Playing to the Gallery
20 – 26 June 2026
Saturday 20 June
To Linz by plane and train
Linz, Musiktheater
This local, German-language production of Bernstein and Comden & Green’s Wonderful Town proved every bit as enjoyable as previous Linz productions. The set occasionally betrayed budget constraints, but the wink to the Fifth Avenue Coach Company was a nice touch. The Bruckner Orchester Linz (!) was on fire, and the comic momentum never flagged… in no small part thanks to a larger-than-life performance by Sarah Schütz, a worthy Germanic counterpart to Rosalind Russell or Donna Murphy.
Sunday 21 June
Back to Paris by train and plane
Paris, UGC Maillot
Steven Spielberg remains a master of staging large-scale spectacle. However, both the script and the visual grammar for Disclosure Day felt like a haphazard mismatch of regurgitated ideas drawn from his own canon — or from others’. Thankfully, the A-list cast injected much-needed psychological tension into what very nearly turned into a bland gumbo.
Monday 22 June
Paris, UGC Maillot
Steven Soderbergh’s The Christophers relied so intensely on the chemistry between its two main characters — including the formidable and seemingly eternal Ian McKellen — that it almost came across as theatrical rather than cinematic fare. The screenplay’s predictability was balanced by the elegance of its prose. Seeing James Corden as the scheming, ungrateful son added to my enjoyment.
Wednesday 24 June
Paris, Théâtre du Rond-Point
Thomas Bernhard borrowed the title of his play Über allen Gipfeln ist Ruh from Goethe’s Wandrers Nachtlied, also set to music by Schubert and used by Georges Perec and Eugen Helmlé for a radiophonic experiment. Jean-François Sivadier’s French-language adaptation, titled Tout est calme dans les hauteurs, proved to be a feast of dark irony and biting satire. Nicolas Bouchaud laid bare the monstrous nature of the overbearing, pontificating, self-quoting author, surrounded by a posse of clueless sycophants, all blissfully unaware of their responsibilities to history and art.
And so, for now, the lights dim… until the next act.