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About Last Night

Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

TT: Off the aisle

May 11, 2005 by Terry Teachout

From Playbill:

John Simon, who has been theatre critic at New York magazine for newly 40 years, has been dismissed from that position, the critic told Playbill.com.


“I expected it,” he said May 10, when asked if New York editor Adam Moss’ decision took him by surprise. “Then again, my birthday is coming up, so I didn’t think it was a very good birthday present.”


Jeremy McCarter, theatre critic for the New York Sun, was named as Simon’s replacement. McCarter’s first review for New York will appear June 1.


Simon is known equally for his considerable erudition, his longevity as a critic (he is 79) and his vituperative style. His stinging reviews–particularly his sometimes vicious appraisals of performers’ physical appearances–have periodically raised calls in the theatre community for his removal.


The timing of the firing is somewhat ironic. This fall, Applause Books will publish three volumes of Simon’s collected works: one on his theatre writing, one on music, one on film.


Simon also said he’s not ready to lay down the pen. “I still feel quite chipper. I don’t feel my writing has somehow faded. If I felt tired, I’d stop, but I don’t feel that way.”

Read the whole thing here.


I’m sorry to see this happen. As the saying goes, John Simon has forgotten more about theater than I’ll ever know. For all the controversies he stirred up over the years, he was and is a critic of the very first rank, not least because of his ability to place what he sees on stage in so wide and deeply informed a cultural context. Even when I disagree with him, I take no one else’s opinions as seriously.


Simon’s departure from New York will be news. It should be.

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Terry Teachout

Terry Teachout, who writes this blog, is the drama critic of The Wall Street Journal and the critic-at-large of Commentary. In addition to his Wall Street Journal drama column and his monthly essays … [Read More...]

About

About “About Last Night”

This is a blog about the arts in New York City and the rest of America, written by Terry Teachout. Terry is a critic, biographer, playwright, director, librettist, recovering musician, and inveterate blogger. In addition to theater, he writes here and elsewhere about all of the other arts--books, … [Read More...]

About My Plays and Opera Libretti

Billy and Me, my second play, received its world premiere on December 8, 2017, at Palm Beach Dramaworks in West Palm Beach, Fla. Satchmo at the Waldorf, my first play, closed off Broadway at the Westside Theatre on June 29, 2014, after 18 previews and 136 performances. That production was directed … [Read More...]

About My Podcast

Peter Marks, Elisabeth Vincentelli, and I are the panelists on “Three on the Aisle,” a bimonthly podcast from New York about theater in America. … [Read More...]

About My Books

My latest book is Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington, published in 2013 by Gotham Books in the U.S. and the Robson Press in England and now available in paperback. I have also written biographies of Louis Armstrong, George Balanchine, and H.L. Mencken, as well as a volume of my collected essays called A … [Read 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. … [Read More...]

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