THEATER: A Too-Proud "Ain't Too Proud"

AIN'T TOO PROUD ** out of ****
IMPERIAL THEATRE

OK, enough bitching and moaning about jukebox musicals and revues. They can be great (Jersey Boys, Ain't Misbehavin', Side By Side By Sondheim), they can be good (Beautiful) and as we've learned time and time again, they can be terrible.

Instead, here's a cautionary note about making bio-musicals when the people involved are still alive. I know, I know. I just listed some shows about people who are still alive and those came off just fine. But more often you end up with Motown, a sanitized and duller-than-dull waste of talent. Or you get The Otis Williams Story, aka Ain't Too Proud, a celebration of one of the greatest groups in music history via a musical so detailed, so exhaustive, so dreadfully comprehensive that by the end you'll swear you've seen the hiring and firing of every one of the two dozen men who've been in The Temptations, including their exit interviews with HR.

What a shame, since you'll find so much talent on stage singing so many great songs...albeit songs that are almost never performed from start to finish. It's like spinning a radio dial. Time and time again you hear a song you'd love to listen to but the damn dial keeps spinning. The Temptations and Motown deserve much better and a few decades from now someone will do it right.

The story is sadly unsurprising. A rough life on the streets, an escape via music, fame and fortune thanks to innate talent and the star-making machinery of Motown...and then the fallout from drugs and pressure and abusive childhoods that didn't prepare some of these men for any life, much less a successful one.

More than most pop groups (but not so uncommon in long-running gospel and world music acts like the Blind Boys Of Alabama and Ladysmith Black Mambazo), members of the Temptations come and go with surprising regularity. Indispensable lead singers are dispensed with, new lead singers can also be replaced and the whole is most definitely greater than the sum of its parts. It's a whirlwind of excitement and plot developments -- and thoroughly dull. Ain't Too Proud feels like one long montage, like a way-too-long introduction for a band's induction into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame. Thank God the snatches of music keep you from losing faith.

The exceptional playwright Dominique Morisseau wrote the book and I'm assuming she never had the creative control needed to dramatize this story. Indeed, almost none of this story is dramatized. Eighty percent of the time, original Temp Otis Williams (and the author of the book the show is based on) simply steps to the front of the stage and narrates the action. It's deadly dull and you can imagine Morisseau's heart sinking as this became the dominant way of moving the show forward.

But there's always the music, right? Barely. As with the musical Motown, song after song is snipped or tossed into a medley or interrupted or simply put in an absurd context that denudes it of all impact. The first act is almost over before a single song is performed from start to finish. The choreography by Sergio Trujillo combines the classic moves of the band with the demands of the show nicely enough. But they strike the classic Temptations pose (hands behind the back at the end of a song) so many times that it loses all power. As with the desire to shove in pieces of so many tunes, more is most definitely less.

Direct Des McAnuff is definitely off his game, with the constant nods to a cinematic flow leaving any emotion far behind. In one scene Otis meets a girl and two seconds later they're married and he's on the road. It's hard to feel any emotional investment in the mismatched couple especially since the first chance we get to catch our breath and see them together again is when they're breaking up. Ditto the addiction travails of singer Paul Williams. In one scene we suddenly see Otis referencing Paul as drinking heavily (it's news to us). About sixty seconds later he's fall-down drunk on-stage and then out of the group. Weirdly, a free-basing scene is played partially for laughs. (And who freebases with a bong?)

Act two is so chock full of funerals and goodbyes it's almost satirical and has all the dramatic impact of CliffNotes. We experience virtually nothing in the entire show: we're simply told about it. Countless other choices feel wrong, such as adding women to the lineup of The Temptations at the grand finale, doing the steps alongside the guys.  I get it, the women have secondary roles in this story and it's a shame not to showcase them whenever possible. But The Temptations are a band of brothers and their cultural importance is bound up in that image of proud black men sharing a stage. It makes no more sense to throw women into the mix than it would to have men shimmy alongside the Supremes at the finale of their story.

The worst part of Ain't Too Proud may be how good the cast is that they assembled and then wasted. Derrick Baskin has the role of a lifetime as Otis and stays appropriately unassuming despite spending most of the show in the spotlight. Ephraim Sykes and Saint Aubyn are the ferocious lead singers David Ruffin and Dennis Edwards. Their scene at a concert where Sykes as Ruffin jumps up onstage to reclaim the spotlight is hilarious and just one example of how good their voices are. They both nod to the great singers they're playing without falling into mimicry. Melvin Franklin is an amiable presence in character and a key voice in performance as the bass singer Melvin Franklin. And the sexy, silky-voiced Jeremy Pope as the argumentative Eddie Kendricks just proves what was obvious with his Broadway debut a few months ago in Choir Boy: he's a star.

My guest is a sharp-eared musical expert and Broadway fan, but the music in the show was so muffled throughout he wondered how much was canned. Similarly, I felt the sound design by Steve Canyon Kennedy was off because to me at time the vocalists seemed faint and far away, overwhelmed by the music -- canned or not. But no! At the last second, a curtain is raised and an 18-strong orchestra is revealed, sounding fuller and richer than they have all night. The stage is jammed with the cast, the audience explodes with pleasure and for a minute or two as they trade off vocals on "Cloud Nine," that's exactly where we are.Why did they wait till the very end to take us there?

NOTE TO THE FUTURE: When you tackle the Temptations story again, just tell one slice. Me, I'd focus in on their transition from Motown's biggest male group (sorry, Otis; no one was bigger or more important than the Supremes) to one with a social consciousness. You'll have the battle royale between Smokey Robinson and Norman Whitfield. You'll have the band pulled kicking and screaming into Whitfield's psychedelic era. That producer kept them relevant and cool for generations to come when they were just about to become yesterday's news, but they hated it, at first. Sure, the show devotes a good ten minutes to this, but it's wrapped up in a bland pro forma "scene where we hear about the assassination of MLK" and "scene with footage from Vietnam," which does the show and the story no favor. You'd find a lot more drama in that behind the scenes fight than in watching them quite naturally be devastated over the death of Dr. King. Despite what amounts to a cameo for Smokey, he was really the sixth Temptation. The band was his baby almost as much as his own group the Miracles. Watching them evolve from "My Girl" to epics like "Papa Was A Rolling Stone" and hard-hitting tunes like "Message From A Black Man," "Slave" and "You Make Your Own Heaven and Hell Right Here On Earth" would be thrilling. You'd go from sweet classics like "Since I Lost My Baby" and "The Way You Do The Things You Do" to genuinely funky 70s gems like the above. You'd get the bitter and the sweet. And you'd play the songs from start to finish. Need to brush up on their psychedelic era? I've got just the playlist for you. 

THEATER OF 2019

Frankenstein: Under The Radar Fest at the Public ** 1/2
Minor Character: Under The Radar Festival at the Public ***
Ink: Under The Radar  Festival at the Public  ** 1/2
Choir Boy ** 1/2
White Noise ** 1/2
Kiss Me, Kate ***
Ain't No Mo' *** 1/2
Ain't Too Proud **


Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the creator of BookFilter, a book lover’s best friend. It’s a website that lets you browse for books online the way you do in a physical bookstore, provides comprehensive info on new releases every week in every category and offers passionate personal recommendations every step of the way. He’s also the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day with top journalists and opinion makers as guests. It’s available for free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website. Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also available for free on iTunes.

THEATER: "Ain't No Mo'" Takes Off With Talent and Smarts

AIN'T NO MO' *** 1/2 out of ****
THE PUBLIC THEATER

If I tell you how funny Ain't No Mo' is, I worry that might diminish how angry it is. If I tell you how angry it is, that might diminish how smart it is. If I tell you how smart it is, you might not realize how funny it is. So I'll just tell you how good it is. Very good, very funny, very angry, very smart and very everything else you hope for from a committed, exciting play by a new talent (Jordan E. Cooper) who also delivers a high-wire act of a performance as the airline gate attendant, Peaches. Yes, he does. Go.

