The opera that dares you to like it – and so you do. Defiantly.

AJBlogs Posted: June 4, 2019 11:55 am

Ever tried to get a date by saying, “Hey, wanna go see Chunky in Heat? It’s an opera about a girl and her swimming pool. And it’s got six composers.” – David Patrick Stearns

A farce fit for a star

In today’s Wall Street Journal drama column I review the PBS webcast of the 2016 Broadway revival of Noël Coward’s Present Laughter. Here’s an excerpt. * * * PBS has telecast dozens of plays and musicals on its “Great Performances” anthology series since the long-running program made its debut in 1972. Now... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-07-31
Replay: Mark Morris’ Four Saints in Three Acts

The “overture” to Mark Morris’ staging of the Virgil Thomson-Gertrude Stein opera Four Saints in Three Acts, featuring the Mark Morris Dance Group and performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2006: (This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space each... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-07-31
Almanac: Virgil Thomson on dancers

“Dancers are auto-erotic and have no conversation.” Virgil Thomson, The State of Music Continue reading Almanac: Virgil Thomson on dancers at About Last Night.... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-07-31
Almanac: Virgil Thomson on taste

“Taste is knowing what you don’t like.” Virgil Thomson, The State of Music Continue reading Almanac: Virgil Thomson on taste at About Last Night.... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-07-30
Snapshot: a 1965 interview with Francis Bacon

A 1965 BBC interview with the British painter Francis Bacon. This was the pilot for a TV series that did not go into production, and the interview was never broadcast. The interviewer is Julian Jebb: (This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-07-29
Almanac: Maurice Grosser on what makes a picture good

“The test of whether a picture is any good—that is to say any good for you, which is the only thing that counts—is not whether it thrills you but whether you can remember it.” Maurice Grosser, Critic’s Eye Continue reading Almanac: Maurice Grosser on what makes a picture good at About... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-07-29
A fly on the studio wall

My latest Wall Street Journal “Sightings” column, in which I talk about D.A. Pennebaker’s Original Cast Album: Company, is now on line. Here’s an excerpt. * * * Fifty years ago, the phrase “cinéma vérité” had only just started to enter common English-language usage, and it seems a safe bet that most... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-07-28
Homely tales of the human condition

In my latest Wall Street Journal drama column, I review the Irish Repertory Theatre’s webcast revival of Conor McPherson’s The Weir. Here’s an excerpt. * * * With a handful of exceptions, every important company in the U.S. has canceled or rescheduled its shows through the end of 2020 and hopes to... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-07-28
Side with hope

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 or downloading. Here’s American Theatre’s “official” summary of the proceedings: This week the critics return, and some theatres are starting to return as... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-07-28
Lookback: on visiting the new MoMA for the first time

From 2005: The exaggerated scale of the building swamps the art it contains, and the austere décor is so rigidly uniform in its self-conscious simplicity as to make the museum seem even bigger than it is. As if to compensate—which it doesn’t—most of the galleries are as overstuffed with paintings... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-07-28