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About Last Night

Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

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Archives for April 12, 2007

OGIC: Catalog

April 12, 2007 by Terry Teachout

A brief catalog of recent enthusiasms, artistic and otherwise:


1. Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis. I’ve owned this book since high school and it’s accompanied through the years, to New England, New York, Chicago, and everywhere I’ve lived for shorter stretches. But I hadn’t read it until last month, when I was driven to it by reading one too many of the glowing reviews of Zachary Leader’s new Amis biography, soon to be available here in the States. Now I wonder what took me so long, especially given the book’s giant reputation. And, large though it may be, the reputation doesn’t even do the book full justice; it credits the main veins of mordant humor and hilarious disaffection that run through it, but not necessarily Jim’s genuine and affecting vulnerability. For the sake of those of you who have not yet indulged in Sir Kingsley’s first and most famous work, I’ll forgo discussing the fairly bizarre ending other than to say that it gives every indication of belonging in a different book, though in a way more interesting than detrimental.


2. Knitting with Malabrigo kettle-dyed worsted wool yarns from Uruguay. Before I started knitting three months ago, I hadn’t the faintest idea how seductive yarn could be–potent little bunches of pure color, texture, inspiration. Knitting shopping rocks, and knitting itself is not far behind.


3. The Lives of Others: Finally caught up with the much ballyhooed film about artists under surveillance in 1980s East Germany, and it’s just as good as everyone says. While it’s fantastically illuminating of the endlessly variegated ways of being a loyal or a skeptical subject of the state, its main achievement is a personal portrait of a soul in flux. That portrait sits quietly alongside the sometimes noisy melodrama involving the other characters, a drama in which it’s certainly implicated but from which it’s essentially separate. I left the movie theater with E. M. Forster echoing in my head: Only connect.


4. What else? Playoff hockey.

TT: So you want to see a show?

April 12, 2007 by Terry Teachout

Here’s my list of recommended Broadway and off-Broadway shows, updated weekly. In all cases, I gave these shows favorable reviews in The Wall Street Journal when they opened. For more information, click on the title.


Warning: Broadway shows marked with an asterisk were sold out, or nearly so, last week.


BROADWAY:
• Avenue Q* (musical, R, adult subject matter and one show-stopping scene of puppet-on-puppet sex, reviewed here)
• A Chorus Line* (musical, PG-13/R, adult subject matter, reviewed here)
• Company (musical, PG-13/R, adult subject matter and situations, reviewed here)
• The Drowsy Chaperone* (musical, G/PG-13, mild sexual content and a profusion of double entendres, reviewed here)
• Salvage (The Coast of Utopia, part 3)* (drama, PG-13, nudity and adult subject matter, reviewed here, closes May 13)
• Shipwreck (The Coast of Utopia, part 2)* (drama, PG-13, nudity and adult subject matter, reviewed here, closes May 12)
• Talk Radio (drama, PG-13, adult subject matter, reviewed here)
• The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee* (musical, PG-13, mostly family-friendly but contains a smattering of strong language and a production number about an unwanted erection, reviewed here)
• Voyage (The Coast of Utopia, part 1)* (drama, G, too complicated for children, reviewed here, closes May 12)


OFF BROADWAY:
• The Fantasticks (musical, G, suitable for children old enough to enjoy a love story, reviewed here)

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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