The conceit of this kaleidoscope of a play is that time's up in America for black people. The U.S. government is offering a one-way ticket to your country of choice in Africa and making the very strong suggestion to get going while the going is good. As a bonus, the captain of the plane from African American Airlines is former President Barack Obama. ("We found him!" shouts one of the characters.) Other people of color? Well, the Hispanics and Latinos are on stand-by, but the last flight out is filling fast.

It begins with an uproarious spoof of an African American funeral. The overly enunciated preacher mopping his brow, the church ladies speaking in tongues and offering an "amen," the fiery speech -- all are present and accounted for. And who is being buried? That would be Mr. Right To Complain. Yes, once Obama became President, the idea that black people no longer had the Right To Complain became gospel. In one fell swoop, Cooper mocks our cinematic conception of a Tyler Perry-like black funeral, the idea that Obama's election changed everything and the small fragile hope that it might actually be true. Oh and he makes us laugh while giving a ridiculously talented cast the first of many chances to shine.

And we're off. Cooper offers a string of skits, one scathing and scabrous and unforgiving but humane take-down after another of racism and the privileged and white society and how your own community can sometimes be its own worst enemy.

A reality TV show about "baby mamas" features  a light-skinned woman who is touted as the world's first person to transition from one race to another. (I think Rachel Dolezal beat her, though.)

A line of women patiently wait for their chance to abort their babies before society can torture and squeeze the life out of the child on its own terms.

A rich family is bemused by the offer to leave the country (why would they leave when they're so respected and accepted?) but a tad worried about the disappearance of all their servants.

And punctuating it all, the scene at the airport gate where Peaches maintains order amidst the chaos of that final flight.

It's a raucous, sobering work that's also balanced and generous. Most every actor gets a show-stopping bit of comedy and a moment to bare their humanity. Time and anger a righteous bit of speechifying pops in right after some over-the-top humor and it works 99% of the time. Director Stevie Walker-Webb and his entire creative team (especially the costumes of Montana Levi Blanco  working in concert with the hair, makeup and wig designs of Cookie Jordan) do marvelous work in supporting the text and the actors on stage to make that happen.

My one caveat is that Cooper felt the need to underline  and italicize the finale when his play was already so powerful.  Did he worry a la Dave Chappelle that we would be laughing a little too loud and perhaps not always at precisely the right moment or in the right way? Just to make sure we get it, his character Peaches strips down and the sound design tosses in rolling thunder (or tolling bells, I can't quite be certain) at the end. Then he drops a giant American flag so the cast can stand soberly in front of it, more a line-up than a curtain call. It's as if he didn't quite trust us enough, that we'd let him down. To be fair, if history and current events are any judge, he's probably right.


THEATER OF 2019

Frankenstein: Under The Radar Fest at the Public ** 1/2
Minor Character: Under The Radar Festival at the Public ***
Ink: Under The Radar  Festival at the Public  ** 1/2
Choir Boy ** 1/2
White Noise ** 1/2
Kiss Me, Kate ***
Ain't No Mo' *** 1/2



Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the creator of BookFilter, a book lover’s best friend. It’s a website that lets you browse for books online the way you do in a physical bookstore, provides comprehensive info on new releases every week in every category and offers passionate personal recommendations every step of the way. He’s also the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day with top journalists and opinion makers as guests. It’s available for free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website. Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also available for free on iTunes.

THEATER: "Kate, Do I Have Your Consent To Ask For A Kiss?"

KISS ME, KATE! *** out of ****
ROUNDABOUT THEATRE AT STUDIO 54


Such fuss! Would the prim and proper Kelli O'Hara be capable of rolling around in the mud of a broad comedy? Would audiences be shocked by a 70 year old musical and -- can you imagine -- dated ideas of a battle between the sexes? Well, Kelli O'Hara can do anything (duh!) and classic shows offer more than their outmoded stereotypes or no one would continue to perform them.

So rest easy. Kiss Me, Kate! is what it's always been and that's old-fashioned fun with a terrific Cole Porter score, more good dancing than any other show on Broadway and a sweet romance at its heart that makes this silly comedy just a tad more heartfelt. Don't worry. No one is going to confuse this light musical with a kitchen sink drama. But the 2019 Kiss Me, Kate! has just enough genuine emotion to make it distinctive from the fondly remembered cartoonish version of 1999. To my mind, this one is less slapstick, more human and better.

The ground-breaking Oklahoma clearly raised everyone's game. Irving Berlin sucked it up and delivered Annie Get Your Gun, a show almost absurdly stuffed with standards. Cole Porter did the same with Kiss Me, Kate!, his valentine to a life in the theater and the last great work he ever did. (Can-Can and Silk Stockings are fine, but hardly great.)

In it, movie star Lilli Vanessi (Kelli O'Hara) returns to the theater to star in a new musical version of Shakespeare's The Taming Of The Shrew opposite her ex-husband Fred Graham (Will Chase). She's being wooed by a military man and future Presidential candidate who believes Lilli would make a great First Lady. Fred naturally thinks she should be the first lady of the theater. Washington? What a bore! They fight, they bicker, some gangsters show up to muscle Fred into paying a debt and end up on stage in bit parts, a hoofer (Corbin Bleu in another charming, breakout of a performance) falls in love with an actress (Stephanie Styles), some spanking does NOT take place (at least not when we're watching) and the show goes delightfully on.

It's all innocent fun. O'Hara does indeed radiate a natural dignity, which she used so well in The King and I. Here she raises it just a notch to imperious, making her descent into a free-for-all with Fred all the more enjoyable. In contrast, Will Chase can't deploy the out-there comedy chops he used in Something Rotten, making his Fred slightly more anonymous. True, there's no tension in wondering if Fred wants Lilli back because she's good box office or because he loves her, but that also means the core of the show is more intimate and sweet.

So the woman wins in the title card bout. But in the under card, we find the man on top. That's the simmering romance between hoofer Bill Calhoun (Bleu) and the actress with the wandering eye Lois Lane (Styles). Styles is making her Broadway debut and she mines the most out of her comic scenes. However, the generally terrific jazzy orchestrations of Larry Hochman throw Styles off her game on the big number "Always True To You In My Fashion." The syncopation of the song as presented here just doesn't let Styles land her jokes and that turns what should be a show-stopper into something less.

Bleu however is a winner from start to finish. With a nothing role, he adds charm and charisma to spare, making Bill someone you know you care about from the very start.  A triple threat, Bleu gets two big showcases. Late in the show he performs "Bianca," a nothing song that serves as an excuse for some great dancing. He's so infectious you don't even blink when Bill is suddenly dancing on the ceiling. (Still, director Scott Ellis might have allowed Lois to come out from her dressing room sooner so she could overhear Bill singing her praises rather than just watching him dance.)

And then there's the act two opener "Too Darn Hot." Like many great dance numbers, it builds and builds, with the choreography of Warren Carlyle topping itself effortlessly. Unlike some other big numbers, this one never feels like it's trying to show off. It happens so organically, so infectiously you never feel bludgeoned into appreciation. It's a genuine show-stopper and thank god -- those dancers need a long chance to rest and  the applause gives it to them.

