The New York Times - 19.09.2019

THE NEW YORK TIMES, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2019 N C3

‘American Buffalo’

Returning to Broadway

David Mamet’s play about three
low-level crooks conjuring a
get-rich-quick scheme is return-
ing to Broadway next year.
A revival of “American Buf-
falo,” starring Laurence Fish-
burne (below left) and Sam
Rockwell (below right), is set to
begin previews in March, with an
official opening on April 14, the
producers announced on Tues-
day. A theater has yet to be
named.
The original run of the play
debuted on Broadway in 1977
and centered on the half-baked
heist of three hustlers who con-
spire in a Chicago junk shop to
steal a man’s rare coin collection.
(In his review of that production,
the critic Clive Barnes of The
New York Times called it “one of
the foulestmouthed plays ever
staged.”) The play has been

revived a handful of times since
then, on Broadway and on the
West End in London, and was
adapted as a 1996 film starring
Dennis Franz and Dustin Hoff-
man.
In this iteration, Fishburne will
play Donny, the owner of the
shop who has taken Bobby, a
young neighborhood kid, under
his wing. This will be Fishburne’s
first return to Broadway since
his portrayal of Thurgood Mar-
shall in the 2008 one-man show
“Thurgood.”
“I’m just really looking for-
ward to this play and working
with Mamet,” Fishburne said in a
phone interview. “He’s somebody
who’s been an inspiration to me
both as an actor and as a writer.”
“The way he uses language is
like music to me,” he continued.
Rockwell will play Walter Cole
(known as Teach), who weasels
his way into Donny’s scheme and
who has been portrayed in previ-
ous productions by Robert Du-
vall and Al Pacino. Rockwell is
returning to Broadway after

critically acclaimed film perform-

ances, including his Oscar-win-

ning role in “Three Billboards

Outside Ebbing, Missouri.” His

last Broadway performance was

in the 2014 revival of Sam Shep-

ard’s “Fool for Love.”

Neil Pepe will direct the pro-

duction. He previously directed

revivals of Mamet’s “A Life in the

Theatre” and “Speed-the-Plow.”

He is also artistic director of the

Atlantic Theater Company, the

Off Broadway theater Mamet

founded in 1985.

“American Buffalo” is being

produced by Jeffrey Richards,

Steve Traxler and Stephanie P.

McClelland.

LAUREN MESSMAN

‘The Drama Is Over’

At Salzburg Festival

Salzburg, Austria, has been

home to classical-music intrigues

since Mozart, its most famous

native son, bristled under the

employ of its prince-archbishop.

The city’s latest battle — which

has been raging in the German-

language press — has been over

control of the Salzburg Easter

Festival, which was founded in

1967 by the conductor Herbert

von Karajan.

The fight has pitted two

strong-willed artistic leaders

against each other: Christian

Thielemann, the principal con-

ductor of the Staatskapelle Dres-

den and the Easter Festival’s

artistic director since 2013; and

the man tapped last November

as his successor, Nikolaus Bach-

ler, who is nearing the end of his

tenure as general manager of the

Bavarian State Opera in Munich.

The battle — over the Dresden

orchestra’s role at the festival

and the division of power during

the transition between Thiele-

mann and Bachler — burst into

the open last month when an

exasperated letter that Thiele-

mann wrote to festival officials

was published in The Salzburger

Nachrichten newspaper. Matters

were resolved on Tuesday, when

festival officials announced that

Thielemann and the Staatska-

pelle would indeed depart after

the 2022 festival, their 10th.

“The drama is over,” Bachler

said in a telephone interview.

Bachler said that he planned to

reinvent the festival, which was

originally conceived as a vehicle

for the Berlin Philharmonic, and

more recently served as one for

the Staatskapelle. His idea is to

bring different leading orches-

tras and conductors each year to

explore repertoire in which they

specialize. Bachler also plans to

reconfigure the 10-day event to

make it more immersive, with

offerings from morning until late

at night.

