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About Last Night

Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

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Archives for April 13, 2011

DVD

April 13, 2011 by ldemanski

Support Your Local Sheriff. A wide-gauge western spoof written and directed by William Bowers and Burt Kennedy, who between them made more than their share of dead-serious horse operas. All but forgotten today, Support Your Local Sheriff was one of the sleeper hits of 1969, partly because of the irresistible charm of James Garner as the Maverick-like sort-of-anti-hero and partly because of the perfect supporting cast (Walter Brennan, Bruce Dern, Joan Hackett, Harry Morgan). And guess what? It’s as funny today as it was when I saw it in the theater as a boy (TT).

TT: Finally!

April 13, 2011 by ldemanski

At last, there’s some new stuff in the Top Five and “Out of the Past” modules of the right-hand column. Take a peek.

BOOK

April 13, 2011 by ldemanski

Peter Guralnick, Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley. This is the first installment of a two-volume biography originally published in 1995. In it, Guralnick follows Presley through the death of his mother in 1958. Last Train to Memphis might just be the best book ever written about an American musician, and it definitely belongs at the top of the short list of first-rate rock biographies, not just because Guralnick’s research is impeccable but because his gifts as a storyteller are extraordinary. I reread it before starting work on Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong in order to remind myself of how good a musical biography can be (TT).

CD

April 13, 2011 by ldemanski

Jazz: The Smithsonian Anthology (Smithsonian Folkways, six CDs). No “canonical” collection of important jazz recordings can hope to be definitive, but this one, which contains 111 tracks and is accompanied by a two-hundred-page book, comes as close as you’re likely to get, certain startling omissions notwithstanding (mostly, I regret to say, of such important white instrumentalists as Bobby Hackett, Red Nichols, Pee Wee Russell, Red Norvo, and Dave Tough). The accompanying notes are by a cross-section of well-known jazz scholars and commentators, myself among them. Several distressing flaws notwithstanding, this is a serious and largely admirable piece of work (TT).

PLAY

April 13, 2011 by ldemanski

The Motherf**ker with the Hat (Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, 236 W. 45, closes June 26). Don’t be put off by the dumb title–Stephen Adly Guirgis’ new play is a smart, tightly written comedy of working-class manners, crisply staged by Anna D. Shapiro (August: Osage County) and performed by a superlative ensemble cast led by Bobby Cannavale (Win Win). Chris Rock, who is making his stage debut, is the draw, and he’s pretty good, too, for the most part. The play’s the thing, though, and it won’t let you down, not even for a split-second (TT).

DVD

April 13, 2011 by ldemanski

Car 54 Where Are You?: Complete First Season (Shanachie, four DVDs). All thirty episodes of the 1961-62 season of one of the most clever and well-made situation comedies ever to appear on American television. Nat Hiken, who made Phil Silvers a TV star, did the same for Fred Gwynne and Joe E. Ross in this zany portrait of a squad-car team who troll the Bronx in search of trouble–all of which happens to them. An absolute must for golden-age TV buffs (TT).

GALLERY

April 13, 2011 by ldemanski

Romare Bearden Collage: A Centennial Celebration (Michael Rosenfeld, 24 W. 57, up through May 21). Twenty-one richly colored, rewardingly complex, and beautifully hung collages made between 1964 and 1983 by one of the great American modernists. Essential viewing (TT).

TT: Snapshot

April 13, 2011 by ldemanski

Zero Mostel sings Stephen Sondheim’s “Comedy Tonight” (from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum) at the 1971 Tony Awards:

(This is the latest in a weekly series of arts-related videos that appear in this space each Wednesday.)

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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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