New Reviews: Poetry & Drama

Ross Gay's poetry leans, generally, toward the joyful, so the early parts of this collection come as something of a surprise. His narration is, as always, quite fine, but his tone (and that of the work) is somewhat darker than we might expect. The poetry is up to Gay's usual high standard, and his control of tone, phrasing, and pace are exemplary, but he begins here with... Read More

Kevin Young, poetry editor of THE NEW YORKER, has narrowed down the 13,500 or so poems the magazine published in the last century to a mere 21 hours of audio--still a monumental survey. Some of the authors included are surprises (Johnny Cash!), and some won the Nobel Prize, but all of them did very fine work, and some of it will be familiar to many listeners. What is unfamiliar... Read More

In 1856, amateur scientist and early suffragette Eunice Newton Foote published a paper suggesting for the first time that heated gasses such as carbon dioxide could change the earth's temperature. In doing so, Foote created the foundation for climate science. Television actor Emily Swallow leads a fine ensemble cast as Foote attempts to balance her innate curiosity with the... Read More

Many of Mary Oliver's poems are about God or nature, and sometimes it's difficult to find the line between them. Her world was full of many delights and, had she lived to hear them, Kimberly Farr's interpretations of her poems would have been among them. There is some melancholy in this collection--although not much--and Farr's marvelous vocal talents bring that out as much as... Read More

A stellar cast performs Tennessee Williams's first major play, produced here by L.A. Theatre Works. Calista Flockhart has the difficult role of the painfully shy Laura Wingfield, while Julie Harris is her overbearing and talkative mother, Amanda. John Goodman soberly narrates the painful story, which is based on Laura's brother Tom's memories of his family's struggles to stay... Read More

Asian American actors Angela Lin and Jenapher Zheng are perfect as a determined lawyer who hires her independent-minded sister to be a Mandarin-English translator in a high-stakes multinational lawsuit. In this complex and compelling drama, emotions run high, and ethics run low when the Chinese government partners with an American tech giant to enhance the country's internet... Read More

Robert Hass is an excellent poet who understands how poetry works, and this knowledge informs his narration of the poems Czeslaw Milosz wrote in the period between the end of WWII and his defection from Soviet Poland in 1951. The poems are, of course, wonderful, tracing (in part) the author's process of healing in the aftermath of the war and his growing displeasure with the... Read More

This adaptation of Tennessee Williams's classic story of romance, fate, and a conflicted mother-daughter relationship is "theater of the mind," thanks to excellent performances by Tony Award winners Anthony LaPaglia and Mercedes Ruehl. An Italian American neighborhood explodes when the police kill truck driver Rosario Delle Rose, who was smuggling. His buxom widow, Serafina,... Read More

Accentuating the biting intelligence, slashing humor, and emotional devastation of Tennessee Williams's 1947 script, BBC Radio and L.A. Theatre Works came together in 1998 to create an extremely natural, very human audio version of one of America's most acclaimed theatrical works. When a woman with nowhere left to go visits her sister and her sister's husband in New Orleans,... Read More

In his 1948 follow-up to his career-defining STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, Tennessee Williams chose a much more sentimental era and setting--a small, idyllic Mississippi town in the early 1900s. When Dr. John Buchanan, Jr., played with gusto by Broadway regular Marc Kudisch, returns home to start a medical practice, he crosses paths with his almost childhood sweetheart, shy... Read More

Each American poet laureate is expected to carry out at least one project, and the 24th, Ada Limón, created this anthology of poems about humans in nature. Narrated by Kim Ramirez, the audiobook includes a range of exemplary contemporary poets, including Joy Harjo, Jericho Brown, Dianne Seuss, Matthew Zapruder, and many fine (if sometimes lesser-known) others. Ramirez gives... Read More

With a full cast led by Michael Sun Lee as the title character, this audio drama takes listeners to the Japanese-American internment camps of WWII. Zeni is a former baseball star who shares his beloved sport with his fellow detainees to give them a sense of purpose and dignity. The writing is occasionally clunky, and some of the acting is overly earnest, but there are... Read More