Talk about a tangle of competing Seattle cultural interests, being played out on a New York stage. Intiman Theater artistic director Bartlett Sher (pictured) has been directing there to considerable acclaim (and a Tony for his revival of South Pacific). Only now Sher is mounting a Broadway production of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone by August Wilson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning black playwright (1945-2005) who lived the last few decades of his life in Seattle. So what’s the problem? We should be happy that two such major talents meet in New York. Well, The New York Times

reports that this revival violates a tacit rule of Wilson’s: that only black directors should stage his work (or film it). Lincoln Center Theater is reviving the 1988 play, and some black theater professionals disapprove of its choosing Sher (a resident director at LCT). Yet the Times says that, “Wilson’s widow, Constanza Romero, however, approved Mr. Sher as director.” Perhaps because they all knew one another back in Seattle?Oh, yes, says the Times: “The two had met on a few occasions, and Mr. Sher had become close to Wilson’s widow, Ms. Romero, the executor of his estate.” It seems to have been a good choice, since Times critic Ben Brantley calls the production “splendid” in his review.