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About Last Night

Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

TT: You can count on me

May 13, 2010 by Terry Teachout

A reader writes:

Loved your book. Found out about your website. Read, with astonishment, your review of Million Dollar Quartet and decided to take my son, who is a thirteen-and-a-half-year-old musician. Saw it last night and loved it. My son came home, whipped out his guitar and played songs from the show for two hours. The concept was so cheesy that I made fun of it, mercilessly, when I heard about it. Never would have gone without reading your review, so…thanks.
P.S. A few months ago my wife and I took our son and daughter to see Our Town, also largely based on your review. Our of the best drama experiences we’ve ever had. Keep those recommendations coming.

I love getting mail like this. It means a lot to me to know that my reviews have caused people to see shows that they wouldn’t otherwise have seen.
I hope I don’t need to add, by the way, that I take that responsibility very seriously indeed. Theater tickets cost a lot these days. I promise never to deliberately waste your money, or to overpraise a show simply because I think it “deserves” to do well. When I rave about a show, it’s for one reason only: because I think it’s good.

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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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