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About Last Night

Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

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Archives for December 17, 2009

TT: To the land of dreams

December 17, 2009 by Terry Teachout

storyville.jpgToday I’m headed for New Orleans, though my first event there, oddly enough, isn’t a local one: I’ll be talking about Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong by phone from New Orleans with David Inge of Focus 580, broadcast live each morning over WILL-AM, the radio station of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Tune to 580 on your AM dial to hear me live starting at 11:06 a.m. CT, or go here to listen on your computer via streaming audio.
For those of you who live in or near New Orleans, I’ll be speaking about Pops at the Garden District Bookshop, 2727 Prytania Street, starting at 5:30 p.m. Go here for more details.
I have one more event in New Orleans on Friday morning: I’ll be talking about Pops on WWL-TV, Channel 4, at 8:15 a.m. CT. After that I fly up to St. Louis, meet Mrs. T at the Amtrak station, and drive down to Smalltown, U.S.A., for the holidays. Yes, I plan to ease off on the blogging next week–I need a bit of rest–but there’ll still be something new to amuse you every day in this space.
Just in case you’re wondering, I’ll be eating red beans and rice tonight!
UPDATE: Actually, I had them for lunch. Satchmo, who liked to sign his letters “Red Beans and Ricely Yours,” would have been pleased.

TT: So you want to see a show?

December 17, 2009 by Terry Teachout

Here’s my list of recommended Broadway, off-Broadway, and out-of-town shows, updated weekly. In all cases, I gave these shows favorable reviews (if sometimes qualifiedly so) 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:

• Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps (comedy, G, suitable for bright children, closes Jan. 10, reviewed here)

• Fela! * (musical, PG-13, adult subject matter, reviewed here)

• Finian’s Rainbow (musical, G, suitable for children, dramatically inert but musically sumptuous, reviewed here)

• God of Carnage (serious comedy, PG-13, adult subject matter, reviewed here)

• South Pacific (musical, G/PG-13, some sexual content, brilliantly staged but unsuitable for viewers acutely allergic to preachiness, reviewed here)

OFF BROADWAY:

• Avenue Q (musical, R, adult subject matter and one show-stopping scene of puppet-on-puppet sex, reviewed here)

• The Fantasticks (musical, G, suitable for children capable of enjoying a love story, reviewed here)

• The Orphans’ Home Cycle, Part 1 (drama, G/PG-13, too complicated for children, will be performed in rotating repertory with second and third parts of cycle starting on Dec. 3 and Jan. 7 respectively, closes Mar. 27, reviewed here)

• Our Town (drama, G, suitable for mature children, reviewed here)

• The Understudy (farce, PG-13, closes Jan. 17, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON ON BROADWAY:

• Superior Donuts (dark comedy, PG-13, violence, closes Jan. 3, reviewed here)

CLOSING SATURDAY OFF BROADWAY:

• Biography (comedy, PG-13, reviewed here)

• The Starry Messenger (drama, PG-13, adult subject matter, reviewed here)

TT: Almanac

December 17, 2009 by Terry Teachout

“Traveling in the company of those we love is home in motion.”
Leigh Hunt, The Indicator

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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