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Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

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Archives for April 2016

So you want to see a show?

April 14, 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, reviewed here)
• Eclipsed (drama, PG-13, Broadway remounting of off-Broadway production, closes June 19, original production reviewed here)
• Fun Home (serious musical, PG-13, many performances sold out last week, reviewed here)
• Hamilton (musical, PG-13, Broadway transfer of off-Broadway production, all performances sold out last week, reviewed here)
• The King and I (musical, G, perfect for children with well-developed attention spans, most performances sold out last week, reviewed here)
• Matilda (musical, G, many performances sold out last week, closing Jan. 1, 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)
• She Loves Me (musical, G, suitable for bright children capable of enjoying a love story, extended through July 10, reviewed here)

OFF BROADWAY:
• The Fantasticks (musical, G, suitable for children capable of enjoying a love story, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON OFF BROADWAY:
• Stupid Fu**ing Bird (serious comedy, PG-13, contains nudity, closes May 8, reviewed here)

arcadiaw2CLOSING SOON IN CHICAGO:
• Arcadia (serious comedy, PG-13, closes May 1, reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK IN COLUMBIA, MARYLAND:
• Hunting and Gathering (comedy, PG-13, closes April 24, reviewed here)

CLOSING SUNDAY OFF BROADWAY:
• Hold On to Me Darling (drama, PG-13, reviewed here)
• Sense & Sensibility (serious romantic comedy, G, remounting of 2014 off-Broadway production, reopens June 17-Oct. 2, original production reviewed here)

Almanac: Thomas Mann on admiration

April 14, 2016 by Terry Teachout

INK BOTTLE“I have always been an admirer. I regard the gift of admiration as indispensable if one is to amount to something; I don’t know where I would be without it.”

Letter, 1950, quoted in Marcel Reich-Ranicki, Thomas Mann and His Family

Snapshot: Jean Renoir talks about The Rules of the Game

April 13, 2016 by Terry Teachout

TV CAMERAJean Renoir talks about La Règle du Jeu (The Rules of the Game) in an introduction to the film’s 1959 re-release. He speaks in French with English subtitles. The film, originally released in 1939, was written by Renoir and Carl Koch and directed by Renoir:

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

Almanac: Thomas Mann on truth

April 13, 2016 by Terry Teachout

INK BOTTLE“A great truth is a truth whose opposite is also a truth.”

Thomas Mann, Essay on Freud

Lookback: a visit to suburbia

April 12, 2016 by Terry Teachout

LOOKBACKFrom 2006:

It’s been a long time since I paid an overnight visit to suburbia, and I happily admit to having found it pleasant. I sat on a patio yesterday morning, sipping a drink, basking in the sun, and looking at a pair of robins. Then I came back inside the house, where two small children were sitting patiently in front of the TV, waiting for their mother to pop Alice in Wonderland into the VCR. I glanced at the screen and saw the quivering, slightly fuzzy image of a half-dozen ballet dancers.

“Huh,” I said out loud. “That’s ‘The Unanswered Question.’ It’s from George Balanchine’s Ivesiana.”

“How’s that again?” my hostess asked.

“Oh, nothing,” I answered. “It’s just a ballet I like.” It was as if I’d been handed a telegram: COME HOME ALL IS FORGIVEN….

Read the whole thing here.

Almanac: Thomas Mann on the relationship between life and work

April 12, 2016 by Terry Teachout

INK BOTTLE“The important thing for me, then, is not the ‘work,’ but my life. Life is not the means for the achievement of an esthetic ideal of perfection; on the contrary, the work is an ethical symbol of life.”

Thomas Mann, “Reflections of a Non-Political Man”

Just because: Van Cliburn plays and conducts Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto

April 11, 2016 by Terry Teachout

TV CAMERAVan Cliburn plays and conducts a performance of Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto, Op. 26, with the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Moscow. This concert was originally telecast on Soviet TV in 1962:

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

Almanac: Thomas Mann on uncertainty

April 11, 2016 by Terry Teachout

INK BOTTLE“We are most likely to get angry and excited in our opposition to some idea when we ourselves are not quite certain of our own position, and are inwardly tempted to take the other side.”

Thomas Mann, Buddenbrooks

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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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