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About Last Night

Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

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TT: Down a country lane

May 10, 2012 by Terry Teachout

0510121410.jpgMy mother loved to be taken for a drive in the country. We rarely went anywhere in particular, just as we rarely talked about anything in particular. She was content simply to ride along, chatting idly about the scenery and reminiscing about this and that. Somewhere along the way we’d stop for ice cream, and by the time we got home, she was perfectly happy.

It was on one of the last of these afternoon drives that I got a call from my agent in New York telling me that Satchmo at the Waldorf would be produced by Shakespeare & Company, a coincidence that delighted my mother (not to mention my agent) no end.

Our final outing was in November. By then my mother was so weak that I had to prop her up with one hand while steering with the other. Even so, she was visibly overjoyed to see the byways of southeast Missouri one last time.

Today I set out alone, driving down the back roads that my mother had loved so well, and I did in solitude what I had been unable to do at her funeral. Grief embraced me, and I mourned her loss.

And so goodbye.

TT: In memoriam, Evelyn Teachout (IV)

May 10, 2012 by Terry Teachout

Jim Hall and Ron Carter play “Skylark”:

TT: Almanac

May 10, 2012 by Terry Teachout

“Everyone can master a grief but he that has it.”
William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream

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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