Word: blitzstein
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Backed by Air Force money, Drs. William M. Protheroe and William Blitzstein are recording star-twinkle and comparing its frequency and intensity with winds that are known to be blowing aloft. They hope that when they have gained enough experience, they can look at the stars and tell by their twinkling how the high winds are blowing...
Mack the Knife (Louis Armstrong combo; Columbia). An uptempo, updated version of Kurt Weill's wonderful old ragtime hit from The Threepenny Opera (1928). Satchmo plays a lilting chorus and growls some free variations on the fine Marc Blitzstein lyrics (1954). Then he hears a shouted "Take it, Satch," and the Armstrong trumpet takes it high...
...Marc Blitzstein's play, set in present-day Manhattan, examines the problems of a young man who has lost the ability to communicate with people. Alone, Reuben manages to talk quite well, but as soon as he is challenged by a question like "Can you tell me the way to the BMT?" he falls speechless. He solves his dilemma, after a fashion, by writing down his thoughts on pieces of scrap paper; using this technique, he meets a girl, who eventually, and quite predictably, helps him to resolve his inner confliot. On his way to final salvation, Reuben struggles through...
This plot has at least the skeleton of an excellent musical comedy. Had an experienced editor taken hold of the project, the results might have been more palatable. But apparently no one did, and Mr. Blitzstein's creation remains a confusing hodge-podge of unsatisfying songs and dances. He seems almost wholly innocent of a sense of logical progression from scene to scene. One somehow has the feeling that in the last act, the scenery should disappear, and a narrator, or perhaps the author himself, should emerge to tell the audience exactly what the noise is all about...
...both text and lyrics. He permits his audience to laugh, heartily and often, then growls at them harshly, "Honest folk may act like sinners, unless they've had their customary dinners." Whatever one thinks of Brecht's grievances of thirty years ago, he makes them compelling and troubling. Marc Blitzstein's fine translation never abates Brecht's wrath or his humor...