About...

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 critic-at-large 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., JR Books in England, Larousse in Brazil, and United Press/Alpina in Russia. He is currently at work on Mood Indigo: A Life of Duke Ellington. He wrote the introductions to William Bailey on Canvas and the paperback editions of Richard Stark's Flashfire and Firebreak and Elaine Dundy's The Dud Avocado. One of his essays is included in Robert Gottlieb's Reading Dance, and he contributed notes on recordings by Louis Armstrong, Gene Krupa, and Oscar Peterson to Jazz: The Smithsonian Anthology. more

ABOUT TERRY'S PLAY AND OPERA LIBRETTI 
Terry's first play, Satchmo at the Waldorf, is transferring to to Philadelphia's Wilma Theater, where it will run Nov. 16-Dec. 2. The production is directed by Gordon Edelstein, with John Douglas Thompson appearing in the triple role of Louis Armstrong, Joe Glaser, and Miles Davis. To order tickets, go here.

To read Terry's program note, go here. To see John Douglas Thompson on stage in Satchmo at the Waldorf, go here. To listen to a radio interview with Terry and John, go here.

To read the New York Times review, go here. To read the Boston Globe review, go here. To read a New York Times feature about the play, go here. To read a Hartford Courant feature about the play, go here.

To see a video of excerpts from the 2011 Orlando production of Satchmo at the Waldorf, starring Dennis Neal, go here.

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Terry collaborated with Paul Moravec on Danse Russe, a backstage comedy about the making of The Rite of Spring that was premiered by Philadelphia's Center City Opera Theater on April 28, 2011. To read more about Danse Russe, go here and here. To view excerpts from the opera and see Paul and Terry talk about its creation, go here.

Terry previously collaborated with Paul 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, 2009. To see excerpts from the opera, go here.

To read Terry's reports on the writing, staging, premiere, and reception of the original production of The Letter, click on the link. more

THE LONG GOODBYE 
To read all three installments of "The Long Goodbye," a multi-part posting about the experience of watching a parent die, go here.

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

Archive  8594 entries and counting

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).

CD 
Louis Armstrong and the All Stars, Satchmo at Symphony Hall 65th Anniversary: The Complete Performances (Verve, two CDs). Recorded in Boston in 1947 and originally released four years later, this album documents Armstrong's postwar combo mere months after its founding. The lineup is nonpareil (Barney Bigard, Dick Cary, Sid Catlett, Velma Middleton, Arvell Shaw, Jack Teagarden) and the performances are electrifying. Co-produced by Armstrong authority Ricky Riccardi, it contains a half hour's worth of previously unissued material, plus indispensable liner notes by Riccardi. Put it on your short list of must-have Armstrong albums--and order it now, because this is a 3,000-copy limited edition (TT).

PLAY 
The Freedom of the City (Irish Repertory Theatre, on hiatus after Nov. 25, reopening Jan. 2-20). A flawless revival of Brian Friel's 1973 masterpiece about a Northern Ireland protest march that ended in bloodshed. Not so much a history play as a tragic meditation on politics run amok, The Freedom of the City has been staged by Ciarán O'Reilly with a galvanizing blend of force and subtlety, and the cast is as good as it can possibly be (TT).

BOOK 
Ron McCrea, Building Taliesin: Frank Lloyd Wright's Home of Love and Loss (Wisconsin Historical Society Press, $35). A well-written, profusely illustrated monographic study of the building of Wright's Wisconsin country estate. Many of the photos are previously unpublished. Essential reading for anyone with a serious interest in Wright, or in domestic architecture (TT).

MP3 
The Story-Teller...A Session With Charles Laughton. Long unavailable in any format, this double album of one of Charles Laughton's celebrated public readings, originally recorded by Capitol in 1961 and released after his death, can now be downloaded as a set of mp3 files. The thirteen tracks range from Psalm 104 to Plato's Phaedrus to Jack Kerouac's "The Dharma Bums," all read with profound comprehension and immense panache by one of the great stage artists of the twentieth century (TT).

BOOK 
The Richard Burton Diaries (Yale, $35). Most of the entries were made between 1965 and 1972, and they reveal Burton to have been an acerbic, formidably well-read man with strong opinions about literature--and everything else. Yes, there's plenty of gossip, especially about Elizabeth Taylor, but eggheads will also find much to like and ponder (TT).

Out of the Past

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

CD 
A Sonata Recital by Joseph Szigeti and Béla Bartók. Recorded live at the Library of Congress in 1940, this concert features the most interesting violinist of the twentieth century, accompanied by one of the greatest composers of all time. Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata, Debussy's G Minor Sonata, and Bartók's own First Rhapsody and Second Sonata are all played with jaw-dropping spontaneity and individuality. The sound is only fair, but who cares? That this performance was recorded for posterity is a blessing (TT).

FILM 
Canyon Passage. Jacques Tourneur's 1946 Technicolor Western about life in frontier Oregon is now mainly known (if at all) as the film for which Hoagy Carmichael wrote "Ole Buttermilk Sky." In fact it is, along with Robert Wise's Blood on the Moon, one of the two most consistently underrated golden-age Hollywood Westerns, a shrewd character study of loyalty and weakness in which Dana Andrews, Susan Hayward, and the unfailingly interesting Brian Donlevy are all at their best and most characteristic. Gorgeous cinematography by Edward Cronjager. Very highly recommended, even if you think you're allergic to Westerns (TT).

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