"I'd be so pleased to see you out of the classroom wearing the smile that I'll bring you." ~dashboard confessional

I'm just popping in to direct you toward the New York Times review of August: Osage County, one of the best plays I've ever encountered. The play opened tonight and got raves across the board, but I particularly like Isherwood's review. Highlights:

"It is, flat-out, no asterisks and without qualifications, the most exciting new American play Broadway has seen in years....

It’s theater that continually keeps you hooked with shocks, surprises and delights, although it has a moving, heart-sore core. Watching it is like sitting at home on a rainy night, greedily devouring two, three, four episodes of your favorite series in a row on DVR or DVD. You will leave the Imperial Theater emotionally wrung out and exhausted from laughing, but you may still find yourself hungry for more....

Mr. Letts’s antic recombination of soapy staples is so pop-artfully orchestrated that you never see the next curveball coming, and the play is so quotably funny I’d have a hard time winnowing favorite lines to a dozen....

I’ll leave you with one that neatly expresses the bleak spirit of the play, which nevertheless manages to provide great pleasure by delving into deep wells of cruelty and pain. Recalling a night of youthful high spirits in sad contrast to the gruesome present, Barbara seeks to wise up her daughter to the decay of hope and happiness that often comes with the passage of time.
'Thank God we can’t tell the future,” she observes, “or we’d never get out of bed.'"

I really hope it wins the Tony for best play next year. It seems to have a very good chance based on the reviews. I am so in love with this play.

I went to a free advance screening of Charlie Wilson's War tonight. I enjoyed it. Aaron Sorkin's writing is great; it's very clever and satirical and the dialogue flows well. The movie is a great mix of humor and drama. Tom Hanks was good and Julia Roberts was fine, but Philip Seymour Hoffman stole the show for me (not that that should surprise you; I'm pretty vocal about my love for him). As always, he's hilarious. Amy Adams and Emily Blunt, two of my favorite actresses, are wasted in supporting roles.