Worth the price of admission? Absolutely, but then so is O'Hara who radiates sexiness and charm and the sheer love of being onstage from start to the inevitable finish with the reprise of "Another Op'ning, Another Show." The sets by David Rockwell are spot-on for a 1950s touring show. True, the more human scale ups the emotional content and lowers the spoofy comedy. If you felt The Producers was a tad restrained, this is not the Kiss Me, Kate! for you. (Indeed, the gangsters -- usually an audience favorite -- fall utterly flat, another casualty since cartoons just don't make sense in this newly conceived world.) But who cares when you've got a torrent of great songs like "Wunderbar," "So In Love" and "Too Darn Hot," a foolproof book that clearly inspired Michael Frayn's Noises Off and a star like O'Hara? It's no pie in the face like the '99 version but it fully deserves that exclamation point.



THEATER OF 2019

Frankenstein: Under The Radar Fest at the Public ** 1/2
Minor Character: Under The Radar Festival at the Public ***
Ink: Under The Radar  Festival at the Public  ** 1/2
Choir Boy ** 1/2
White Noise ** 1/2
Kiss Me, Kate ***


Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the creator of BookFilter, a book lover’s best friend. It’s a website that lets you browse for books online the way you do in a physical bookstore, provides comprehensive info on new releases every week in every category and offers passionate personal recommendations every step of the way. He’s also the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day with top journalists and opinion makers as guests. It’s available for free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website. Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also available for free on iTunes.

THEATER: "White Noise" Yearns To Provoke

WHITE NOISE ** 1/2 out of ****
THE PUBLIC

Depicting slavery in the past is safely noble and instructive. The film "12 Years A Slave" was a Passion Play and who would ever feel anything but righteous, condescending horror over such an evil taking place more than a hundred years ago? Just like a Passion Play, the Oscar-winning film was  dramatically inert. Drag slavery into the modern world, however, and it may not seem so comfortingly distant any more. Artists are embracing this fact with increasing frequency.

Author Paul Beatty showed a black man buying a slave in contemporary California to hilarious, upsetting, disorienting effect in his brilliant black comedy of a novel, "The Sellout." Rising playwright Jeremy O. Harris did a face plant with his would-be shocker "Slave Play," in which couples working through sexual or relationship issues reenacted master-slave plantation tropes. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks falls somewhere in the middle with her intelligent, probing but not provocative enough new play "White Noise."

From her commercial breakthrough "Topdog/Underdog" to the stunning masterpiece "Father Comes Home... (Parts 1, 2, 3)," Parks has toyed with form, explored power dynamics and proven she's a talent worth following anywhere. Typically, she punctuates the action with monologues and this show begins with a stunner.

Leo (Daveed Diggs) is sitting in a chair on a fairly bare stage, addressing the audience. All his life, Leo has not been able to fall asleep. Ever since a  teacher told his five year old self that the sun would eventually burn out and we'd all go with it, Leo has been plagued by insomnia. Pills, therapy, a white noise machine -- ultimately, none of it helps. So Leo goes walking late at night, around the block and one fateful evening farther afield. That's when the cops come up on Leo and brutalize him, shoving his face into the concrete. They break his last illusion that while life isn't fair and a black man is never safe in America, maybe just maybe if he played by the rules it wouldn't be quite so unsafe for him as other people of color. Uh-uh.

Leo is broken and his girlfriend Dawn (Zoë Winters) doesn't know what to do to help other than state the obvious: he needs to see a lawyer and get some justice. Unfortunately, she also doesn't  know what to say when he proposes. Dawn tries to pretend he's acting rashly because of the attack but Leo planned the proposal for weeks. Leo's very bad week just got worse.

We quickly meet his circle of friends. Dawn his girlfriend is a lawyer representing some kid caught up in a crime; she's determined he won't go to jail. His best pal is Ralph (Thomas Sadowski), a professor who just got bypassed for a tenured position by a person of color. At least Ralph can take comfort in his trust fund. And Ralph's girlfriend is Misha (Sheria Irving), who  "presents" as a stereotypical urban black woman for her online streaming chat show, "Ask A Black."

They meet for a weekly night of bowling (the two guys were serious competitors on their college  team) and things soon turn edgy. Each one of them makes a poisonous comment about their partners and friends. Everyone is hiding something. A passing reference to the fact that Misha used to date Leo and Dawn used to date Ralph raises an eyebrow. And then Leo asks Ralph to buy him, to make him a slave.

Leo has a contract whipped up by a lawyer at Dawn's firm. (The woman handles a lot of pre-nups, apparently and this wasn't so different.) And the contract is just for forty days. Why would he do this? Leo wants to feel "safe." He wants to know what it means to be a slave, to give up all control, perhaps because he's never really had control over his body, his safety in the first place and this just makes it official. It's offensive. It's absurd. Ralph angrily says no way. And of course in about two minutes the contract is signed.

I wish "White Noise" were more outrageous or more believable or more upsetting...more something. I don't want to watch a play with a man enslaved by "choice" and feel so indifferent. It happens so fast and yet one can spot every twist from miles away. The play flirts with satire and an out-there sensibility (especially with Misha's online persona) and yet it never catches fire. Even a secret white supremacist group for neo-liberals doesn't seem nutty so much as inevitable in this screwed up world.

Right after the contract begins, Leo is encaged in a brutal form of slave shackling, an antique device that the wealthy and privileged Ralph borrows from a museum. You might expect the play to ratchet up to such an extreme moment; it feels too immense of a spectacle so early in his enslavement. On the other hand  you never doubt for a moment Ralph will get a gleam in his eye so what are we waiting for? Indeed, as with so much else here, that nasty streak pops up all too soon, robbing us of any suspense.

Other problems abound. The opening monologue by Diggs is terrific and delivered well by this charismatic actor. Yet his charm and charisma keep us from seeing the desperation that should haunt him even before the cops deliver a beating. Leo hasn't enjoyed a night's sleep his entire life and he's deeply unhappy. But you don't see a shell of a man on edge and about to unravel; you see a sexy, appealing man who looks like he can handle anything. And everyone is so nasty to each other in their first scene together it's hard to see them as lifelong friends. Who can mourn the inevitable fights  and break-ups? They each seem better off alone.

Maybe this absurd act of self-immolation, this desire to be "sold" should have been a public act of art, rather than the private affair they first imagine. Maybe the desire to push the "performance" as far as it could go would add the tension so desperately missing.  We  might wonder more about Ralph's intentions and Leo's willingness to humiliate himself if they at least imagined for a while they shared the same goal and were doing it for a project they both believed in.

The set by Clint Ramos is serviceable with the one delightful twist of a bowling alley complete with real bowling balls and a clever way for the actors to toss them down a lane and out of sight. It's a treat. Diggs and Sadoski have by far the better roles and do better by them, though again Diggs is too centered and appealing here by half to seem as desperate as Leo should be. Irving has fun with her "Ask A Black" show and the inevitable turning of the tables when she questions our laughter over the persona she creates and why.

That's a signature of Parks, who is always asking questions, always probing and always turning a subject this way and that to discover a new angle. She did wonders shaping "Father Comes Home..." from a workshop to the finished play. Perhaps she will realize more work is needed here. The outrageous premise of a black man selling himself into slavery simply does not bring out the outrageous in her. It's too sober, too pre-ordained, too safe really. We aren't surprised in the least, not even when a gun introduced in act one doesn't go off in act two.

Does Leo feel initially comforted and ultimately brutalized by being enslaved? Will Ralph break down in shame over what he's done? Sigh. Yes, the White Man fears the Black Man, appropriates his art and sees him as less than human, while the Black Man is filled with a murderous rage. A better play would make that belief seem fresh rather than obvious. And the power dynamics between the two men can't hold a candle to the similar forces at work in "Topdog/Underdog." For all its boldness, "White Noise" jumps quickly into grotesque bondage and the threat of death (that gun) but lacks the littler, nastier humiliations and the sexual  objectification or assault the very structure of the play calls for. We don't even hear Ralph say the ugly slur that hovers over the play, the word these one-time bandmates have heard a thousand times in a thousand songs. Some buttons can't be pushed, apparently.



