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About Last Night

Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

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Archives for July 5, 2012

TT: Welcome to the club

July 5, 2012 by Terry Teachout

john-loengard-trumpeter-louis-armstrong-bowing-to-a-spellbound-dutch-audience-during-a-concert-with-his-band.jpgI dreamed last night that I was about to give a performance of Satchmo at the Waldorf in front of an invited audience of a hundred or so people, one of whom was Lucille Armstrong, Satchmo’s fourth and last wife (yes, she’s dead). One minute before it was time for me to go on, I suddenly realized that:
(A) I can’t act
(B) I can’t do Armstrong’s voice
(C) I couldn’t remember the first line of the play
As I ran around the performance space snatching papers out of people’s hands to see if they happened to have a copy of the script, Gordon Edelstein, the director, was rolling on the floor, laughing with utter glee.
Somehow I suspect this won’t be the last such dream I have between now and August 22.

TT: Sounds I like

July 5, 2012 by Terry Teachout

• Rain dripping from the trees long after the sun comes out
0704121713.jpg• The sheep in the meadow next to my studio
• Ping-pong games in Colony Hall
• The raucous clang of the dinner bell
• A dog barking in the middle distance, just far away enough for the sound to be swaddled in a haze of echo
• The small, precise, dryly amused voice of one of my fellow colonists
• The quiet clunk that my external hard drive makes as it warms up
• Leontyne Price’s recording of Samuel Barber’s “St. Ita’s Vision,” played on tiny travel speakers hooked up to my laptop at a moment of flagging inspiration
• The not-quite-silence of a soft summer afternoon

TT: So you want to see a show?

July 5, 2012 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.


BROADWAY:

• Anything Goes (musical, G/PG-13, mildly adult subject matter that will be unintelligible to children, closes Aug. 5, reviewed here)

• The Best Man (drama, PG-13, closes Sept. 9, most performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

• Evita (musical, PG-13, most performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

• Once (musical, G/PG-13, all performances sold out last week, 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)

• Tribes (drama, PG-13, closes Sept. 2, reviewed here)

IN CHICAGO:

• Freud’s Last Session (drama, PG-13, restaging of off-Broadway production, closes Sept. 2, reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK IN CHICAGO:

• Floyd Collins (musical, G, very problematic for children, closes July 15, reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK IN PASADENA, CALIF.:

• Jitney (drama, PG-13, transfer of South Coast Repertory revival, closes July 15, original run reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK IN PITTSFIELD, MASS.:

• Fiddler on the Roof (musical, G, closes July 14, reviewed here)

TT: Almanac

July 5, 2012 by Terry Teachout

“A sin takes on new and real terrors when there seems a chance that it is going to be found out. This gives it a fresh and most substantial and important aspect.”
Mark Twain, “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg”

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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