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About Last Night

Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

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Archives for April 6, 2009

OPINION BORN OF EXPERIENCE

April 6, 2009 by Terry Teachout

“Nowadays the conflict-of-interest cops would come down hard on any editor who dared to permit a Broadway director to double as a drama critic. So much the worse for journalistic standards! It was precisely because Harold Clurman had worked with people like Inge, Odets, O’Neill, Miller and Williams that he was capable of writing with such lapidary insight about their virtues and flaws…”

TT: A ripping good show

April 6, 2009 by Terry Teachout

Paul Moravec and I gave our first public presentation on The Letter last Wednesday night at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study, where my operatic collaborator is wrapping up a two-year term as artist-in-residence. It was a multi-media extravaganza: we played a synthesized version of the first part of the opening scene, having previously kicked things off by showing the trailer for William Wyler’s 1940 film of The Letter:

In the second half of the program, Paul accompanied the wonderful mezzo-soprano Rosalie Sullivan in an aria from The Letter, then demonstrated the opera’s harmonic language by playing and analyzing excerpts from the score on the piano. For my part, I gave a blow-by-blow synopsis of the action, explaining along the way how we’d changed the Somerset Maugham play on which The Letter is based, and described how I wrote the text of the aria that Rose sang. We then spent a half-hour answering smart questions from the audience.
Many of the people with whom we chatted after the show said that they were surprised by how smoothly Paul and I interacted on stage. They were even more surprised when we told them that our presentation was almost entirely improvised. Truth to tell, I was a bit surprised myself by how easily things went–I prefer to speak from a written-out text–but Paul and I have appeared together so many times that we know how to give an impromptu joint performance that sounds as though it had been rehearsed. Needless to say, it also helps that we’ve spent countless hours talking to one another about The Letter in the past three years. At any rate, our maiden voyage went off without any visible hitches, and we’re looking forward to doing it several more times between now and July 25, when The Letter opens in Santa Fe.
Only one thing went wrong, but it came close to being a show-stopper. Rose and I met at Penn Station that afternoon to catch a train to Princeton Junction. As soon as we sat down, I heard a faint sound that I unwisely ignored. A half-hour later I crossed my legs, felt a draft, looked down, and saw to my horror that I’d somehow contrived to split the inseam of my left trouser leg all the way from knee to crotch, in the process exposing part of a pair of maroon-colored underwear that Mrs. T bought for me last year. Rose, bless her, was kind enough to avert her gaze and refrain from laughing for the rest of the ride.
Not at all to my surprise, Paul was less tactful when he picked Rose and me up at the train station. He hooted all the way to the laundry where I got my pants sewed up, taking care to point out that my mishap reminded him of the following scene from The Pink Panther Strikes Again:

On the other hand, he did know where to get my pants fixed, so I forgave him.

TT: Look to the right

April 6, 2009 by Terry Teachout

Lots of new stuff in the right-hand column. Take a peek.

TT: Almanac

April 6, 2009 by Terry Teachout

Why must the show go on?

The rule is surely not immutable,

It might be wiser and more suitable

Just to close

If you are in the throes

Of personal grief and private woes.

Why stifle a sob

While doing your job

When, if you use your head,

You’d go out and grab

A comfortable cab

And go right home to bed?

Because you’re not giving us much fun,

This “Laugh Clown Laugh” routine’s been overdone,

Hats off to Show Folks

For smiling when they’re blue

But more
comme-il-faut folks

Are sick of smiling through,

And if you’re out cold,

Too old,

And most of your teeth have gone,

Why must the show go on?


Noël Coward, “Why Must the Show Go On?”

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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