THEATER OF 2019

Frankenstein: Under The Radar Fest at the Public ** 1/2
Minor Character: Under The Radar Festival at the Public ***
Ink: Under The Radar  Festival at the Public  ** 1/2
Choir Boy ** 1/2
White Noise ** 1/2


Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the creator of BookFilter, a book lover’s best friend. It’s a website that lets you browse for books online the way you do in a physical bookstore, provides comprehensive info on new releases every week in every category and offers passionate personal recommendations every step of the way. He’s also the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day with top journalists and opinion makers as guests. It’s available for free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website. Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also available for free on iTunes.

MUSIC: The Best Albums Of 2018 or How Everything Old Is New Again

Every year I make a list of my favorite albums. Of course, I put my favoritest albums near the top, but any album on the list is worthy of your time. If you like the artist or the genre, give it a listen. But my #1 pick? Clearly that's a statement: here's the BEST album of the year and if you want to pretend you're hip or cool or care about music, well you better lay down some vinyl, drop a needle and give it a listen! And how do I choose the best album of the year? Easy: which new album have I played the most? This year, however, I struggled. Was it this album or that album or the other album? And why don't kids listen to albums anymore? They'll binge-watch an entire season of a TV show from start to finish in two days -- in ORDER -- but they'd rather die than listen to an album from an artist they love? What gives? Do they pick up a book, read chapter seven and then chapter two and then chapter sixteen and then move on to another book?

Ok, forget the kids. Suddenly, I realized my problem and why I was struggling with naming my favorite album of the year. I was too focused on the new. Yes, I am talking about the best albums of 2018 but streaming has permanently changed my listening habits. The latest albums bump up against a sudden desperate need to check out Andy Gibb or the entire catalog of The Temptations from start to finish or Buffalo Springfield (for the first time!) or The Carpenters. And if I'm being honest, the music I listened to the most in 2018, the music I couldn't stop talking about and recommending, the musical career I became mildly obsessed over was found on the boxed set The Girl From Chickasaw County: The Complete Capitol Masters by Bobbie Gentry.

I knew the name. Bobbie Gentry was a classic one-hit wonder (I thought), the voice behind the enigmatic, unforgettable single "Ode To Billie Joe." I'd never heard an album of hers or even another song by her. And I don't think I'd ever heard anyone extolling her as an unappreciated talent. But here's the boxed set containing all sorts of live cuts and b-sides -- the usual boxed set material. It was compiled by Andrew Batt, the guy who did similar work on the solo albums of Sandy Denny. And just as his boxed set of Denny brought renewed attention to that singer, he is hoping the same will happen for Gentry. (Here's an excellent interview with Batt about the project.) And scattered in that boxed set are all the songs from seven studio albums (and one unreleased album of standards). I had to create playlists for each one just so I could listen to them from start to finish without any distractions. And what did I discover? One of the best albums of 1967...and1968...and 1971...and 2018.

THE 40 (ish) BEST ALBUMS OF 2018

1-10
BOBBIE GENTRY -- The Girl From Chickasaw County: The Complete Capitol Masters
JANELLE MONÁE -- Dirty Computer
KAMASI WASHINGTON -- Heaven and Earth
ANGELIQUE KIDJO -- Remain In Light
PANIC! AT THE DISCO -- Pray For The Wicked
BRANDI CARLILE -- By The Way, I Forgive You
THE JOHN SALLY RIDE -- Nothing Doing
NELLIE MCKAY -- Sister Orchid
BETA RADIO -- Transition
VARIOUS ARTISTS -- Black Panther

11-20
CÉCILE MCLORIN SALVANT -- The Window
ARCTIC MONKEYS -- Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino
KASEY CHAMBERS -- Campfire
BENJAMIN JAFFE -- Oh, Wild Ocean Of Love
VARIOUS ARTISTS -- African Scream Contest 2
SHAKEY GRAVES -- Can't Wake Up
ESPERANZA SPALDING -- 12 Little Spells
ELVIS COSTELLO -- Look Now
COURTNEY BARNETT -- Tell Me How You Really Feel
NAS -- Nasir

21-30
TONY BENNETT AND DIANA KRALL -- Love Is Here To Stay
BIRCH PEREIRA -- Western Soul
TRACEY THORN -- Record
SCOTT MATTHEWS -- The Great Untold
MACY GRAY -- Ruby
JASON ALDEAN -- Rearview Town
MADELEINE PEYROUX -- Anthem
DRAKE -- Scorpion

JAMES HUNTER -- Whatever It Takes
TROYE SIVAN -- Bloom

31-42
RICK SPRINGFIELD -- The Snake King
LINDA THOMPSON -- My Mother Doesn't Know I'm On The Stage
FALL OUT BOY -- Mania
ROSEANNE CASH -- She Remembers Everything
BUDDY GUY -- The Blues Is Alive And Well
GORILLAZ -- The Now Now
MANDY PATINKIN -- Diary: January 27, 2018/ April, May 2018
JOSH ROUSE -- Love In The Modern Age
THE VINES -- In Miracle Land
JEFF TWEEDY -- Warm
BOZ SCAGGS -- Out Of The Blues
ELLA FITZGERALD/ LOUIS ARMSTRONG -- Cheek To Cheek: The Complete Duet Recordings


1. BOBBIE GENTRY -- The Girl From Chickasaw County: The Complete Capitol Masters
...and what did I discover? One of the best albums of 1967...and1968...and 1971. I discovered a debut album suffused with southern grit and sass and a marvelous sense of place, an album so confident it saved the brilliant single "Ode To Billie Joe" for the final cut. That's nerve. Then came a second album served up as a song cycle, one tune flowing into the next. If anything, it's even better. And then the crazy, dismissive, sexist music industry takes over, both praising Gentry's albums and dismissing her as a cute little thing at the same time. Bizarrely, despite her debut selling millions and topping the charts and Gentry winning Grammys (including Best New Artist) and the second album delivering artistically and being right in the wheelhouse of her debut, it disappeared. I don't mean it didn't sell that well; it barely charted on the Billboard 200, only reaching #132. Her third album didn't even CHART. So Gentry played the game and recorded a duets album with Glen Campbell, one of the hottest acts around. It's her least interesting album by a country mile but it sold tons and went straight to the top of the charts. Her fifth album, clearly ready to capitalize on a revitalized Gentry with commercial appeal? It peaked at #164. Even curiouser was her songwriting. Gentry wrote most of the songs on her debut and second album, but each release after that included fewer and fewer originals, as if she'd run out of things to say. Gentry has excellent taste in music so her covers are well chosen. But given the outstanding quality of her writing, it's sad to see just one original track by Gentry on her fifth and sixth studio albums. Eventually, the label just ignored her completely. Gentry's very good seventh album -- which includes standards like "God Bless The Child" and "Feelin' Good" -- wasn't released at all. Then out of nowhere she recorded one final work. Gentry's eighth and final release (to date) contains all originals. Like many of the previous albums, she arranged and produced the entire affair, even painting the album cover. It's a work of Americana very much in the spirit of Randy Newman and Harry Nilsson and every bit the equal of their best work (and hers). It's a triumphant capper and when it too sank without a trace I picture Gentry making a hand gesture at the music world and heading out the door. Somewhere in there she did TV specials and then accepted a huge paycheck from Las Vegas, where she directed and choreographed and even designed the costumes for a hugely popular stage show, starring in it for several years. Artistic control and more money than she ever saw from the record biz must have been sweet. Gentry married and divorced three times (always her own woman), wisely invested and profited from the Phoenix Suns basketball team and hasn't even glanced at the music biz since 1981. Reba McEntire includes Gentry's song "Fancy" in most every concert she does and surely Gentry's determination to do it all and do it her way has been an inspiration to countless acts over the years. But what really matters is the music and four of her eight albums are very good to stunning. Start with the debut and thank me later. I've never named a reissue as my favorite album before. Typically, I would just go back and insert the album onto the list for the year it originally came out. But that's the beauty of streaming. You can listen to so much great music from every era right now. If you're suddenly discovering classic Hollywood, maybe your favorite movie of 2018 was 1944's The Miracle Of Morgan's Creek. Maybe the TV show you obsessed over was Firefly from 2002. Maybe the book you couldn't stop sharing with friends was Stoner by John Williams. Hey, diving into some classic stuff is a hell of a lot better than just watching some dumb new movie because you remember seeing the trailer a few weeks ago. (Kevin Hart is pretty funny; how bad can it be?) So my favorite album of 2018 is 1967's Ode To Billie Joe. Just like Gentry, I guess there's a little rebel in me. Today, Mercury Rev is releasing a tribute to Gentry that covers her sensational second album with an all-star guest list of singers ranging from Norah Jones to Lucinda Williams. Of course, they toss in "Ode To Billie Joe" at the end, because how can't you? I'm looking forward to checking it out and hope it keeps the Bobbie Gentry comeback a-rolling. But do check out the original albums first.

