Jeremy Gerard, a theater critic for The Dallas Morning News some two decades ago, is now a New York-based editor for Bloomberg News, the first media outlet to which George Steel denied he was leaving his new Dallas Opera gig for an opening in New York. This morning, Gerard weighs in on Steel's abrupt departure from Dallas last week, insisting, as others have in recent days, that Steel had already worn out his welcome here and that it was probably best he return to Manhattan. Which isn't the part of the piece I find most interesting, truth told. This is:
Like Steel, I know something about being a New Yorker in Dallas. It can be a silly city. It has skyscrapers outlined in green neon. It's deeply obsessed with how the rest of the world sees it.
Yet its self-confidence can be infectious. Tennessee Williams found refuge and solace there. Margo Jones practically invented theater-in-the-round on the same Texas State Fair grounds as the opera and guitarist Charlie Christian played electric jazz in the speakeasies of the Deep Ellum district. You just have to show a little curiosity to find the there there.
