The New York Times - 30.07.2019

C4 N THE NEW YORK TIMES, TUESDAY, JULY 30, 2019

AIN’T TOO PROUD

“AN ELECTRIFYING, THRILL-A-MINUTE MUSICAL!” -Peter Marks, The Washington Post

AIN'T TOO PROUD

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF

THE TEMPTATIONS

Book by DOMINIQUE MORISSEAU Music and Lyrics from THE LEGENDARY MOTOWN CATALOG Based on the Book Entitled THE TEMPTATIONS by OTIS WILLIAMS Music by Arrangement with SONY/ATV MUSIC PUBLISHING Choreographed by SERGIO TRUJILLO Directed by DES McANUFF Telecharge.com or 212-239-6200 AintTooProudMusical.com Sun 3; T 7; W 2&8; Th 7; F 8; Sat 2&8 Imperial Theatre (+), 249 W. 45th St.

“FABULOUS & EXTRAVAGANT!” The New York Times DISNEY presents

ALADDIN

The Hit Broadway Musical
GREAT SEATS AVAILABLE NOW
Tonight at 7
T7;W2&7;Th7;F8;Sa2&8;Su3
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866-870-2717
New Amsterdam Theatre (+) 214 W. 42 St.

FINAL BROADWAY PERFORMANCE OCTOBER 27 Tonight at 7

BEAUTIFUL

THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL

Tu7; We 2&8; Th 7; Fr 8; Sa 2&8; Su 3
Telecharge.com/212-239-6200
Groups of 10+ 1-800- BROADWAY ext. 2
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Stephen Sondheim Theatre 124 W 43rd St

“SCREAMINGLY GOOD FUN!”

Variety

BEETLEJUICE

The Musical. The Musical. The Musical. Telecharge.com or 212-239-6200 Groups(12+): 866-302-0995 Tu/Th 7, Wed/Sat 2 & 8, Fri 8, Sun 3 http://www.BeetlejuiceBroadway.com Winter Garden Theatre - 50th St. & Bway

FINAL PERFORMANCE AUGUST 18! “The Cher Show gets me, babe.”

The New York Times
Tonight at 7pm

THE CHER SHOW

Ticketmaster.comor call 877-250-2929 Groups (10+): 1-800-BROADWAY x2 Tu 7; Wed 2&8;Th 7; Fri 8; Sat 2&8; Sun 3 TheCherShowBroadway.com Neil Simon Theatre (+), 250 W. 52 ST.

“I can't imagine a musical we need more right now.”

Entertainment Weekly
TODAY AT 7

COME FROM AWAY

WINNER! BEST MUSICAL ALL ACROSS NORTH AMERICA Telecharge.com or 212-239-6200 ComeFromAway.com Tu-Th 7; We, Sa 2; Fr, Sa 8; Su 3 Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre (+)

DISNEY presents

FROZEN

The Hit Broadway Musical “AMAZING special effects EYE-POPPING costumes, and INCREDIBLE performances!” -Newsday Great Seats Available Now Tonight at 7 T7;W1&7;Th7;F8;Sa2&8;Su3 FrozenTheMusical.com 866-870-2717 St. James Theatre (+) 246 W 44th St.

Tonight at 7 8 TONY AWARDS INCLUDING BEST MUSICAL “THE HOTTEST TICKET IN TOWN” -Wall Street Journal

HADESTOWN

By ANAIS MITCHELL Directed by RACHEL CHAVKIN Hadestown.com Walter Kerr Theatre, 219 W. 48th St.

“HILARIOUS, SPLASHY AND UNMISTAKABLY BY TINA FEY!” -New York Magazine

MEAN GIRLS

Book by TINA FEY MusicbyJEFFRICHMOND Lyrics by NELL BENJAMIN Directed & Choreographed by CASEY NICHOLAW Groups: 1-800-BROADWAYx2 MeanGirlsOnBroadway.com August Wilson Theatre (+), 245 W. 52 St.

Tonight at 7pm “Spectacular. Extravagant. Its shine is dazzling.” - Time Out New York Baz Luhrmann's Revolutionary Film Comes to Life

MOULINROUGE!

THE MUSICAL

Book by John Logan Directed by Alex Timbers Ticketmaster.com or 877-250-2929 Groups: 1-800-BROADWAY x2 MoulinRougeMusical.com Al Hirschfeld Theatre (+),302 W. 45TH ST.

WINNER! BEST MUSICAL

TONY AWARD

WINNER! BEST MUSICAL OLIVIER AWARD

WINNER! BEST MUSICAL DRAMA DESK AWARD

WINNER! BEST MUSICAL OUTER CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD

WINNER! BEST MUSICAL ALBUM GRAMMY AWARD

TONIGHT AT 7, TOMORROW AT 7 “THE BEST MUSICAL OF THIS CENTURY.”