Follow me on Spotify! Or just go here to check out my playlists for the albums. I've got all eight on my playlists but here are the three best:

Ode To Billie Joe 

The Delta Sweete

Patchwork

2. JANELLE MONÁE -- Dirty Computer 

The craziest, sexiest, coolest album of the year. Monáe covers the waterfront stylistically, from Prince to Madonna to Marvin Gaye to Nina Simone and she does it on an album bursting with great songs that is also one of the boldest political statements in years. I've been in love with her talent for ages and this was the moment it all came together. She threatened to explode commercially -- certainly the media coverage said this was Her Moment. But it didn't happen, at least not on the charts. Unquestionably her reach in pop culture is strong, from her video album to her savvy use of ad endorsements to keep that profile high. But the streaming success she deserves has not arrived. Yet. She'll just have to settle for being a terrific artist.

3. KAMASI WASHINGTON -- Heaven and Earth

Kamasi Washington gave a shot in the arm to jazz and re-awakened my love for the genre as a source of new music. (Jazz is always in the mix for me when it comes to icons like Miles Davis and Louis Armstrong.) And if I have one huge complaint about streaming it's the piss-poor selection of jazz and classical and world music. This year it seemed like all the new jazz I could hear let me down...when I could find them at all. But Washington delivered with an album just as sprawling, messy, vibrant and alive as his breakthrough work a few years ago. I'll keep searching for the latest jazz releases, but Spotify and Apple need to step it up.

4. ANGELIQUE KIDJO -- Remain In Light

What a trip! What a great way to appreciate again both Kidjo and Talking Heads. She tackled their entire album Remain in Light and it's a trippy revelation. It's hard to know what's more exciting: her singing and how she makes this eccentric, seemingly un-coverable album her own or the greatness that was Talking Heads.

5. PANIC! AT THE DISCO -- Pray For The Wicked

I may not care that Janelle Monáe didn't break commercially. (She doesn't need it.) But I am THRILLED that Panic! At the Disco has a monster single with "High Hopes," their first Top 10 hit since 2006. This is a band that deserves, needs, nay demands pop glory and now they've got it. You liked Bohemian Rhapsody? Well, what the heck are you waiting for? They're not Queen (no one is); they are their own band. But they are definitely in that lane: melodramatic pop-rock, surging melodies, over the top vocals and roll-down-the-windows turn-up-the-volume choruses. I've loved them for years and have puzzled over why critics didn't go gaga for them. But I was even more confused as to why their radio-crushing singles weren't crushing radio. Well, now they are.

6. BRANDI CARLILE -- By The Way, I Forgive You

Speaking of melodrama, Brandi Carlile has a gift for it in a shameless, stirring way that would make Roy Orbison nod his head in appreciation. Carlile is in a country rock vein, not the pop opera of Mr Orbison. But that heart on her sleeve emotion combined with a maturity in her outlook and empathy (after all, she forgives you) make this so perfect for the lovelorn that her backing band should be called the Heartbreakers.

7. THE JOHN SALLY RIDE -- Nothing Doing

Wait, WTF? My friend Sal recorded an album as a member of The John Sally Ride last year. Their debut was -- I thought -- a happy accident, an alignment of the planets that allowed veteran musicians to record and release the album of their careers, power pop rock performed with the sheer joy of kids but with the insight only adults could deliver. It was, well -- not a fluke. I mean, they're talented. But surely it was something to cherish and maybe in the back of my mind I thought it would never happen again. How often does lightning strike? I wasn't even sure the band was a going concern. And then out of nowhere comes their second album. And it's...better than the first! It contains more power pop, which is one way of describing rock n roll with killer hooks recorded by people with a few miles on them. From its default sad sack perspective to hilarious one-liners and melodies that sink in and won't let go, this in every respect builds on everything that was good from their first album. I hate to reduce them to humor, but it's a big initial part of the appeal, until you recognize the pain and sadness and regret that underlie all the laughs. But laugh you will, from the first track "Embarrassingly Single" to "I Won't Let Failure Go To My Head" to "I Usually Eat Alone" (are they stalking me?) and the kiss-off "Don't Flatter Yourself." Holy shit, they've got a band. And a discography. And a career!

8. NELLIE MCKAY -- Sister Orchid

Nellie McKay is such a talent, such a bouquet of talent that people can't pin her down. If I were in charge, she'd already have her own variety show on TV somewhere, along with a blank check to do whatever she wanted on her days off.  She's already done it all, from Broadway to pop albums to one-woman bio-musicals about important female figures in history to leading the Resistance with sly humor and smarts. Oh and she records albums. Her latest is a gem and McKay's best since her tribute to Doris Day. For such a talented songwriter, she's really shown a commitment to the classics, whether doing covers of 60s pop to that Doris Day album to this new collection of standards. She recorded it entirely on her own, a la Prince, if Prince were suddenly to discover a talent for the Great American Songbook. It's a quiet, turn off the lights and sit in the dark sort of album. Think Frank Sinatra's In The Wee Small Hours or Ella Fitzgerald's The Intimate Ella. From the opening track "My Romance" (which makes canny, subtle use of over-dubbing) to a droll "Lazybones" and a vulnerable "Where Or When," McKay creates a real spell here. She does a lot without ever showing off, like the sound effects that create a piano bar mood on one tune that will make you laugh without ever being jokey. Or the marvelous arrangement that tops off "In A Sentimental Mood." Or the fact that she covers "Georgia On My Mind" when I thought we'd never need another cover of "Georgia On My Mind" pretty much ever, but damned if she doesn't pull it off. I especially enjoy how she allows her vocals to be naked and vulnerable at just the right lyrical moment. Anyone who appreciates Broadway or the classic albums of the 1950s by Ella and Anita O'Day and Dinah Washington, anyone who loves cabaret? They simply must get this now. In a word, exquisite.

