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About Last Night

Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

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Archives for February 2016

So you want to see a show?

February 25, 2016 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, reviewed here)
• The Color Purple (musical, PG-13, most performances sold out last week, reviewed here)
• Fun Home (serious musical, PG-13, many performances sold out last week, reviewed here)
• Hamilton (musical, PG-13, all performances sold out last week, 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, closes Sept. 4, reviewed here)
• On Your Feet! (jukebox musical, G, reviewed here)

OFF BROADWAY:
• The Fantasticks (musical, G, suitable for children capable of enjoying a love story, reviewed here)
• Prodigal Son (drama, PG-13, closes March 27, reviewed here)
5• Sense & Sensibility (serious romantic comedy, G, remounting of 2014 off-Broadway production, closes April 10, original production reviewed here)

IN SARASOTA, FLA.:
• Ah, Wilderness! (comedy, PG-13, closing April 10, reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK OFF BROADWAY:
• Smart People (serious comedy, PG-13, closes March 6, reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK ON BROADWAY:
• Noises Off (farce, PG-13, nearly all performances sold out last week, closes March 6, reviewed here)

Almanac: Francis Poulenc on contemplation and the artist

February 25, 2016 by Terry Teachout

INK BOTTLE“I am writing little for the moment and I prefer to think rather than to realize.”

Francis Poulenc, letter to Georges Jean-Aubry, June 10, 1919

Almanac: Mark Twain on knowledge and mystery

February 24, 2016 by Terry Teachout

INK BOTTLE“We have not the reverent feeling for the rainbow that the savage has, because we know how it is made. We have lost as much as we gained by prying into that matter.”

Mark Twain, A Tramp Abroad

Snapshot: Jean-Pierre Rampal plays Poulenc’s Flute Sonata

February 24, 2016 by Terry Teachout

TV CAMERAJean-Pierre Rampal and Robert Veyron-Lacroix perform Francis Poulenc’s Flute Sonata:

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

Almanac: Francis Poulenc on Emmanuel Chabrier

February 24, 2016 by Terry Teachout

INK BOTTLE“Ah! Chabrier, I love him as one loves his father! An indulgent father, always happy, pockets full of tasty morsels.”

Francis Poulenc, Moi et mes amis

Lookback: a (formerly sick) New Yorker enjoys a blizzard

February 23, 2016 by Terry Teachout

LOOKBACKFrom 2006:

Blizzards mean different things to different people at different times in their lives. To a fifty-year-old drama critic recovering from congestive heart failure who has to make his way to and from the theater district in two feet of blowing snow, a blizzard can be a fearful nuisance, depending on his schedule and his frame of mind. Fortunately, I live a block away from the subway and wasn’t in any great hurry. The streets and sidewalks were slippery but passable, and everyone I saw between my front door and the subway station was smiling. Most New Yorkers, however grumpy they may be on an ordinary day, respond festively to the short-lived chaos of a snowstorm….

Read the whole thing here.

Almanac: Darius Milhaud on Parsifal

February 23, 2016 by Terry Teachout

INK BOTTLE“This work, which everyone had been impatiently waiting to hear, sickened me by its pretentious vulgarity. I did not realize that what I felt was merely the reaction of a Latin mind, unable to swallow the philosophico-musical jargon and the shoddy mixture of harmony and mysticism in what was an essentially pompous art.”

Darius Milhaud, My Happy Life

Almanac: Dr. Johnson on knowledge and integrity

February 23, 2016 by Terry Teachout

INK BOTTLE“Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.”

Samuel Johnson, The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia

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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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