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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 FIRST 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).

EXHIBITION 
Charles Burchfield: Fifty Years as a Painter (DC Moore Gallery, 724 Fifth Ave., up through Sept. 25). If you've already paid a visit to the Whitney's idiosyncratic large-scale retrospective of the work of the visionary modern American watercolorist whose studies of small-town life have won the admiration of everyone from Edward Hopper to Jerry Saltz, then check out this small, tightly focused museum-quality show. It's more than a mere pendant (TT).

BOOK 
Selena Hastings, The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham (Random House, $35). Actually, not much of the dirt in this tell-all biography of the author of Of Human Bondage (and, needless to say, The Letter) will come as a surprise to those familiar with Ted Morgan's Maugham, published in 1980. But Hastings is a much better writer who had unrestricted access to previously unknown primary source material, and the result is a smart book that portrays its subject with a welcome combination of candor and sympathy (TT).

CD 
Punch Brothers, Antifogmatic (Nonesuch). The second album from mandolinist Chris Thile's post-Nickel Creek quintet is a collection of original songs about love and its discontents. Like its predecessor, Antifogmatic is tantalizingly hard to pigeonhole. To call it "progressive bluegrass" makes a fair amount of sense but fails to convey the group's rich yet coherent stylistic eclecticism. Why not settle for "incredibly hip acoustic music"? I'll stand on that (TT).

PLAY 
The Grand Manner (Lincoln Center Theater, closes Aug. 1). Superbly acted by Kate Burton and Boyd Gaines and staged with sensitivity and wit by Mark Lamos, A.R. Gurney's new play looks at first glance like a nostalgia-drenched valentine to Katharine Cornell and the lost world of old-fashioned theater. Don't be fooled, though. The Grand Manner is really a searching, unexpectedly tough-minded portrait of the "lavender marriage" of a man and a woman who love but don't desire one another. Smart, funny, poignant (TT).

MP3 
Gian Carlo Menotti, The Consul (Heristal Entertainment). This hard-hitting opera about the horrors of life under totalitarian rule opened on Broadway in 1950 and ran for 269 performances, twice as long as Porgy and Bess. Alas, Decca's original-cast album went out of print decades ago, was never transferred to CD, and is now a high-priced collector's item. So what to do? Download this mp3-only reissue, savor the gripping performances of Patricia Neway, Marie Powers and Cornell MacNeil, and marvel at Menotti's uncanny ability to cut to the dramatic heart of a scene. By the way, the "voice on the record" that you hear at the very beginning of the opera belongs to none other than Mabel Mercer (TT).

Out of the Past

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

CD 
Mitchell's Christian Singers, Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order, Vol. 1 (1934-1936) (Document). The rough-hewn, sometimes startlingly dissonant a cappella harmonies of this vocal quartet, which traveled from North Carolina to Carnegie Hall in 1939 to sing at John Hammond's first From Spirituals to Swing concert and subsequently got written up in Time, have since caught the ears of everyone from Bob Crosby to Maria Muldaur. The first volume of Document's comprehensive reissue of the group's 78 recordings contains its best-known side, "Traveling Shoes," plus plenty of other gospel songs that swing and shout like nobody's business (TT).

NOVEL 
John P. Marquand, So Little Time. All but forgotten today, this 1943 study of a disappointed playwright who married up and sold out is also a powerfully evocative snapshot of America on the eve of World War II. It's not a great book by any means, and Marquand would work the same turf more effectively in Point of No Return and Women and Thomas Harrow, but I can't think of another American novel that does a better job of suggesting what it felt like to watch the world sliding toward catastrophe (TT).

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