9. BETA RADIO -- Transition

The label I want for this music isn't Americana. Maybe the Band comes close to what I'm thinking, the feel you get when you're hearing music that seems to be created right this very moment but has always existed. You see glimmers of it in Mumford & Sons (sort of) but more so in the likes of Fleet Foxes and Midlake. And you hear it in Beta Radio. One year, after doing my annual story about my favorite music, someone did what I love: they made a recommendation. Hey, check out Beta Radio, they said. I did and was immediately besotted. I think this is the third album for the North Carolina duo. In 2010 they put out Seven Sisters. In 2014 it was Colony of Bees and now in 2018 Transition. Which means, I assume, we can look forward to another album in 2022. Quiet but restless, wise but confused, the lyrics of Beta Radio are rooted in the everyday and the need for more. They'll stop you dead in your tracks, if you know what I mean. I'm playing a few tracks as I write this and suddenly I'm finding it hard to move on to the next album I want to talk about. If you're still waiting for Tim Smith to release his solo album (take your time, Tim!), don't wait to check this out. The real deal.

10. VARIOUS ARTISTS -- Black Panther 

A de facto Kendrick Lamar album with a whole lot of guests, this was more immediately accessible to me than Damn. Like the film, it's expansive and positive and conflicted and determined to be true to itself. Given his track record on TV appearances, Lamar's duet with SZA at the Oscars when they perform "All The Stars" will give Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper a run for their money. Don't get me wrong: "Shallow" will win the Oscar. But who knows? Black Panther could come out of nowhere and win the Oscar for Best Picture or the Grammy for Best Album. It's got the music this project deserves.


11. CÉCILE MCLORIN SALVANT -- The Window

The most exciting jazz singer around does it again. Indeed, "more of the same" is a very high compliment for an artist who has been on fire in the past few years and delivered my favorite album of 2017. The heir to Cassandra Wilson, Salvant draws on a wide range of influences. But she establishes her own magnetic identify as an artist with piercing insight into the lyrics, tremendous humor and a voice that can do anything but knows not to, at least not all the time. Thrilling.

12. ARCTIC MONKEYS -- Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino

Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope...oh wait, actually I do like the new Arctic Monkeys album. At first, it sounded more like a project for the Alex Turner offshoot The Last Shadow Puppets. But what's in a name? The band has wowed me from the start and so have most of their albums. So when you respect an act that much, you're willing to live with a new album that takes a left-turn and come back to it and let it grow on you. This one did.

13. KASEY CHAMBERS -- Campfire

What kind of a jerk wishes a marriage hadn't ended just because he enjoyed the albums that now-divorced couple produced? I keep wondering what she would do next with her ex Shane Nichols when Kasey Chambers has delivered one sprawling, exciting solo album after another. This one is dead simple, a real campfire sing-along of an album. A treat.

14. BENJAMIN JAFFE -- Oh, Wild Ocean Of Love

State of the art neo-soul for those waiting for the next Maxwell. Deeply impressive and the debut of the year.

15. VARIOUS ARTISTS -- African Scream Contest 2

Somehow I missed the apparently landmark compilation African Scream Contest. Its sequel brought me back to those glory days of the late 1980s and early 1990s when African pop was exploding and with each new compilation I found about a dozen new artists worth exploring. Like so many compilations, this may not be something you dive back into again and again -- it's a primer.  But it's exciting and generous and opens your mind. Streaming really does drop the ball when it comes to world music (and jazz and classical) and I fear for the gaps in my musical knowledge that this is creating. African Scream Contest 2 helps to fill in the gaps.

16. SHAKEY GRAVES -- Can't Wake Up

A terrific Americana act, Shakey Graves opened as a busker for Mumford & Sons, which gives you an idea of his wheelhouse. He definitely gave off a street-corner vibe on earlier albums, though each one has proven a little bolder in its instrumentation and arrangements. Every time I put him on, I think "Why aren't I listening to this more often?"

17. ESPERANZA SPALDING -- 12 Little Spells

Esperanza Spalding's talent is so expansive it can get away from her. Like Norah Jones, her ability to make most anything seem magnetic in the moment allows her to sometime drift over ideas rather than dig deeper. Here she digs deeper and delivers the melodies to anchor her always impressive vocals and playing. A return to form.

18. ELVIS COSTELLO -- Look Now

A veteran with fire in his belly. Costello has delivered impressive albums in all sorts of styles, rarely going a few years without delivering a knock out punch artistically. Here he reunites with the Imposters and reminds us he can still rock out too. To anyone who's been paying attention, it's no surprise at all.

19. COURTNEY BARNETT -- Tell Me How You Really Feel 

A smidge less fun than most of her albums, which have a dry wit rivaling Bob Dylan, this more serious album is...more serious. Her guitar work and deadpan vocals and rambling melodies remain a treat and I'm sure I'm just being a kvetch who complained she was repeating herself and now that she's moved ever so slightly to the left, I'm complaining that she's not doing what she did before. Critics!

20.  NAS -- Nasir

Lately, I find I have NO patience for hip-hop that even remotely leans toward the glorification of violence or dismissive attitudes towards women. I just don't want to hear it. But Nas remains an artist who can document violence or his own complicated past without ever giving it nodding approval. Like Costello, he still has fire in his belly and anyone who has been paying attention won't be surprised in the least by this vital album.

21. TONY BENNETT AND DIANA KRALL -- Love Is Here To Stay

It's been a terrific year for albums of standards and this one is right up there. Bennett's voice has been reduced to a whisper of its former self, but like Willie Nelson he has such command and swing of the little vocals left to him that it still works wonders. He and Krall are an awesome pairing with chemistry to spare. A treat.

22. BIRCH PEREIRA -- Western Soul

As fun as his album may be, what I really want to do is grab a cold beer and catch Birch and his band in a dive bar somewhere. Then I'll be a fan for life.

23. TRACEY THORN -- Record

One of the great voices in pop, Tracey Thorn has delivered enough solo gems now that -- as a body of work -- it's beginning to rival the music she recorded with Everything But The Girl. And that's very high praise. Toss in the fact that I suddenly realized she was writing columns for New Statesman and now I can enjoy her witty, insightful writing all the time and not just when she published a book or recorded a new album and 2018 was a banner year for this fan of Thorn. (Here's her latest column.) One of those acts you spend a lifetime appreciating and they keep rewarding your loyalty in unexpected and delightful ways.

24. SCOTT MATTHEWS -- The Great Untold

How did I miss Scott Matthews? He hits my sweet spot, seems to have been critically acclaimed for years with reviews that name check other acts I respect (John Prine, et al) and yet I've been shamefully unaware of him till now. Well, The Great Untold wowed me, with its hushed vocals and plaintive melodies and singer-songwriter vibe. Now I'm gingerly exploring his earlier work, wondering what I'll find. For the moment, he's my favorite new old friend.

25. MACY GRAY -- Ruby

Saucy, smart, ribald and fun. But above all, that gravely, distinctive, memorable can't confuse her with anyone else voice.

26. JASON ALDEAN -- Rearview Town 

More solid country, from the left side of the tracks.

27. MADELEINE PEYROUX -- Anthem

Well, hey there! It's been a while. Peyroux has always been a little hit or miss for me. But boy when she hits, she's a treasure. Here, she hits and if I knew why this worked and some other albums of hers didn't, well I'd be Rick Rubin, wouldn't I? If you fell hard for Careless Love, like I did, you'll enjoy this one too.

28. DRAKE -- Scorpion

Not that anyone cares about greatest hits albums anymore, but boy is Drake going to have a killer one. The three big singles from this huge double album are tremendous fun. The real surprise for me is how it all holds together. Artists are shoving tons of tracks onto their albums for all the wrong reasons (manipulating the charts, etc.). So I assumed the 25 tracks of Scorpion would be about 10 tracks too many. But no...the bigness of it and the quality won out. If people still put out greatest hits albums he could put one out now that would rival Elton John's Greatest Hits Vol. One for sheer pop dominance.

29. JAMES HUNTER -- Whatever It Takes

Damn, James Hunter is consistent. He delivers blue-eyed soul circa London and he's always good. And then sometimes he's really really good. Like here. One of his best, though it's so sneakily great you'll be enjoying yourself too much the first few times you play it to actually realize that.

