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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 is Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong, 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).

DVD 
Stagecoach (Criterion Collection). A "B" movie raised to the level of art by the impeccable direction of John Ford, this 1939 film defined the Hollywood Western and made John Wayne a star. Now it's been remastered as handsomely as modern technology permits (the original negative no longer survives) and fitted out with all sorts of Criterion Collection-style extras. In any form, Stagecoach is a cinematic landmark--and one of the most purely enjoyable American films of the Thirties (TT).

BOOK 
David Mamet, Theatre (Faber & Faber, $22). In this hard-nosed little book, the author of American Buffalo and Glengarry Glen Ross concisely sets forth his explanations of what theater is, how it works, why most directors and all critics are idiots, and why people who don't write plays like David Mamet are basically wasting their time. He also finishes the job of outing himself as a libertarian-flavored not-quite-conservative. Since Mamet is also one of the major American playwrights of the twentieth century, all this is of obvious interest to anyone who cares about theater, and it's expressed so compellingly (if repetitiously) that you can't help but get swept up in the current of the author's absolute self-assurance. You may not like Theatre, but you'll learn from it (TT).

CD 
Pat Metheny, Orchestrion (Nonesuch). The most influential jazz guitarist of his generation hooks up a roomful of solenoid-controlled acoustic musical instruments to his electric guitar, turns them into the world's biggest one-man band, and causes them to play an albumful of ear-ticklingly lovely original compositions. Go here to see Metheny talk about the technology behind this fascinating project--but by all means listen first (TT).

MUSICAL 
La Cage aux Folles (Longacre, 220 W. 48). The Jerry Herman-Harvey Fierstein musical-comedy version of the 1978 film is still as tawdry and tinselly as ever, but this small-scale revival, which stars Kelsey Grammer and Douglas Hodge, is so unfancy and heartfelt that it miraculously contrives to turn a show I've never liked into one that touched me to the heart. As of now, La Cage is the show to see if you're looking for a Big Broadway Tourist Trap that's worth the price of the ticket (TT).

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).

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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