Ben Brantley, The New York Times

THE BOOK OF MORMON

877-250-2929 or Ticketmaster.com Groups 10+: 866-302-0995 BookOfMormonBroadway.com Tue - Thu 7; Fri 8; Sat 2 & 8; Sun 2 & 7 Eugene O'Neill Theatre (+), 230 W 49th St

DISNEY presents

THE LION KING

The Award-Winning Best Musical Tonight at 7 This Wk:T7;W2&8;Th8;F8;Sa2&8;Su3 Next Wk:T7;W2&8;Th8;F2&8;Sa2&8;S3 lionking.com 866-870-2717 Minskoff Theatre (+), B'way & 45th Street

Tonight at 7 Let Your Fantasies Unwind Visit Telecharge.com; Call 212-239-6200

THE PHANTOM OF

THE OPERA

Mon8; Tue 7; Wed - Sat 8; Thu & Sat 2 Grps: 800-BROADWAY or 866-302-0995 Majestic Theatre (+) 247 W. 44th St.

FINAL WEEKS!

LAST PERFORMANCE AUG. 11 TODAY AT 7

THE PROM

Book by Bob Martin and Chad Beguelin Music by Matthew Sklar LyricsbyChadBeguelin Directed and Choreographed by Casey Nicholaw Telecharge.com or 212-239-6200 ThePromMusical.com Tu7;We,Sa2&8;Th,Fr8;Su3 Longacre Theatre (+), 220 W. 48th St.

TONIGHT AT 7, TOM'W AT 1 & 7 BEST AVAILABILITY NOVEMBER

NEW YORK TIMES CRITIC'S PICK “ALL RISE FOR THIS GREAT PLAY. ONE OF THE BEST IN HISTORY.” David Richardson, NPR

JEFF DANIELS is ATTICUS FINCH in

HARPER LEE'S

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

A NEW PLAY BY AARON SORKIN DIRECTED BY BARTLETT SHER Telecharge.com or 212-239-6200 Groups 12+: 866-302-0995 ToKillAMockingbirdBroadway.com Shubert Theatre (+), 225 W 44th St

Tonight at 7:30 NEW YORK TIMES CRITIC'S PICK “Far and away the funniest musical of the season!” -Daily News

TOOTSIE

The Comedy Musical TootsieMusical.com or 877.250.2929 Marquis Theatre (+), 210 W. 46th St.

Music and Lyrics by Sara Bareilles

WAITRESS

Tonight at 7 Book by Jessie Nelson Directed by Diane Paulus WaitressTheMusical.com Ticketmaster.com / 877-250-2929 Tu, Thu 7; Wed 2&7; Fri 8; Sat 2&8; Sun 3 Brooks Atkinson Theatre (+), 256 W 47 St

“BROADWAY'S BIGGEST BLOCKBUSTER” -The New York Times Tonight at 7

WICKED

WickedtheMusical.com Mo-Th 7; We 2; Fr 8; Sa 2&8 Ticketmaster.com or 877-250-2929 Groups: 646-289-6885/877-321-0020 Gershwin Theatre(+) 222 West 51st St.

WINNER! BEST MUSICAL REVIVAL 2019 Drama Desk Award 2019 Outer Critics Circle Award

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF

In Yiddish with English Supertitles Directedby JOEL GREY Tue, Thu 7; Wed, Sat 2&8; Fri 8; Sun 3 FiddlerNYC.com or 212-239-6200 Groups (12+): 866-302-0995 Stage 42 (+), 422 W. 42nd Street

“EXPLOSIVE!” - NY Stage Review TONIGHT AT 8, WEDNESDAY AT 2 & 8 Lincoln Center Theater Presents

THE ROLLING STONE

By Chris Urch Directedby Saheem Ali Telecharge.com or 212-239-6200 http://www.lct.org Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater(+), W. 65th St.

“Hilarious! Nonstop pandemonium!” - EW

THE PLAY THAT

GOES WRONG

THURSDAY AT 2 & 7 Telecharge.com or 212-239-6200 BroadwayGoesWrong.com Mo7;Th2&7;Fr8;Sa2&8;Su2&7 New World Stages (+), 340 W. 50th St.

