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ABOUT "ABOUT LAST NIGHT" AND ITS AUTHORS 
This is a blog about the arts in New York City and the rest of America, written by Terry Teachout, Laura Demanski (otherwise known as Our Girl in Chicago, or "OGIC" for short), and Carrie Frye (who signs her postings "CAAF"). Terry, who lives in New York, is the drama critic of The Wall Street Journal and the chief culture critic of Commentary. His Wikipedia entry is here. more

ABOUT TERRY'S BOOKS 
Terry's latest book, Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong, has just been published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in the U.S. and JR Books in England. One of his essays is included in Robert Gottlieb's Reading Dance. He contributed an essay to Coudal Partners' Field-Tested Books (as did OGIC) and wrote the introductions to William Bailey on Canvas and the paperback edition of Elaine Dundy's The Dud Avocado. more

MORE ABOUT "POPS" 
To read reviews of Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong, watch TV interviews and listen to radio interviews and podcasts about the book, and find out the answers to frequently asked questions about Armstrong and Pops, click on the link. more

ABOUT TERRY'S OPERA 
Terry collaborated with Paul Moravec on The Letter, an operatic version of Somerset Maugham's 1927 play that was commissioned by the Santa Fe Opera in 2006 and opened there on July 25. To see excerpts from the opera, go here. To read the Opera News review of the premiere, go here. To read Terry's reports on the writing, production, premiere, and reception of The Letter, click on the link. more

TERRY'S TWITTERS 

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CONTACT
tteachout@artsjournal.com
ogic@artsjournal.com
caaf@artsjournal.com

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TOP FIVE

A list of new things we've liked (subject to unexpected and wildly capricious updating).

BOOK 
James Shapiro, Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? (Simon & Schuster, $25). This crisp study of the history of what is euphemistically known in literary circles as "the authorship question" is, or should be, the last word on a bizarre notion that somehow managed to sway such heavy hitters as Mark Twain, Henry James, and Sigmund Freud. If you really, truly think that somebody else wrote Shakespeare's plays, you probably won't be persuaded by Shapiro's closing chapter, a brilliantly pithy summary of the unanswerable evidence that he really, truly did. Otherwise, Contested Will is essential reading for anyone who cares to know how silly smart people can be (TT).

PLAY 
The Cocktail Party (Beckett, 410 W. 42, extended through Apr. 17). This is the first New York revival in four decades of T.S. Eliot's once-popular, now-forgotten 1949 verse play about a psychiatrist who may or may not be a priest, and it's a first-class piece of work in every way. Even if you have your doubts about Eliot--or God--you owe it to yourself to see what the Actors Company Theatre has done with the show that got Old Possum onto the cover of Time. You may not be convinced, but you won't be sorry you came (TT).

BOOK 
Richard Stark, The Black Ice Score/The Green Eagle Score/The Sour Lemon Score (University of Chicago, $14 each). Volumes ten through twelve in the University of Chicago Press' uniform paperback edition of the complete Parker novels of the late, lamented Donald E. Westlake, each with a preface by Dennis Lehane. If you haven't gotten the message yet, get it now: Parker is the ultimate anti-hero, and these lean, stone-hard novels are as good as noir fiction gets (TT).

PLAY 
The Glass Menagerie (Roundabout/Laura Pels, 111 W. 46th St., extended through June 13). Gordon Edelstein's production of Tennessee Williams' masterpiece is a recreative landmark, perfectly cast and imaginatively staged, that will make you feel as though you're seeing The Glass Menagerie for the first time. Every line, every pause, every gesture is as fresh as a shaft of sunlight. It joins David Cromer's Our Town on the short list of New York's must-see shows (TT).

CD 
Dollison and Marsh, Vertical Voices: The Music of Maria Schneider (ArtistShare). Julia Dollison has joined forces with her husband, the singer-arranger Kerry Marsh, to create an album of Maria Schneider's compositions for big band in which all of the original horn parts are sung, not played. (Schneider's own rhythm section provides instrumental support.) More than just a technical tour de force, this CD is a miracle of kaleidoscopically varied vocal color that provides an arresting new perspective on Schneider's musical genius. If you've heard Observatory, Dollison's 2005 debut CD, you won't need to be told twice to get Vertical Voices. If not, get them both (TT).

Out of the Past

Not new, but still worth a look or listen (and no less subject to change without notice).

BOOK 
H.L. Mencken, Notes on Democracy. Underrated by critics ever since its original publication in 1926, Mencken's pithy "treatise" on democracy (he wrote similar books on religion and morals) was reprinted last fall by Dissident Books in a paperback edition. It is greatly deserving of a new audience. For all the inescapable limitations of Mencken's damn-the-boobs point of view, Notes on Democracy, in addition to being among the most personal of his books, is also the most artfully written and least well known of his many essays on democracy and its discontents. If you're feeling disillusioned with the wisdom of the masses--no matter what your reasons--you'll find it grimly amusing and hugely diverting (TT).

FILM 
I Know Where I'm Going! This 1947 Michael Powell-Emeric Pressburger film, surprisingly little known in this country despite its release on DVD by the Criterion Collection, is a fantasy-tinged romcom about a priggish young woman (Wendy Hiller) who decides to marry a rich older man but is swayed from her course by a Scottish laird (Roger Livesey) who, unlike her, is in tune with the quiet joys of village life. The film's surface charm conceals a tough-minded critique of contemporary materialism, yet Powell, Pressburger and their delectable cast never allow it to become obtrusively heavy-handed. I've no idea why this wonderful film isn't as popular as the Ealing comedies (TT).

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