All stories by Terry Teachout on BroadwayStars

Thursday, November 5, 2015

So you want to see a show? by Terry Teachout

Here's my list of recommended Broadway, off-Broadway, and out-of-town shows, updated weekly. In all cases, I gave these shows favorable reviews (if sometimes qualifiedly so) in The Wall Stre…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 06:15AM[SHARE]

Almanac: Laura Lippman on reading by Terry Teachout

"Kay came to realize that she preferred her books to other people's company. Reading was not a fallback position for her but an ideal state of being." Laura Lippman, What the Dead Know

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 06:00AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Snapshot: Annie Ross and Count Basie perform "Twisted" by Terry Teachout

Annie Ross sings "Twisted," accompanied by Count Basie on piano, Freddie Green on guitar, Ed Jones on bass, and Sonny Payne on drums. The song is a transcription of a jazz instrumental by Wa…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:15AM[SHARE]

Almanac: Barbara Pym on romantic masochism by Terry Teachout

"For although she had been, and still was, very much admired, she had got into the way of preferring unsatisfactory love affairs to any others, so that it was becoming almost a bad habit." B…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, November 3, 2015

With the greatest of ease by Terry Teachout

By the time most of you read these words, I'll be somewhere between New York and Lubbock, Texas, where I'm lecturing on "The Future of Theater" at Texas Tech University and paying a visit to…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 05:30AM[SHARE]

Lookback: remembrance of moments past by Terry Teachout

From 2005: I’ve become Mr. Bernstein in Citizen Kane, a middle-aged man with a head full of fireflies, perfectly remembered pinpoints of laughter and sorrow, ecstasy and humiliation, t…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 05:15AM[SHARE]

Almanac: Barbara Pym on the ruthlessness of writers by Terry Teachout

"Once outside the magic circle the writers became their lonely selves, pondering on poems, observing their fellow men ruthlessly, putting people they knew into novels; no wonder they were wi…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 05:00AM[SHARE]
Monday, November 2, 2015

Dreams so real by Terry Teachout

On December 5 I'll be giving the keynote address at the annual Black Orchid Banquet of the Wolfe Pack, the New York-based society whose members are jointly and severally devoted to the myste…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:45AM[SHARE]

Sufficient unto the week thereof by Terry Teachout

Since last Tuesday I've seen three shows, one in Boston and two on Broadway, and written the following: ' Two 800-word Wall Street Journal piece that will run on Friday, one of them a review…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:30AM[SHARE]

Just because: Fiona Apple sings "I Walk a Little Faster" by Terry Teachout

Fiona Apple sings "I Walk a Little Faster," by Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh. This performance was taped at a Coleman tribute concert given in Los Angeles in 2009: (This is the latest in a se…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:15AM[SHARE]

Almanac: Larry McMurtry on trivializing tragedy by Terry Teachout

"From tragedy it is seldom but a step to memorabilia." Larry McMurtry, "A Return to Waco" (The New Republic, June 7, 1993)

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AM[SHARE]
Friday, October 30, 2015

Old dog, new tricks by Terry Teachout

In today's Wall Street Journal drama column I review the belated Broadway premiere of A.R. Gurney's Sylvia and the U.S. premiere of a new stage version of Thérèse Raquin. Here's an excerpt…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:30AM[SHARE]

Replay: Arthur Miller talks about his work by Terry Teachout

An excerpt from an interview with Arthur Miller originally telecast by the CBC in 1971: (This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesda…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:15AM[SHARE]

Almanac: Flannery O'Connor on great expectations by Terry Teachout

"To expect too much is to have a sentimental view of life and this is a softness that ends in bitterness." Flannery O'Connor, letter to Cecil Dawkins, Dec. 9, 1958

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AM[SHARE]
Thursday, October 29, 2015

Almanac: Colette on solitude by Terry Teachout

"Only, well…There are days when solitude, for someone my age, is a heady wine that intoxicates you with freedom, others when it is a bitter tonic, and still others when it is a poison that…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Snapshot: Sviatoslav Richter plays Prokofiev by Terry Teachout