30. TROYE SIVAN -- Bloom

Sexy enough to make me blush, from the Grindr experience opener "Seventeen" to the closing "Animal" I don't think he's blushing though, which is a key to the album's strength. A great leap forward from his debut. Tag on the Queen cover "Somebody To Love" and this is a very queer, very exciting album. What's next?

31. RICK SPRINGFIELD -- The Snake King

That's right, I said Rick Springfield! I really can't be too adamant, as if I know we should all be surprised. I've always appreciated his clutch of terrific singles but somehow never listened to an album other than a greatest hits set I plunked down for. Now, thanks to streaming and an intriguing review, I checked out his apparently atypical latest release. It is, I kid you not, a crazily good combination of blues guitar and lyrics akin to Bob Dylan circa Highway 61 Revisited. It's defiantly bawdy, atheistic, ballsy, righteous, angry, God-mocking, political, funny and just plain mind-blowing. I'm almost afraid to play it, worried the spell it cast on me during a road trip won't be repeated. But oh my god it blew my mind and made me laugh and just plain rocked! I want to have a drink with Rick Springfield and I don't even drink.

32. LINDA THOMPSON -- My Mother Doesn't Know I'm On The Stage

This is really an evening of music hall entertainment hosted by Linda Thomson, with everyone from Martha Wainwright to Colin Firth (!) to son Teddy Thompson delivering humorous and sad songs of a vintage sort to an appreciative audience. An offbeat pleasure.

33. FALL OUT BOY -- Mania

Like Panic! At The Disco, they know how to deliver the pop goods.

34. ROSEANNE CASH -- She Remembers Everything

Just when she seemed to be edging into a respectable, elder stateswoman, Cash delivers a terrific new album of depth and passion. No, she's not done yet.

35. BUDDY GUY -- The Blues Is Alive And Well

Oh god no, please. A new album from a legend, filled with celebrity guests? I know how this turns out...except here Biddy Guy is really on fire, the celebrity guests stay out of the way and it's just a blast. Don't be wary. The blues really is alive and well here.

36. GORILLAZ -- The Now Now

Is Gorillaz more important now than Blur? Is Damon Albarn one of the sneakiest geniuses at disguising his impressive talent by donning one mask after another? Does it matter? The music, as always, is very good.

37. MANDY PATINKIN -- Diary: January 27, 2018/ April, May 2018

Yet another impressive album of covers. Patinkin began his recording career with a string of very good solo albums but lost his way just a little. Here's he found an excellent collaborator in Doveman, aka Thomas Bartlett. They bounce song ideas off one another and then record almost spontaneously. The result are what Patinkin charmingly calls diaries. The first, from January of 2018, was strong but the second one had an even better mix of songs and a deeper connection between the two artists. The off the cuff nature keeps Patinkin from perhaps getting in his own way vocally (like Streisand, he can overthink in the studio). And the intimacy of the recording is a treat, letting you feel like you're eavesdropping in on a conversation. I sure as hell didn't expect a cover of Dylan's "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack Of Hearts" -- I would have said it wasn't a song anyone should cover until Patinkin proved me wrong. It's just the most unexpected of many treats on what I assume and hope will be more diaries to come.

38. THE VINES -- In Miracle Land 

A wonderful, Beatles-esque talent that exploded in their debut, got bogged down in personal travails and is back showing the gift for melodies and hooks and sheer pop genius that made you go nuts for them in the first place. Welcome back.

39. JOSH ROUSE -- Love In The Modern Age

Sometimes you feel guilty when you love an album by an artist and then don't keep touting them in the years to come, even as others hear something you don't. So yes, I was crazy about Josh Rouse's time travel of an album 1972 and -- while I really liked one or two others -- I drifted away. Now he's tackling the 1980s on Love In The Modern Age and here I am again, cheering. I suppose I'll return to the fold when he tackles the 1950s. But as with 1972, he both captures the musical vibe of an era yet never falls into mimicry. Great fun.

40. JEFF TWEEDY -- Warm/ BOZ SCAGGS -- Out Of the Blues

Two veterans delivering. It hasn't happened a while for Tweedy, who gives ragged charm to a clutch of originals that remind you what a hell of a songwriter he can be. Scaggs has been consistently excellent for a long time now. He does it again on this gem, which slips by with his usual elegance -- it's sleek, smart, sophisticated and sneakily moving.

42. ELLA FITZGERALD/ LOUIS ARMSTRONG -- Cheek To Cheek: The Complete Duet Recordings 

I started with a boxed set so I might as well end with one. It simply doesn't get better than Ella and Louis duetting. Any fool can enjoy it and you'd be a fool if you didn't lend an ear. Two giants who brought out the best in each other. Actually, it's hard to say who is the better duet partner since they both brought out the best in so many others. Here you have a late career peak for two artists who enjoyed so many. It's a joy from start to finish. 

Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the creator of BookFilter, a book lover’s best friend. It’s a website that lets you browse for books online the way you do in a physical bookstore, provides comprehensive info on new releases every week in every category and offers passionate personal recommendations every step of the way. He’s also the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day with top journalists and opinion makers as guests. It’s available for free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website. Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also available for free on iTunes.

THEATER: "Choir Boy" -- It's The Same Old Song

CHOIR BOY ** 1/2 out of ****
MANHATTAN THEATRE CLUB AT SAMUEL J. FRIEDMAN THEATRE

It's been six years since actor Jeremy Jordan enjoyed a rare splash on Broadway: he starred in two new musicals (Bonnie & Clyde and Newsies) within weeks of each other. A star was born. (Ok, it was born the moment he took the stage at the Papermill Playhouse where Newsies debuted. But you get the idea.) Much the same appears to be happening for Jeremy Pope, who stars on Broadway right now in Choir Boy (a play with a lot of singing). And a few weeks from now, he'll be starring in the hotly touted Temptations musical Ain't Too Proud -- The Temptations Musical? Is lightning going to strike twice? And if so, will every parent dreaming of musical theater start naming their sons Jeremy?

It's also the Broadway debut for Oscar-winning playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney. He won the Academy Award for co-writing the screenplay of Moonlight. McCraney also wowed critics with the bold, experimental and moving trilogy The Brother/Sister Plays at the Public Theater. Prepare to be wowed?

Not quite. The strong cast led by Pope and the graceful presentation by director Trip Cullman and his design team is what one would hope for. But Choir Boy proves far more conventional and uninspired than one might expect. It's the same old song given a new but unconvincing arrangement. And if you're eager to point out "It's The Same Old Song" is a hit by the Four Tops (and not the Temptations), I'd applaud you and suggest that's precisely the attention to detail that Choir Boy lacks.

Pharus Jonathan Young (Pope) is the golden-voiced member of the choir at an exclusive prep school catering to young men of color. He is very excited about taking a lead role in the ensemble and maybe breaking precedent by taking a solo at his own graduation. Pharus is also very gay. He is out, sort of, because being in is simply not much of an option for him. Pharus is proud and discreet at the same time, a tricky balancing act he manages with humor, defiance and by following the rules of the school both official (hey, no romance!) and unspoken (no ratting out a fellow student).

Most students just shake their heads at Pharus sometimes being a little too open. But Bobby Marrow, the nephew of the headmaster, can't stand Pharus and they butt heads constantly. When Bobby disrupts practice once too often, Pharus calls for a group vote and Bobby is ousted from choir, creating even more tension between the two. Toss in a fellow student preparing for a life in ministry and a new (white) teacher who oversees the choir and you've got plenty of material for a drama, all of it pretty obvious. Sadly, Choir Boy follows the old script of a tragic but noble gay character, the repressed religious figure, and a stalwart straight best friend. It never surprises. The cast and presentation elevate the proceedings a lot, but not enough to mask the play's essential flaws.

