• Home
  • About
    • About Last Night
    • Terry Teachout
    • Contact
  • AJBlogCentral
  • ArtsJournal

About Last Night

Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

You are here: Home / 2011 / March / Archives for 24th

Archives for March 24, 2011

TT: Counting down

March 24, 2011 by ldemanski

brochure.jpg
Danse Russe, my latest operatic collaboration with Paul Moravec, opens in Philadelphia on April 28. It’s a backstage comedy about the making of The Rite of Spring (we call it a “vaudeville”) whose four characters are Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Diaghilev, Vaslav Nijinsky, and Pierre Monteux. If you’ve ever wondered how the greatest composer of the twentieth century might have done the old soft shoe, this is your chance to find out.
Commissioned by Philadelphia’s Center City Opera Theater, Danse Russe is part of a triple bill called “Rites, Rhythm…Riot!” that also includes the local premieres of Renard, a one-act opera by Stravinsky, and Ragtime, a newly choreographed version of Stravinsky’s 1918 homage to American popular music that will be performed by Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers.
You’ll only get three chances to see Danse Russe, twice in Philly and once in Camden, New Jersey, so you’d better make plans now if you don’t want to be left out in the cold. To buy tickets or find out more about the production, go here.

TT: So you want to see a show?

March 24, 2011 by ldemanski

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.


BROADWAY:

• La Cage aux Folles (musical, PG-13, adult subject matter, reviewed here)

• The Importance of Being Earnest (high comedy, G, just possible for very smart children, closes July 3, reviewed here)

• Lombardi (drama, G/PG-13, a modest amount of adult subject matter, reviewed here)

• Million Dollar Quartet (jukebox musical, G, reviewed here)

OFF BROADWAY:

• Angels in America (drama, PG-13/R, adult subject matter, closes Apr. 24, reviewed here)

• 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)

• Play Dead (theatrical spook show, PG-13, utterly unsuitable for easily frightened children or adults, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON ON BROADWAY:

• Driving Miss Daisy (drama, G, possible for smart children, closes Apr. 9, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON OFF BROADWAY:

• Molly Sweeney (drama, G, too serious for children, closes Apr. 10, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON IN WASHINGTON, D.C.:

• Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (drama, PG-13/R, Washington remounting of Chicago production, adult subject matter, closes Apr. 10, Chicago run reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK IN WEST PALM BEACH, FLA.:

• Ghost-Writer (drama, G, closes Apr. 3, reviewed here)

CLOSING SATURDAY IN SARASOTA, FLA.:

• Twelve Angry Men (drama, G, reviewed here)

CLOSING SUNDAY OFF BROADWAY:

• Black Tie (comedy, PG-13, reviewed here)

TT: Life in the old boy yet

March 24, 2011 by ldemanski

I recently made a new friend, an occurrence that is unfailingly gratifying for the middle-aged, since the constant friction of life has an unfortunate way of robbing us of the old ones. People are forever dying or moving away or getting married, having children, and withdrawing into the increasingly private sphere of family life, and if you don’t continually replenish your reserve of friends, you’re likely to look up one day and find that you haven’t any.
In addition, it’s useful for all sorts of reciprocal reasons when those no longer young befriend those who still are. My quick-witted young friend (whom I first met, amazingly enough, on Twitter) happens to be exactly half my age, thus providing me with a window into the ever-mysterious world of Things as They Are Right Now, while I in turn give her case-hardened counsel on the ins and outs of the writer’s life.
NohoStarCafe0307-784628.jpgWe sealed our friendship yesterday over lunch at a downtown restaurant to which I hadn’t gone for years and years. “This is very nostalgic for me,” I told her. “I had my first editorial lunch in Manhattan at this place, back when I worked at Harper’s. It would have been in…oh, 1985. That was when you were in kindergarten.”
“That was when I was in diapers,” she retorted instantly, which turned out to be all the more embarrassing because it was true.
Speaking of embarrassment, my friend and I decided that one of the most effective ways to cement a friendship is by swapping embarrassing confidences, which we proceeded to do while waiting for the check to arrive. (I think we came out roughly even.) After I returned home, we exchanged the following messages via Twitter:
SHE The most positive relationships in my life are built on foundations of voluntarily disclosed humiliation.
ME It’s like exchanging hostages.
SHE Aaaaaaaaaaaand I just laughed out loud at my desk like a little nimrod. Terry, for the win.
I felt positively sprightly, as though I’d done a figure-eight in my wheelchair.

TT: Almanac

March 24, 2011 by ldemanski

“What nature does generally, is sure to be more or less beautiful; what she does rarely, will either be very beautiful, or absolutely ugly.”
John Ruskin, Lectures on Architecture and Painting

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...]

Follow Us on TwitterFollow Us on RSSFollow Us on E-mail

@Terryteachout1

Tweets by TerryTeachout1

Archives

March 2011
M T W T F S S
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031  
« Feb   Apr »

An ArtsJournal Blog

Recent Posts

  • Choking on chaos
  • Replay: Edward R. Murrow interviews Tyrone Power in 1957
  • Almanac: Somerset Maugham on agnosticism
  • Almanac: Somerset Maugham on tolerance
  • Snapshot: Nat Cole plays “Just One of Those Things”

Copyright © 2021 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in