BROADWAY

OFF−BROADWAY

Rhymes flow pattern. The excellent “Ballin Flossin” takes a sample of Brandy’s “I Wanna Be Down” and jostles it into an up- tempo house record. “Found a Good One (Single No More)” lays gospel overtones atop a foundation of Miami bass. This is Chance’s real provocation on this album: suggesting that the same mediums that transmit sin might also transmit salva- tion. Often his touchstone is the hybrid gospel-pop of artists like Kirk Franklin and Tye Tribbett. Add to that a lyrical approach that emphasizes cleverness in rhyme, and sometimes the result leans toward the tightly wound thrill ride of musical theater. Take “Eternal,” which sounds like a homework assignment a couples therapist might give someone who’s gone outside the marriage for comfort: “Side chicks can’t take out splinters/Side chicks make they Kool-Aid with Splenda.” “Hot Shower” has a rumble of a beat, but its boasts — “I’m all professional and proper/But my baby- mama stopped me in a meeting/Just to Air- drop me some nudes” — aren’t aspirational so much as taunting. “The Big Day” is Chance’s fourth full- length release, and though he has made a point of referring to it as his debut album, it feels no more fleshed out than “Coloring Book,” from 2016 (which won the Grammy for best rap album), and is less sonically consistent than “Acid Rap,” from 2013. And

it’s less impressive than either of them. At 22 tracks, it’s overlong and scattered. And while it features some impressive guest appearances — a pugnacious DaBaby on “Hot Shower,” the nimble Smino on “Eternal” — it also includes some likely first-time hip-hop collaborations — Death Cab for Cutie on “Do You Remember,” Co- coRosie on “Roo,” Randy Newman on “5 Year Plan” — that maybe didn’t need to hap- pen. (On “Zanies and Fools,” the sung intro manages a better Newman than Newman himself; it’s one of the album’s standout bits.) When Chance is at his most ecstatic, he often cuts his lines short, interrupts himself, leans on the primal energy of how he enun- ciates his syllables. But sometimes he al- lows himself to wallow, and his talents look different when darkened by shadows.

On this album, the most striking lyrical moment — the one that makes best use of his gift for unlikely rhyme and his penchant for thick storytelling — is the most somber. “We Go High” is the story of how Chance almost didn’t get what he wanted, how he got in his own way on the path to joy. The mood is glum and resigned, but that means that Chance can’t rely on his own liveliness. He opens the song holding a knife to his own chest:

Lies on my breath, she say she couldn’t take the smell of it Tired of the rumors, every room had a elephant Tryna find her shoes, rummaging through the skeletons She took away sex, took me out of my element I tried to do the single-dad mingle-dance At the club with the iron in my wrinkled pants You could fall much faster than you think you can

It’s cleareyed and convincing — not the wide-eyed boasts of unchallenged love, but the downcast acceptance of a love you have to fight for. It’s entrancing enough to make you wonder what his divorce album might sound like.

Will Fans Enjoy Odes to Joy?

CONTINUED FROM PAGE C1

Chance the Rapper’s marriage provides the bulk of inspiration on “The Big Day.”

BURAK CINGI/REDFERNS, VIA GETTY IMAGES

Chance the Rapper “The Big Day” (Chance the Rapper LLC)

If jazz for you means tradition and inher-
itance, maybe Herbie Hancock can change
your mind. At the very least, he’d like to
make you think twice about what “tradi-
tion” means. Mr. Hancock, a pianist and
composer, has never been interested in up-
holding any stylistic conventions — “I like
to break things,” he said when we spoke last
week — but he does insist on a few trusty
ideals. For him, jazz will always mean cross-
pollination, adventurism and faith in what’s
ahead.
After double-majoring in music and engi-
neering at Grinnell College, Mr. Hancock
joined Miles Davis’s band in 1963, close on
the heels of his own debut album. Immedi-
ately, his piano playing represented some
big new possibilities, connecting the shaded
harmonies of Romanticism and the earth
tones of the blues. By decade’s end, ventur-
ing into jazz-rock fusion, Mr. Hancock had
figured out how to make synths and electric
keyboards sound splintered and percus-
sive. On albums like “Head Hunters,”
“Thrust” and “Mr. Hands,” he put a kick of
futurism into funk. A few years later, he
turned right back around, returning to an
acoustic format years before jazz’s neocon-
servative moment dawned.
More recently, Mr. Hancock’s fusion re-
cordings from the 1970s and ’80s have be-
come a touchstone for younger musicians,
and he has welcomed these new acolytes
into his own creative process. The cross-
over stars Terrace Martin and Thundercat
will join Mr. Hancock onstage this Thurs-
day, when he plays the Beacon Theater in
New York.
Speaking from his home in Los Angeles,
Mr. Hancock reflected on five decades at the
vanguard of American music, and he dan-
gled promises of a new record — the prod-
uct of that intergenerational exchange —
which he said could begin trickling online,
track by track, in the next few weeks. This
would be a welcome development from Mr.
Hancock, 79, who hasn’t released an album
in nearly a decade and has not made one de-
voted to original music in twice as long.
Not that he’s been idle. As a UNESCO
global ambassador and the chairman of the
recently renamed Herbie Hancock Institute
of Jazz, he stays busy advocating the con-
tinued relevance of jazz across the globe.

