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About Last Night

Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

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Archives for January 28, 2010

TT: J.D. Salinger, R.I.P.

January 28, 2010 by Terry Teachout

9c1aa64a.jpgI last wrote about the late author of The Catcher in the Rye in Commentary in 1987:

V.S. Pritchett once described The Way of All Flesh as “one of the time bombs of literature.” J.D. Salinger’s books have had an equally potent and similarly delayed effect on American culture. The influence of Catcher could be seen as early as the mid-50’s, at the height of the first teen-age revolution, when James Dean and Elvis Presley and Jack Kerouac were on the mind of every right-thinking American teen. And the earliest children of the baby boom responded with equal fervor a few years later to Salinger’s seductive invitation to join what Mary McCarthy has aptly called “the world of insiders.” Salinger became their very own author, a hip guru whose Zen-flavored gospel of youthful authenticity and neurotic rebellion was presumably unintelligible to the unfeeling adult world.
All demographic accidents have unforeseen consequences, and one of the most unlikely cultural outcomes of the baby boom has been the survival of Holden Caulfield into the age of Ronald Reagan. That Salinger’s work would have an enduring appeal for the baby boomers was predictable. He is, after all, their Glenn Miller. His books, like Mrs. Glass’s “consecrated chicken soup,” are a kind of literary comfort food for bruised veterans of the Big Chill….

I haven’t thought about Salinger, or felt moved to reread any of his work, since then. It will be interesting to see how long his books survive him–and us.
P.S. How strange it is to realize that Salinger and Louis Auchincloss were nearly the same age!

TT: So you want to see a show?

January 28, 2010 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:

• Fela! * (musical, PG-13, adult subject matter, 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, Parts 1 and 2 (drama, G/PG-13, too complicated for children, now being performed in rotating repertory with third part of cycle, extended through May 8, reviewed here and here)

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

CLOSING SOON OFF BROADWAY:

• Ernest in Love (musical, G, a bit too complicated for children, closes Feb. 14, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON IN CHICAGO, ILL.:

• American Buffalo (drama, PG-13/R, violence and very strong language, closes Feb. 14, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON IN SARASOTA, FLA.:

• Life of Galileo (drama, G, accessible to well-read older teenagers, closes Feb. 17, reviewed here)

CLOSING SUNDAY IN WEST PALM BEACH, FLA.:

• Copenhagen (drama, PG-13, reviewed here)

CLOSING SUNDAY OFF BROADWAY:

• The Emperor Jones (drama, PG-13, contains racially sensitive language, reviewed here)

TT: Almanac

January 28, 2010 by Terry Teachout

“I don’t really like actors much–I mean, I like having dinner with them, but working is another matter.”
David Lean (quoted in Simon Callow, Charles Laughton: A Difficult Actor)

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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