All stories by Terry Teachout on BroadwayStars

Monday, January 27, 2020

Almanac: Cesare Pavese on small-town roots by Terry Teachout

"One needs a town, if only for the pleasure of leaving it. A town mens not being alone, knowing that in the people, the trees, the soil, there is something of yourself, that even when you're…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AM[SHARE]
Friday, January 24, 2020

"Split by the madness of race" by Terry Teachout

In today's Wall Street Journal drama column I review the Broadway premiere of A Soldier's Play. Here's an excerpt. *  *  * Winning the Pulitzer Prize for drama can be a mixed ble…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:02AM[SHARE]

Replay: T.S. Eliot's The Cocktail Party by Terry Teachout

Decca's original-cast album of the 1950 Broadway production of T.S. Eliot's The Cocktail Party, directed by E. Martin Browne and starring Alec Guinness, Robert Flemying, and Irene Worth: (Th…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM[SHARE]

Almanac: George Orwell on suffering by Terry Teachout

"Most people get a fair amount of fun out of their lives, but on balance life is suffering, and only the very young or the very foolish imagine otherwise." George Orwell, "Lear, Tolstoy and …

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AM[SHARE]
Thursday, January 23, 2020

Almanac: Ambrose Bierce on the future by Terry Teachout

"FUTURE, n. That period of time in which our affairs prosper, our friends are true and our happiness is assured." Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Snapshot: Bing Crosby and Bob Hope sing "Mairzy Doats" by Terry Teachout

Newsreel footage of Bing Crosby and Bob Hope singing "Mairzy Doats," a chart-topping 1943 novelty song, at an outdoor show for enlisted men stationed at the air base outside Santa Ana, Calif…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:02AM[SHARE]

Almanac: George Santayana on patriotism by Terry Teachout

"A man's feet should be planted in his country, but his eyes should survey the world." George Santayana, The Life of Reason

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Lookback: on learning how to slow down after recovering from a near-fatal illness by Terry Teachout

From 2006: I woke up this morning at nine-thirty, an hour later than my normal get-up-and-go time. As I descended from the loft in which I spend my nights, it struck me that I had nothing wh…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM[SHARE]

Almanac: Samuel Butler on sickness and health by Terry Teachout

"I reckon being ill as one of the great pleasures of life, provided one is not too ill and is not obliged to work till one is better." Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AM[SHARE]
Monday, January 20, 2020

Just because: Merv Griffin interviews Martin Luther King Jr. by Terry Teachout

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., is interviwed by Merv Griffin on an episode of The Merv Griffin Show, taped in New York in 1967: (This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-rela…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM[SHARE]

Almanac: Martin Luther King Jr. on the ultimate futility of revenge by Terry Teachout

"If I hit you and you hit me and I hit you back and you hit me back and go on, you see, that goes on ad infinitum. It just never ends. Somewhere somebody must have a little sense, and tha…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AM[SHARE]
Friday, January 17, 2020

Replay: Perry Como's cue-card holders appear on What's My Line? by Terry Teachout

Don Stewart and Carl Marlow, who held Perry Como's cue cards on his weekly TV series, appear as the mystery guests on an episode of What's My Line? John Daly was the host and the panelist…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM[SHARE]

Almanac: Dorothy Sayers on memory by Terry Teachout

"I have the most ill-regulated memory. It does those things which it ought not to do and leaves undone the things it ought to have done." Dorothy L. Sayers, Gaudy Night

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 04:30AM[SHARE]
Thursday, January 16, 2020

Almanac: Hortense Calisher on growing up happy by Terry Teachout

"A happy childhood can't be cured. Mine'll hang around my neck like a rainbow, that's all, instead of a noose." Hortense Calisher, Queenie

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, January 15, 2020

Not throwing away their aughts by Terry Teachout

A new episode of Three on the Aisle, the twice-monthly podcast in which Peter Marks, Elisabeth Vincentelli, and I talk about theater in America, is now available on line for listening …

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:02AM[SHARE]

Snapshot: Imogene Coca "dances" The Sleeping Beauty by Terry Teachout

Imogene Coca and James Starbuck perform their comedy version of the pas de deux from Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty on TV in 1951. This performance was originally telecast live as part…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM[SHARE]