Sviatoslav Richter plays excerpts from Prokofiev's Visions fugitives, Op. 22, in an undated film of a concert performance. He plays Nos. 14, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 15, and 18: (This is the la…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:15AM[SHARE]

Almanac: Bertrand Russell on Lenin's sense of humor by Terry Teachout

"When I met Lenin, I had much less impression of a great man than I had expected; my most vivid impressions were of Mongolian cruelty and bigotry. When I put a question to him about socialis…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Lookback: could Victor Borge really play piano? by Terry Teachout

From 2005: Borge's act resembled a straight piano recital gone wrong. He’d start to play a familiar piece like Clair de lune or the "Moonlight" Sonata, then swerve off in some improbab…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:15AM[SHARE]

Almanac: Christopher Isherwood on selling out by Terry Teachout

"I’ll bet Shakespeare compromised himself a lot; anybody who’s in the entertainment industry does to some extent." Christopher Isherwood (interviewed in the Paris Review, Spring …

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AM[SHARE]
Monday, October 26, 2015

Annals of obsolescence by Terry Teachout

A week after bringing home my new MacBook Air, I'm more or less used to it. To be sure, I have yet to explore any of its more recherché capabilities, but now that I've written two Wall Stre…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:30AM[SHARE]

Just because: the Byrds sing Bob Dylan by Terry Teachout

The Byrds perform Bob Dylan's "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" on a 1968 episode of Playboy After Dark. Roger McGuinn is the lead singer, accompanied by Clarence White on lead guitar, John York on …

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:15AM[SHARE]

Almanac: Christopher Isherwood on faith by Terry Teachout

"I doubt if one ever accepts a belief until one urgently needs it." Christopher Isherwood, Christopher and His Kind

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 05:01AM[SHARE]
Friday, October 23, 2015

The continuing saga of my new laptop by Terry Teachout

I continue to adjust more or less smoothly to life with my new MacBook Air. Alas, nobody's perfect, and I hit a pothole yesterday with my e-mail program, which proceeded to swallow a half-do…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 01:36PM[SHARE]

What are they like at home? by Terry Teachout

In today's Wall Street Journal I review two musicals that couldn't be more different, the New York premiere of First Daughter Suite and the Broadway premiere of Dames at Sea. Here's an excer…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:45AM[SHARE]

Gained in translation by Terry Teachout

In today's Wall Street Journal "Sightings" column I discuss adaptations of well-known works of art that are better than (or as good as) the originals. Here's an excerpt. * * * If you're the …

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:30AM[SHARE]

Replay: the assassination scene from The Man Who Knew Too Much by Terry Teachout

The assassination scene from the original 1934 version of Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much, written by Charles Bennett and D.B. Wyndham-Lewis. The piece performed at the Royal Al…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:15AM[SHARE]

Almanac: Margaret Thatcher on the purpose of politics by Terry Teachout

"We are not in politics to ignore peoples' worries: we are in politics to deal with them." Margaret Thatcher, interview, World in Action (January 27, 1978)

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AM[SHARE]
Thursday, October 22, 2015

Almanac: Einstein on truth by Terry Teachout

"If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor." Albert Einstein (freely rendered by Arthur Koestler in The Yogi and the Commissar)

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Almanac: Arturo Toscanini conducts a Verdi overture by Terry Teachout

Arturo Toscanini leads the NBC Symphony Orchestra in the overture from Verdi's La Forza del Destino. This performance was filmed in 1943 for inclusion in Hymn of the Nations, a World War II …

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:15AM[SHARE]

Almanac: Jefferson on truth by Terry Teachout

"There is not a truth existing which I fear or would wish unknown to the whole world." Thomas Jefferson, letter to Henry Lee (May 15, 1826)

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, October 20, 2015

In one piece by Terry Teachout

I'm relieved to announce that I'm back on line again after a four-day absence, freshly equipped with a MacBook Air after spending the better part of a decade using a laptop that was teeterin…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:30AM[SHARE]

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