
No one questions that TV has to evolve with the times to retain its relevance. But the big issue is whether the new “Chicago Tonight” will maintain its identity as a forum for serious civic debate or become just another superficial show with a sprinkling of news.
— Blair Kamin
ART TO CLASSICAL MUSIC
Messiaen recital
Olivier Messiaen’s “Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant Jesus” (“Twenty Regards of the Infant Jesus”) is an almost-two-hour piano cycle by the greatest composer of the last half of the 20th Century. Among other materials, it combines Indian rhythms and transcribed birdsongs to give a series of “contemplations” on the life and meaning of Christ. Messiaen was a Catholic for whom every note of the composition had mystical meaning. However, the sound, colors and construction of the work are enthralling in themselves. Yvonne Loriod, Messiaen’s wife, played the cycle at Northwestern University more than 20 years ago. Now Pierre-Laurent Aimard, one of her most gifted students, follows his Teldec recording with a live performance on Jan. 19 at Orchestra Hall. His recital of contemporary miniatures a few seasons back had all the sensitivity and brilliance to make a traversal of the “Regards” an extraordinary event.
— Alan G. Artner
CULTURE TO ARCHITECTURE
A new structure
We wait. We wait because we have to, but we don’t want to.
Most of us, I dare say, would like something in place of the World Trade Center right away. We want to remind ourselves that what gets knocked down — buildings as well as people — can get back up and carry on, better than ever. We want the world to know that, too.
But we have to wait.
On Sept. 11, 2001, architecture suddenly became the most important art form in the nation. Even people such as me who know very little about architecture and who have always secretly considered it a bit of a sissified pursuit — real men and women build buildings, they don’t draw little pictures of them — have come around to realizing the significance of architecture.
Now we know that the structures surrounding us are more than just roofs to keep out the rain, more than walls to keep in the heat and the air conditioning. When the towers went down, we received a swift lesson in the emotional connection we feel with our great urban edifices. You can pass them every day for dozens of years without a second thought, you can see them on postcards, but when they’re gone — you’re lost. Along with horror at the voluminous deaths on Sept. 11, we felt the howling emptiness of a skyline that was, all at once, all wrong.
So we wait. Nobody knows what sort of structure will go up at ground zero; the proposals have been intriguing, provocative, sometimes dumb, sometimes breathtaking and sometimes both. Many architects have weighed in with ideas. Many more will, still.
This earnest interest in architecture extends, moreover, beyond the World Trade Center; I find myself looking at virtually all physical structures now with a new eye. Some of this is induced by paranoia — how would I get out of this place? — but most of it is brought on by a solemn respect for the myriad designs of our shelters: workplaces, public facilities, homes.
You are what you see. Or what you don’t.
— Julia Keller
