good listening

MUSICAL Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Nonesuch, 2007)—Stephen Sondheim’s heady treatment of the Victorian melodrama turned Broadway musical is as close to high musical art as we get on today’s popular stage or screen. Tim Burton’s multimillion-dollar cinematic version stars that demon pirate of the Caribbean, Johnny Depp, but the music—unlike any you’ll hear from Broadway—is the true star here
on this dark, lush album.

SINGER/SONGWRITER Live at Piedmont Park, Dave Matthews Band (RCA, 2007)—This percolating performance in front of 50,000 ecstatic DMB fans raised over a million dollars to expand Atlanta’s Piedmont Park. Fan favorites on this three-disc recording include “You Might Die Trying,” “Don’t Drink The Water” and “Two Step.” When Gregg Allman swaps verses with Matthews on the classic Allman Brothers anthem “Melissa,” you’ll be up and shouting.

good reading

MEMOIR Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life, by Steve Martin (Scribner, 2007)—So many fans know Martin as the poly-talented movie star, playwright and novelist that it may come as news that he started out in show business as an absurdist stand-up comedian. This memoir stays with those early years, providing a fascinating look at the evolution of one of the wackiest and most imaginative stand-up acts of the 1970s. For comedy fans, this is a must-have.

COOKBOOK The Best of America’s Test Kitchen 2008: The Year’s Best Recipes, Equipment Reviews, and Tastings (Boston Common Press, 2007)—Every year, the popular PBS cooking show that puts recipes to the test over and over publishes the best ones in a magazine or on the Web. And the “best of the best” of these is gathered into an annual recipe “favorites” collection. This year’s edition features helpful background on every recipe, plus step-by-step instructions on how to prepare (and pre-prepare) each one. Yum!

good viewing

DRAMA Tootsie: 25th Anniversary Edition (Columbia TriStar/Sony Pictures, 2008; rated PG)—Dustin Hoffman triumphs as a down-and-out actor who accidentally becomes the star of a soap opera—in a female role. His unmasking, on live TV, is one of the most hilarious climaxes in movie history. Great work by supporting actors Jessica Lange, Bill Murray, Teri Garr, Dabney Coleman and Geena Davis have only ripened this classic with time.

MOVIE MUSICAL Across the Universe (Sony Pictures, 2008; rated PG-13)—What happens when a veteran experimental theater artist breaks into the big-money production world of Hollywood? Sellout? Not Julie Taymor (The Lion King). Her re-imagination of the 1960s, set against a musical backdrop of The Beatles, doesn’t give an inch. Quirky, imaginative and unpredictable, this mix of fantasy and “revolution” is also a love story with an outstanding cast of young actors. And the choreography will blow you away.