In his letter to festival officials,

Thielemann, who is also the

music director of the Bayreuth

Wagner Festival, wrote that he

had hoped to conduct Wagner’s

“Lohengrin” in Salzburg in 2022

and Strauss’s “Elektra” there in

2023. The festival officials split
      the difference, announcing that
      Thielemann would conduct “Lo-
      hengrin” as his farewell in 2022.
      (A spokeswoman for the Staats-
      kapelle said that neither the
      orchestra nor Thielemann had
      any comment.)
      Bachler will take over the
      festival’s business operations in
      2020 — when he will overlap
      with Thielemann — and become

artistic director in 2022. He has a

close rapport with the conductor

Kirill Petrenko, the music direc-

tor of the Bavarian State Opera,

who became chief conductor of

the Berlin Philharmonic last

month. He said that he hoped to

lure the Berliners — who have

played at Baden-Baden’s Easter

Festival since leaving Salzburg

— back, as one of the rotating

guest orchestras he wants to

attract.

“That,” Bachler said, “is my

big wish.”

MICHAEL COOPER

Manhattan Cathedral

Recovering From Fire

All eyes are on Paris’s fire-rav-

aged Notre-Dame, which Presi-

dent Emmanuel Macron of

France has pledged to restore in

five years. But a great cathedral

in New York is also recovering

from a conflagration that oc-

curred on Palm Sunday — one

day before the medieval French

Notre-Dame was overcome by

flames.

The fire at the Cathedral

Church of St. John the Divine

(left), a Gothic-style landmark in

the Morningside Heights neigh-

borhood of Manhattan, was far

less catastrophic. It was confined

to a windowless room in the

crypt, and no one was injured.

The cause has been declared

unknown.

Still, oil paintings and an 18th-

century icon were destroyed and

other artworks damaged. And

the plumes of smoke that rose up

through heating vents in the

floor into the cathedral’s vast

interior left soot everywhere.

“It doesn’t sound so bad until

you learn that smoke on stone

acts as an acid,” the Rev. Clifton

Daniel III, the cathedral’s leader,

said in an interview on Monday.

For months, crews from Max-

ons Restorations have been

scrubbing walls with special

heavy-duty brick-shaped

sponges. Construction lifts —

driven right onto the slate floor

of the nave — carry them up to

the 125-foot-high ceiling. With no

room around the high altar to

maneuver such heavy ma-

chinery, scaffolding is being

installed there to put soiled sur-

faces within arm’s reach.

The stained-glass windows are

being vacuumed, the cast-bronze

entrance doors wiped down.

The cathedral, the seat of the

Episcopal Diocese of New York,

remains open. A rented elec-

tronic organ is providing music

until the 8,035 pipes of the cathe-

dral’s acclaimed Skinner instru-

ment — which, incidentally, had

recently been cleaned and re-

installed after a more serious fire

in the cathedral in 2001 — can be

packed up and sent away again

for cleaning.

“It’s what you call an M-E-

S-S,” Daniel said.

He hopes the cleaning of the

stonework will be completed by

Christmas and the cathedral will

no longer look like a work site,

with the organ restoration taking

place next year (total cost: about

$10 million).

Until then, tour buses still

disgorge passengers out front.

But for the duration, with so

many areas cordoned off, the

usual $10 admission fee has been

cut in half.

JANE MARGOLIES

Arts, Briefly

NEWS FROM THE CULTURAL WORLD

HELENA KUBICKA DE BRAGANÇA

HELEN SUNGThis pianist

performs American

songbook classics and more

obscure tunes from jazz’s

past. 7:30 and 9 p.m. at

Smalls.

smallslive.com

AMERICAN CLASSICAL

ORCHESTRAThomas

Crawford conducts this

ensemble as it opens its 35th

season. 8 p.m. at Alice Tully

Hall.

212-721-6500, aconyc.org

‘MILLENNIUM ACTRESS’

A documentarian meets a

reclusive performer. At

Metrograph.