Almanac: Sholem Asch on memory and forgetting by Terry Teachout

"Not the power to remember, but its very opposite, the power to forget, is a necessary condition for our existence." Sholem Asch, The Nazarene

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, January 14, 2020

Failures of imagination by Terry Teachout

As I watched Dolemite Is My Name on Netflix the other day, I realized that I never anticipated living to see the end of movies as a public and collective viewing experience. Yet it's well…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:02AM[SHARE]

Lookback: on getting a presidential commission framed by Terry Teachout

From 2005: I went to my framer yesterday afternoon and picked up the presidential commission for my appointment to the National Council on the Arts. It is a splendidly old-fashioned document…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM[SHARE]

Almanac: William Maxwell on personal memory by Terry Teachout

"Lately I have had the feeling that I have my whole life to consider and enjoy, especially the periods that were especially nice and that when I was younger I might have regretted because th…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AM[SHARE]
Monday, January 13, 2020

The waiting game by Terry Teachout

One month ago this past Saturday, Mrs. T and I were sitting on the couch in our living room in upper Manhattan, watching Gone With the Wind on TCM, when she went into a full-scale respira…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 12:02AM[SHARE]

Just because: Glenn Gould plays La Valse by Terry Teachout

Glenn Gould plays his own transcription for solo piano of Maurice Ravel's La Valse. This performance was originally telecast by the CBC in 1975: (This is the latest in a series of arts- a…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 12:01AM[SHARE]

Almanac: Patrick Kurp on the lesson of poverty by Terry Teachout

"One of the advantages of almost losing everything is the knowledge that everything is a gift. It's given and can be abruptly taken away. There's no entitlement. Few of us, fortunately, get …

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 12:00AM[SHARE]
Friday, January 10, 2020

Replay: an interview with Jerry Goldsmith by Terry Teachout

A rare 1995 TV interview with the film composer Jerry Goldsmith, originally telecast by The Movie Channel as part of its "Take One" series: (This is the latest in a series of arts- and histo…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM[SHARE]

Almanac: Ray Bradbury on self-consciousness by Terry Teachout

"Self-consciousness is the enemy of all art, be it acting, writing, painting, or living itself, which is the greatest art of all." Ray Bradbury, "The Queen's Own Evaders, an Afterword"

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AM[SHARE]
Thursday, January 9, 2020

Almanac: John Maynard Keynes on rationalism and human nature by Terry Teachout

"I have said that this pseudo-rational view of human nature led to a thinness, a superficiality, not only of judgment, but also of feeling." John Maynard Keynes, "My Early Beliefs"

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, January 8, 2020

Snapshot: Johnny Carson interviews Bette Davis by Terry Teachout

Johnny Carson interviews Bette Davis on The Tonight Show. This episode was originally telecast by NBC on January 7, 1988: (This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related vide…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM[SHARE]

Almanac: Bette Davis on nostalgia by Terry Teachout

"To look back is to relax one's vigil." Bette Davis, The Lonely Life: An Autobiography

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, January 7, 2020

Putting down the reins by Terry Teachout

If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you know that Mrs. T is gravely ill and has been in the intensive-care unit of New York-Presbyterian Hospital for the past three weeks"but that she r…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:02AM[SHARE]

Lookback: obsolete reflections on the first anniversary of a blog by Terry Teachout

From 2004: Blogs are the 21st-century counterpart of the periodical essays of the eighteenth century, the Spectators and Ramblers and Idlers that supplied familiar essayists w…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM[SHARE]

Almanac: Josef Pieper on leisure and the acceptance of reality by Terry Teachout

"Leisure is a form of that stillness that is the necessary preparation for accepting reality; only the person who is still can hear, and whoever is not still, cannot hear." Josef Pieper, …

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AM[SHARE]

All that Chat

2025-2026 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 12, 2025: Call Me Izzy - Studio 54
Sep 16, 2025: Art - Music Box Theatre
Oct 08, 2025: Beetlejuice - Palace Theatre
Nov 13, 2025: Oedipus - Studio 54
Nov 16, 2025: Chess - Imperial Theatre
Mar 23, 2026: Giant - Music Box Theatre
Apr 06, 2026: Becky Shaw - Hayes Theater
Apr 16, 2026: Proof - Booth Theatre
Apr 26, 2026: Drama Desk Cut-Off