Beyond the charismatic ensemble, the best part of the show is the music, mostly old spirituals and an original posing as the school's theme song. They are woven into the action with simplicity and ease. Choreographer Camille A. Brown and Cullman keep the 100 minute show moving briskly and seamlessly between story and song. While the connections to the drama aren't always obvious to me, the songs were clearly chosen with care and feel of a piece with the action.

The highpoint of the show is a locker room scene. Bobby (played gruffly and a little too obviously by J. Quinton Johnson) has been touchy throughout over any mention of his mother. Indeed, when the would-be preacher David (Caleb Eberhardt) references her and Bobby's hackles rise, he immediately apologizes and says he forgot. Dead? A disgrace? It's not quite clear but Bobby's mom is clearly a source of pain for him. In the locker-room David starts singing "Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child" directly to Bobby. (That answers that question, since now we know Bobby's mom is dead.)

It's a peace-offering and an invitation to grieve and heal all at once. The rest of the cast freeze in tension and empathy. David keeps singing and offering it up to Bobby...and finally Bobby takes the lead. Soon, the rest of the choir are joining in on harmony to support him. It's touching and powerful. And then Pharus steps in and starts show-boating on vocals until Bobby and everyone else stop singing and leave in disgust. Only Pharus' roommate A.J. (John Clay III) stays behind to shake his head and chide him. Everything about this scene is good. It's the best use of a song. It moves the story forward. And it complicates our hero, letting us know however much we sympathize with him, Pharus is human and can be brash and self-centered at times.

But later in the play, this dramatic peak is undercut when we're supposed to believe Pharus had no idea that Bobby's mom is dead. Since everyone else knows, since Bobby is the nephew of the headmaster and his life is already an open book and since if his mom weren't there for a school event it would be pretty obvious even to Pharus, that's impossible to believe. And if true, it makes the earlier scene pointless: Pharus wasn't interrupting a precious healing moment; as far as he knew. he was just joining in on a song after Bobby and others had their turn.

Other problems abound, including the saintly AJ, a straight dude in high school so comfortable with himself he both straddles his roomie Pharus to tickle him and then swiftly takes in stride the inadvertent arousal that follows. There's understanding and then there's absurdly understanding. Who is this, Sidney Poitier?

Even more problematic is the new white teacher played by Austin Pendleton. The actor does his best and as usual is appealing and believable on stage. But what should be an unconventional shaking up of the choir proves quite beside the point. About the only meaningful step he takes is to assign them an assignment to learn a favorite song of their parents. This character might have created tension, proven a role model for Pharus, brought the two warring students together or done a million other things. Instead, he does nothing. Indeed, when the teacher gets upset over a string of slurs voiced by Bobby, it was hard to tell if he was more upset by the N word or the F word. (Given his immediate understanding when the preacher-to-be references wanting to learn more about the Biblical King David, I'd go with the latter.)

It ends much as one would expect, more's the pity. Despite the constant flow of music, even the setting of a choir seems beside the point. Pharus has one great scene discussing old spirituals. Yet except for that locker room scene, the real joy of a choir in rehearsal and performance is absent. Most of the musical interludes are dropped into the show, not part of it. We don't see the young men working on an arrangement, learning a new song or striving to make their voices blend together. While Pharus yearns to solo at graduation, he might just as well be striving to deliver a speech as the student with the best academic record or striving to win the big game. It's a goal, but a generic one.

Still, the cast makes you believe. Chuck Cooper breathes life into every moment he's on stage as the headmaster. And the students are a strong ensemble, from Nicholas L. Ashe as the bouncy Junior to Johnson's stolid, dependable AJ. But just as Jeremy Jordan's appearance in Bonnie & Clyde was just a precursor of things to come, we can expect both Jeremy Pope and Tarell Alvin McCraney to be back on Broadway in far better style. Hey, the same was true with that Motown act. Their debut was the so-so Meet The Temptations. Much better would be to come and with talent like Pope and McCraeny, the same is true for them. Indeed, the sky's the limit.

THEATER OF 2019

Frankenstein: Under The Radar Fest at the Public ** 1/2
Minor Character: Under The Radar Festival at the Public ***
Ink: Under The Radar  Festival at the Public  ** 1/2
Choir Boy ** 1/2



Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the creator of BookFilter, a book lover’s best friend. It’s a website that lets you browse for books online the way you do in a physical bookstore, provides comprehensive info on new releases every week in every category and offers passionate personal recommendations every step of the way. He’s also the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day with top journalists and opinion makers as guests. It’s available for free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website. Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also available for free on iTunes.

IRAs -- The Best Of The 1980s (work in progress)

THE BEST FILMS OF THE 1980s

87 and counting 

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension 
Airplane! 
Aliens
All Of Me
Amadeus 
Another Country (Tubi w ads)
Arthur
As Tears Go By
Au Revoir Les Enfants (Kanopy)
Babette’s Feast 
Back To The Future 
Berlin Alexanderplatz
Blade Runner (IMDB w ads)
Blood Simple 
Blue Velvet (Amazon, Epix, Hulu)
Born on the Fourth of July (Hulu)
Brazil 
Broadcast News (Starz) 
Broadway Danny Rose 
Bull Durham (Amazon, Hoopla, Netflix)
Chariots of Fire (Max  Go)
Crimes and Misdemeanors (HBO)
Dangerous Liaisons 
Danton (Kanopy)
Das Boot 
The Dead 
The Decalogue 
Diner 
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Amazon, Hoopla, Roku)
Distant Voices, Still Lives 
Do the Right Thing (Starz)
Drugstore Cowboy (HBO)
Eight Men Out (Amazon, Hoopla, Roku) 
Empire Of The Sun 
The Empire Strikes Back 
Enemies, A Love Story 
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Max Go) 
Evil Dead II 
The Fabulous Baker Boys 
Fanny and Alexander 
Field of Dreams (Hulu)
A Fish Called Wanda (Roku)
The Fly 
For All Mankind (Kanopy) 
Full Metal Jacket 
Gallipoli (Starz) 
Ghostbusters 
Hairspray 
Hannah and Her Sisters 
Heathers 
Henry V 
High Hopes 
Honkytonk Man 
Hope and Glory 
Jean de Florette / Manon of the Spring 
The Killing Fields 
Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance 
The Last Emperor 
The Little Mermaid 
Local Hero 
Lost In America 
Matewan
Modern Romance 
My Brilliant Career 
My Dinner with Andre 
My Favorite Year 
My Left Foot 
My Life As A Dog 
My Neighbor Totoro 
Once Upon a Time in America 
Pee-Wee's Big Adventure 
The Princess Bride 
Prizzi's Honor 
The Purple Rose of Cairo 
Radio Days 
Raging Bull 
Raiders of the Lost Ark 
Ran 
The Return of Martin Guerre 
The Right Stuff 
Risky Business 
River's Edge 
The Road Warrior 
A Room With A View 
Runaway Train 
sex, lies and videotape 
The Shining 
Shoah 
Smooth Talk 
Something Wild 
Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan 
Stop Making Sense 
Swimming To Cambodia 
Tender Mercies 
Terms Of Endearment 
The Thin Blue Line 
Things Change 
This Is Spinal Tap 
Time Bandits 
The Times Of Harvey Milk 
Tootsie 
The Unbearable Lightness of Being 
Vernon, Florida 
Victor/Victoria 
The War Of The Roses 
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? 
Wings of Desire 
Withnail and I 
Witness 
Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown 
The World According To Garp 
Zelig