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About Last Night

Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

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Archives for April 8, 2008

TT: Minimalism (and the blues) in a nutshell

April 8, 2008 by Terry Teachout

Three chords are a journey. Two chords are a ride on a seesaw.

TT: Saith the preacher

April 8, 2008 by Terry Teachout

I hope I’m not any more vain than I need to be in order to get through the day, but I won’t deny that I find it encouraging to know that some people not only read my theater reviews but act on them. This posting, for instance, pleased me immensely. The author read what I wrote about the Acting Company, took her daughter to see their touring production of Moby-Dick Rehearsed, and enjoyed it immensely. Even better, so did her daughter.

It also pleases me to see my name in front of a Broadway theater. A blogfriend recently sent me a snapshot of the Gypsy marquee, beneath which hangs a sign on which my name and enthusiastic words can be seen by passers-by. Did it tickle me? You bet.

Broadway%20NYC.jpgThat, however, is mostly vanity, albeit of an innocent kind. Of course I like seeing my name in lights on Broadway, but I think I’m realistic about what it means, to me as well as others:

The kick I get out of seeing my name under a marquee is not to be confused–nor do I ever confuse it–with the justifiable pride a playwright or actor or director or producer takes in his work. It’s simply the forgivable (I hope) vanity of a small-town boy turned big-city critic who never imagined that such things would happen to him, and it’s a far cry from the vulturine posings of, say, Addison DeWitt.

I’ve lived in New York for twenty-three years, and I have yet to start feeling blasé about it. Nor do most of the New Yorkers I like best. As I wrote on the day this blog was launched in 2003, “I hear there are places to live that are almost as much fun as New York City, but I wouldn’t know–I live here, and I’m not going anywhere.”

The friend who sent me the snapshot of the Gypsy marquee moved here last year, and after we saw South Pacific together a couple of weeks ago, she told me that none of the excitement she felt on her arrival in Manhattan had diminished in the slightest.

May she always feel that way–and me, too.

TT: Almanac

April 8, 2008 by Terry Teachout

“When a man is tired of London he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.”
Samuel Johnson (quoted in James Boswell, Life of Johnson)

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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