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Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

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Archives for February 26, 2016

Bonus almanac: Robert Penn Warren on the secret of successful demagogy

February 26, 2016 by Terry Teachout

INK BOTTLE“‘Yeah,’ I said, ‘I heard the speech. But they don’t give a damn about that. Hell, make ’em cry, make ’em laugh, make ’em think you’re their weak erring pal, or make ’em think you’re God-Almighty. Or make ’em mad. Even mad at you. Just stir ’em up, it doesn’t matter how or why, and they’ll love you and come back for more. Pinch ’em in the soft place. They aren’t alive, most of ’em, and haven’t been alive in twenty years. Hell, their wives have lost their teeth and their shape, and likker won’t set on their stomachs, and they don’t believe in God, so it’s up to you to give ’em something to stir ’em up and make ’em feel alive again. Just for half an hour. That’s what they come for. Tell ’em anything. But for Sweet Jesus’ sake don’t try to improve their minds.”

Robert Penn Warren, All the King’s Men

The old college try

February 26, 2016 by Terry Teachout

In today’s Wall Street Journal drama column, I report on Forest Whitaker’s Broadway debut, in Eugene O’Neill’s Hughie, which also stars Frank Wood. Here’s an excerpt.

* * *

hughieWhat happens when a screen star gets a hankering to make his Broadway debut in a demanding play? Disaster, usually. While it’s possible for a film actor with little or no stage experience to make his debut on Broadway or in London’s West End without embarrassing himself, he’s betting against the house. To be sure, Daniel Radcliffe held his own in “Equus” and Claire Danes hit a bases-loaded home run in “Pygmalion,” but there are any number of grisly examples to the contrary. (Two words: Katie Holmes.) I’m sorry to say that Forest Whitaker has failed to beat the odds in Eugene O’Neill’s “Hughie.”

A two-man play about a small-time gambler that was written in 1942 but not performed until 1964, “Hughie” was first acted on Broadway by Jason Robards. It’s been done twice more on Broadway since then, by Ben Gazzara in 1975 and Al Pacino in 1996, and has also been famously acted elsewhere by Brian Dennehy and Burgess Meredith. You don’t have to look far to find the reasons for its popularity. It’s an hour-long near-monologue (the supporting actor speaks a total of 391 words) performed on the plainest of sets. Not only is it cheap to mount, but it is, when done well, an incomparable showcase for a great stage actor….

All of which brings us back to Mr. Whitaker, who is the much-admired star of such widely varied films as “Bird,” “The Butler,” “The Crying Game,” “Good Morning, Vietnam” and “The Last King of Scotland.” He doesn’t seem to have done any stage roles of consequence, though, and therein lies the heart of the matter: Talented though he is, Mr. Whitaker is a film actor through and through, a pure naturalist accustomed to being seen by the camera rather than presenting himself to a live audience, and his bright, bouncy performance is as devoid of depth as his piping tenor voice. You half expect him to break into a chorus of “Luck Be a Lady” when he makes his first entrance….

Mr. Wood, whose performances in “Side Man” and the 2010 off-Broadway revival of “Angels in America” (in which he played Roy Cohn) showed him to be one of our most gifted stage actors, is infinitely better equipped to keep up his end of the deal. He sits stoically behind the front desk, looking less like a human being than a not-quite-animated cadaver, letting Erie’s snappy patter wash up pointlessly against his own torpid indifference. Every word he utters stinks of hopelessness. Mr. Whitaker, by contrast, scarcely ever manages to hint at anything beyond what we see and hear….

* * *

Read the whole thing here.

Al Pacino talks about Hughie:

Replay: Joan Baez sings “It Ain’t Me Babe”

February 26, 2016 by Terry Teachout

TV CAMERAJoan Baez sings Bob Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me Babe” on the BBC’s In Concert in 1965:

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

Almanac: Henri Poincaré on belief and doubt

February 26, 2016 by Terry Teachout

INK BOTTLE“To doubt everything or to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; both dispense with the necessity of reflection.”

Henri Poincaré, Science and Hypothesis

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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