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MARK TWAIN TONIGHT! With a finger's twitch, an eye's mischief, a tongue's tart wit, a mind's unblinking sagacity, Hal Holbrook evokes the memorable presence of America's fabled humorist.
PHILADELPHIA, HERE I COME! is the affecting portrait of a young Irish emigre struggling to free himself from the womb before he can enter the jet. Brian Friel paints him with sensitive shadings and honest brush strokes.
SWEET CHARITY. Dancer Gwen Verdon once more erupts like a crimson volcano on the U.S. musical stage, and Bob Fosse's choreography sizzles with sly social comment, bubbles with inventive originality. Neil Simon's book, alas, is as dry and lifeless as a cinder cone.
CACTUS FLOWER. If love is a delicate blossom in the desert of life, the French may claim to be the most happy of horticulturists. This romantic comedy, expertly transplanted from the banks of the Seine by Abe Burrows, cleverly tramples the grapes of mirth.
YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU. George Kaufman and Moss Hart's 30-year-old tour de farce is a riotous reminder that the word "absurd" may mean wacky, not world-weary, and that humor, after all, may still be amusing rather than merely bruising.
RECORDS
Jazz & Blues
LOU RAWLS LIVE! (Capitol). Rawls is live all right. A recent arrival on the bestseller charts, the 26-year-old Chicago-born soul singer has a dynamic, lickety-split delivery, a well-trained voice and a wry sense of humor. He tears into Stormy Monday and St. James Infirmary on the double, adds a peculiar intensity even to such dreamy numbers as The Shadow of Your Smile.
ARTHUR PRYSOCK/COUNT BASIE (Verve). Arthur Prysock, after several decades, is coming into his own as a husky, deep-voiced, convincing singer of the blues. Count Basic provides slow and swinging accompaniments, presiding over the piano while sax, trumpet and trombone take turns describing all sorts of fascinating loops and curlicues around mellow ballads such as Ain't No Use and Don't Go to Strangers.
ROD LEVITT, in Solid Ground (RCA Victor), toots his trombone at the head of a lively seven-man band in a parade of his own compositions. There's a holiday undercurrent even in nostalgic numbers like Morning in Montevideo and crackling exuberance in / Wanna Stomp and Levittown. The band irreverently slices Rio Rita into a jazzy jigsaw puzzle.
JIMMY SMITH. Got My Mojo Workin' (Verve) is the No. 1 jazz organist's latest hit. With his steady staccato tattoo, he chops some chips of rock (I Can't Get No Satisfaction and 1-2-3) and cuts a mighty oak of jazz (C Jam Blues). Smith is also a singer in the grunt-'n'-growl tradition.
ELLA FITZGERALD, with assured artistry, sings ten songs by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn—half dreamy (Passion Flower and Azure), half wide-awake (the scatting Cotton Tail and What Am I Here For?). For the first side, the Duke's men create a sleepy, dusky background, for the second, a pulsing neon midnight. The album title: Ella at Duke's Place (Verve).