212-660-0312,

metrograph.com

Ready, Set, Go

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KenKen

“Marvelous.”—The Washington Post

“A sublime, many-voiced novel of voyage and

reinvention.”—Anthony Marra, author of

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena

ANGELIKA FILM CENTER

http://www.angelikafilmcenter.com

Corner of Houston & Mercer (212) 995-2000

MONOS

10:00AM, 12:20, 2:50, 5:20, 8:00, 10:30PM

BRITTANY RUNS A

MARATHON

10:10, 11:35AM, 12:35, 2:05, 3:00, 4:40,

5:35, 7:10, 8:10, 9:45, 10:35PM

AFTER THE WEDDING

10:35AM, 1:10, 3:45, 6:20, 9:00PM

THE FAREWELL

10:00AM, 12:20, 2:45, 5:15, 7:45, 10:10PM

WHERE’D YOU GO, BERNADETTE?

11:15AM, 1:50, 4:25, 7:00, 9:35PM

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ACROSS

1 Buffoon

4 Some horses

9 2008, 2009,

2010, 2011

14 “___-di-dah!”

15 Leave college
sports early, say

16 Quarters

17 Musical Yoko

18 With 71-Across,
2016, 2018

20 Food pkg. info

22 Slangy negative

23 Here, in Havana

24 2015, 2016,
2018

29 Have goals

30 Completely
behind

34 Little pest

35 Isolates, in
business-speak

38 Ocean predator

39 One-named
singer with the
#1 hit “Cheap
Thrills”

40 2012

43 Show piece

44 Lead-in that

means “Way to

go!”

46 General tone

47 Abu Dhabi’s land:

Abbr.

48 Literally, “frying

pan”

51 Futuristic

assistants

53 1949 (first

winner)

57 Away from the

bow

60 Principal

61 Cousin of a plum

62 What each of the

programs in this

puzzle has won

at least once

67 Half of nine?

68 Danger

69 Bulgaria’s capital

70 URL ending

71 See 18-Across

72 Pre-1917 rulers

73 QB’s stats

DOWN

1 Beside

2 Track that hosted

Seabiscuit’s final

race

3 Missouri, with

“the”

4 ___ Khan

(Islamic title)

5 “Coriolanus”

setting

6 Calendar abbr.

7 Thorny plant

8 Prefix with

economics

9 Place for trophies

10 Epitome of

simplicity

11 “___ and the

Lost City of Gold”

(2019 movie)

12 Battlefield figure

13 Site of a

Herculean feat

19 Palindromic girl

21 Summit

25 What trawlers

trawl for

26 Small jazz group

27 Bit of bicycling

gear

28 ___-mo

31 Like kited checks

32 Brought about

33 A mile a minute,

e.g.

34 Pronto

36 Fa n’s c r y

37 Chain letters?

41 “Me neither”

42 Ending with

aero-

45 The Matterhorn

is one

49 In the end

50 Con

52 Stats for

eggheads

54 Most meek

55 Shelfmates of

Chips Ahoy!

56 Drink garnishes

57 Most newspapers

have them

nowadays

58 Worry

59 Beginner: Var.

63 1960s-’70s

Israeli leader

64 Music school

deg.

65 Old space station

66 “___ queen!”

(“You go, girl!”)

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE

PUZZLE BY DAVID KWONG

9/19/19

HOHUM F L OA T WOK

O B AMA A E R I E AWE

O I LPLATFORM T I E

DEF LSAT SPL EEN

TA I L SHEER

PAGERS SPIRITED

AWA R D S T E P S O L E

NASA CHOWS TWI N

DIS SLAVS CREST

ATTITUDE SHORES

ARABY L EAD

ASTERS GETS WAD

CH I DOWNTHEP I PE

TOO OD I UM R I NSE

SON MANSE SEDER

123 45678 910111213

14 15 16

17 18 19

20 21 22 23

24 25 26 27 28

29 30 31 32 33

34 35 36 37 38

39 40 41 42 43

44 45 46 47

48 49 50 51 52

53 54 55 56

57 58 59 60 61

62 63 64 65 66 67

68 69 70

71 72 73

Crossword Edited by Will Shortz

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