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Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

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TT: Shakespeare on the tube

August 19, 2008 by Terry Teachout

hv13Runthrough08.jpgMark your calendar: PBS will be telecasting the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival‘s production of Twelfth Night, together with a backstage documentary called Shakespeare on the Hudson that (according to the press release) “gives viewers an intimate look at the backstory and theatrical process of preparing for and performing Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night to a sell-out crowd. Shakespeare on the Hudson follows the troupe’s core actors through all the real off-stage drama as they prepare for opening night, from the high-pressure auditions and call backs to the final moments backstage before the performance begins.”
I raved about Hudson Valley’s Twelfth Night in The Wall Street Journal when it opened last month:

The company’s productions are models of uncondescending theatrical populism, reaching out to contemporary audiences without watering down Shakespeare beyond recognition. In John Christian Plummer’s staging of “Twelfth Night,” for instance, the actors all wear dresses of riotously varied kinds, not in order to make a ham-fisted statement about gender politics but to create an atmosphere in which Viola (played by Katie Hartke, who is adorably earnest) can impersonate a handsome boy without stretching credulity until it snaps. While Mr. Plummer and his youthful cast never let you forget that “Twelfth Night” is drop-dead funny–Paul Bates, Richard Ercole, Maia Guest and Wesley Mann are superb clowns all–they are just as careful to give full value to the fresh-faced ardor of Shakespeare’s lovers.

In New York City, Shakespeare on the Hudson and Twelfth Night will air back to back on WNET on September 18 at eight p.m. and on WLIW on September 26 at nine p.m. I don’t know whether or when the two shows will be telecast nationally, so check your local listings–this one is a must.
To watch a video of scenes from Hudson Valley’s Twelfth Night, go here.

TT: Almanac

August 19, 2008 by Terry Teachout

“Bernard’s humanism was not the less violently held because he had lately begun to doubt whether it was a totally adequate answer.”
Angus Wilson, Hemlock and After

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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