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About Last Night

Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

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Archives for October 8, 2007

TT: All tied up in knots

October 8, 2007 by Terry Teachout

In case you were wondering, the wedding came off without a hitch, except that the bride and I came down with bronchitis four days before the ceremony, and had to croak I do at one another in voices not greatly different from that of Charles McGraw at his grittiest. Otherwise, all was and is bliss.
You’ll hear more about it in due course, but not today–I have to file Friday’s Wall Street Journal drama column before departing on a much-needed honeymoon tomorrow morning. I’ll be back in New York next week for a couple of days, and I’ll check in with you then.
UPDATE: My voice has now failed completely. Somebody at the wedding brunch this morning said that I sounded like Satchmo on helium….

TT: Blood will tell

October 8, 2007 by Terry Teachout

Last Friday, in the midst of frenzied preparations for the big day, I was messengered a DVD of the trailer for Tim Burton’s upcoming film version of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, a musical for which I have the utmost admiration. The film, which stars Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, and Alan Rickman, has already been much discussed in theatrical circles, and it would be an understatement to say that I’ve been curious to see what Burton would make of Sondheim’s greatest musical.
A two-and-a-half-minute trailer is by definition nothing more than a hint, but judging by what I saw on Friday, I’m now more than a little bit concerned about what I’ll be seeing come December 21. To begin with, the trailer is edited in such a way as to suggest that Sweeney Todd is not a musical. Only two or three lines in the trailer are sung–the rest of what you hear is spoken dialogue. In addition, Depp looks far too young to be credible as Sweeney, and the cinematography is alarmingly reminiscent of Moulin Rouge.
Needless to say, none of this necesssarily means that the film will be bad. The cast is wonderful, and Tim Burton certainly has the imagination necessary to translate Sondheim’s show into specifically cinematic terms. But I don’t much like the fact that the creators of the trailer clearly feel the need to apologize for the fact that Sweeney Todd is a musical. It is, in point of fact, an opera, and anybody who goes to the film expecting it to be something else is in for the shock of a lifetime.
I’ve got my fingers crossed.
To view the trailer, go here.

TT: Almanac

October 8, 2007 by Terry Teachout

What a day,

Fortune smiled and came my way,

Bringing love I never thought I’d see,

I’m so lucky to be me.


What a night,

Suddenly you came in sight,

Looking just the way I’d hoped you’d be,

I’m so lucky to be me.


I am simply thunderstruck

At the change in my luck:

Knew at once I wanted you,

Never dreamed you’d want me, too.


I’m so proud

You chose me from all the crowd,

There’s no other guy I’d rather be,

I could laugh out loud,

I’m so lucky to be me.


Betty Comden and Adolph Green, “Lucky to Be Me” (from On the Town, music by Leonard Bernstein)

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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