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About Last Night

Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

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Archives for November 12, 2015

Board meeting

November 12, 2015 by Terry Teachout

91e64c86a938faa95e715dfff6dd572bI’m flying to Beverly Hills on Friday to make an onstage appearance at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, which presented Satchmo at the Waldorf earlier this year and is celebrating the centenary of the birth of Frank Sinatra this weekend. When not singing, Sinatra was a movie star, and I’m going to be moderating a panel discussion of his film career. The panelists include—no fooling—Nancy Sinatra and Tina Sinatra. Also present and accounted for will be Charles Pignone, the Sinatra family archivist and author, most recently, of Sinatra 100. In addition to talking about Sinatra and his screen appearances, we’ll be showing clips from On the Town, From Here to Eternity, The Man With the Golden Arm, High Society, and The Manchurian Candidate.

The panel discussion kicks off at four p.m. on Saturday, followed by a seven p.m. screening of Ocean’s 11. From Here to Eternity will be shown on Friday at seven p.m., and On the Town will be shown on Saturday at two p.m.

Admission to the panel discussion is free. To order tickets to the screenings or for additional information, go here.

The new guy

November 12, 2015 by Terry Teachout

John Douglas Thompson can do just about anything, but so far as I know, he can’t be in two places at once. If you follow my calendar, then you know that Satchmo at the Waldorf, my first play, will be produced more or less simultaneously this January at Chicago’s Court Theatre and San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater. The San Francisco production is a remounting of the version of Satchmo that was seen off Broadway in 2014, starring John and directed by Gordon Edelstein. The Chicago production, by contrast, will be newly staged by Charles Newell, the Court’s artistic director, whose work I’ve praised time and again in my Wall Street Journal drama column. Since John isn’t capable of bilocation, Charlie had to find somebody new to follow in his giant footsteps.

collateral08To this end, the Court Theatre announced today that the triple role of Louis Armstrong, Joe Glaser, and Miles Davis will be played there by Barry Shabaka Henley, a distinguished veteran of stage and screen whose arm-long list of credits includes Mingus Remixed, his own one-man show about the great bassist-composer. (You’re most likely to remember him as the aging jazz musician in Michael Mann’s Collateral, in which he appeared opposite Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx.) I have yet to meet Shabaka or see him on stage, but I know and esteem his film and TV work, and I have no doubt whatsoever that he’ll give a fabulous performance.

I should mention that the Court’s production of Satchmo will be part of a community-wide Louis Armstrong Festival that will also include concerts, screenings of Armstrong’s films, an art exhibition, and a symposium about Armstrong’s life and work in which I will be appearing jointly with my friend and colleague Ricky Riccardi, the author of What a Wonderful World: The Magic of Louis Armstrong’s Later Years, the other indispensable book about Satchmo. I’ll have more to say about the festival as the dates draw nearer, but you can read all about it now by going here.

As for my new colleague-to-be, I can’t wait to show up at the Court’s rehearsal hall on the morning of December 8 and watch him do his stuff. Welcome aboard, sir.

* * *

A scene from Collateral:

So you want to see a show?

November 12, 2015 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:
• An American in Paris (musical, G, too complex for small children, some performances sold out last week, reviewed here)
• Fool for Love (drama, R, closes Dec. 13, reviewed here)
• Fun Home (serious musical, PG-13, many performances sold out last week, reviewed here)
• A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder (musical, PG-13, closes Jan. 17, reviewed here)
• Hamilton (musical, PG-13, all performances sold out last week, reviewed here)
• Hand to God (black comedy, X, absolutely not for children or prudish adults, closes Jan. 3, reviewed here)
• The King and I (musical, G, perfect for children with well-developed attention spans, reviewed here)
• Matilda (musical, G, reviewed here)
• Les Misérables (musical, G, too long and complicated for young children, reviewed here)
images• On Your Feet! (jukebox musical, G, most performances sold out last week, reviewed here)
• Spring Awakening (musical, PG-13/R, closes Jan. 24, reviewed here)
• Sylvia (comedy, PG-13, closes Jan. 24, reviewed here)

OFF BROADWAY:
• Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps (comedy, G, ideal for bright children, remounting of Broadway production, closing Jan. 3, original production reviewed here)
• Eclipsed (drama, PG-13, closes Nov. 29, reviewed here)
• The Fantasticks (musical, G, suitable for children capable of enjoying a love story, reviewed here)
• The Flick (serious comedy, PG-13, too long for young people with limited attention spans, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON IN BOSTON:
• Saturday Night/Sunday Morning (drama, PG-13, closes Nov. 21, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON IN CHICAGO:
• The Price (drama, PG-13, closes Nov. 22, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON OFF BROADWAY:
• First Daughter Suite (serious musical, PG-13, closes Nov. 22, reviewed here)

Almanac: Martin McDonagh on the high cost of playgoing

November 12, 2015 by Terry Teachout

INK BOTTLE“I guess I’ve accepted that theatre is never going to be edgy in the way I want it to be. It’s too expensive for a start. And, the audience seems to be complicit in the dullness. It’s like going to a fancy meal in a fancy restaurant with the attitude that, I’m here and I’ve paid the money so I’m going to enjoy it even though it tastes like shite.”

Martin McDonagh, interviewed in the Guardian (Sept. 15, 2015)

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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