These are edited excerpts from the con- versation.

It seems like your influence — your shadow — is everywhere these days, particularly among young jazz and electronic musicians. I wonder if you feel gratified by that, and if you think it casts your work in a fresh light? The truth is, I’ve been sticking my nose into what they’redoing. And that shadow that you’re talking about, that’s me: I’ve been going and hanging out with the younger musicians, like Robert Glasper. Sitting in. Terrace Martin has turned me on to a lot of the young people on that scene. I’m examin- ing their approaches to music, and their use of social media, and how they record. Then we begin to exchange ideas. So it’s not just what I’ve done in the past, but the fact that I’m physically here now and accessible. I like to break rules. I like to break con- vention. I’m interested in virtual reality now, even though I’m not a gamer. I don’t

know when I’m going to get in that door, but I’m looking into it. I have an Oculus Rift, and I just bought a Valve Index. How has working with younger musicians helped expand your palette? As far as the new record I’m working on, I wanted to explore what young musicians are doing these days. I started off hanging out with Flying Lotus. Through him, I met Thundercat. Flying Lotus sent me a text: “Listen to Kendrick Lamar’s ‘To Pimp a Butterfly.’ It’s an important record.” I didn’t

know who Kendrick Lamar was. And the first time I listened to it, the first thing I heard were words that I don’t like to hear on records. And this was my mistake: I as- sumed it was going to be what rap had been before. I heard that, and it turned me off. Then I started to think. I said, wait a minute. Flying Lotus says it’s an important record. So if I’m going to hear this record, I have to remove that barrier that I’ve put up. For years I’ve been against people pre- judging stuff without paying attention to what is actually there. So I said, don’t tell me I’m falling into the same trap I’ve been fighting against, that happened to me when I did “Head Hunters”! I listened to it again, and the record blew my [expletive] mind. [Laughs] I mean, this guy’s such a genius.

You have always ventured in and out of stylistic idioms, but nowadays it seems like nobody wants to be stuck inside a single genre. I wonder if you think the era of stylistic labels has come and gone. Genres made it easy to put things in catego- ries so that they could be promoted. One person’s face could be recognized for one category, and another person’s face could be recognized for another category. It was just to make some sense of it all. But when it starts to interfere with cross-collaboration, and the fact that that toocan be musical, then it becomes a problem. I can only say that the word “jazz” today is much broader than it has been in the past. You know, the most important thing is the spirit of jazz — which is about freedom, about improvisation, about courage. I mean the courage to play something that you ha- ven’t played before, to create something on the spot. And it’s also about sharing, because onstage we don’t compete with each other. Each of us expresses ourselves from our own being, and no two people are alike, so the idea of being judgmental is not on the table.

As a UNESCO good-will ambassador, you were instrumental in the creation of Interna- tional Jazz Day. Why was it important for you to put jazz in a global context? Well, jazz actually has been functioning as an international music for a number of years. Jazz musicians are in pretty much every country on the planet. So my first idea was to introduce the idea of UNESCO making an International Jazz Day, which is an offshoot of what I’ve wanted to propose to UNESCO: that jazz become officially an international music, and not just an American music. That it belongs to the world now, not just to the United States. What are Americans? We’re immigrants. We all come from every corner of the planet. So it’s like giving this music that developed here back to the rest of the world, because we also come from the rest of the world. Yes, the beginnings of the music started from the African-American experience, but it perme- ated all of America and developed through this melting pot. Frankly, we need more events and more things that point out the importance of bringing people from all over the planet together. To laugh together, to cry together, to work together, to help each other.

An Ambassador Hails Jazz’s Global Reach

At 79, Herbie Hancock is

making music, breaking rules

and listening to younger artists.

By GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO

Herbie Hancock, above, at his home studio in Los Angeles, will play at the Beacon Theater in New York on Thursday with two younger stars, Terrace Martin and Thundercat. The jazz-rock fusion recordings of Mr. Hancock, right in 1981, have become a touchstone for younger musicians.

PHILIP CHEUNG FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES, VIA GETTY IMAGES

Herbie Hancock At the Beacon Theater in Manhattan on Thursday; msg.com/beacon-theatre.